Between Heartbeats
Celeste Moreau vanished from CEO Jae-won Choi's world three years ago, stealing critical research and a secret: his daughter.
When their child falls ill, Celeste is forced to return to Seoul and strike a desperate deal with the man she betrayed: her medical expertise for their daughter's life. Trapped in his corporate fortress, their past becomes a volatile war of bitter resentment and forbidden attraction.
As corporate sabotage threatens everything, Celeste must decide if the secret she protects is her greatest curse or her only remaining power, and if the man who wants to destroy her is the only one who can save their child.
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Chapter 5
The pediatric wing of Choi Medical Complex was a marvel of cold technology.
Everything gleamed under harsh fluorescent lights-chrome examination tables, scanners that hummed with quiet menace. The air smelled sterile, like chemicals designed to erase every trace of humanity.
Celeste stood behind a wall of glass, her hands pressed flat against the surface, watching her daughter sit small and alone on an examination table that was far too big for her.
Luna's legs dangled over the edge, not quite reaching the floor. Her eyes-wide and dark and terrified-kept darting toward the glass where Celeste stood, searching for reassurance her mother couldn't give.
The glass was soundproof. Luna couldn't hear her.
Celeste wanted to break something.
Now she watched as three medical staff entered the examination room. Two women, one man, all in pristine white coats with the Choi Pharmaceuticals logo embroidered on the breast pocket.
They moved with practiced precision, setting up equipment, preparing instruments. They spoke to each other in rapid Korean that Luna couldn't understand.
Luna shrank back on the table.
"It's okay, sweetheart," one of the women said in accented English, her smile professional and meaningless. "We're just going to do some tests. Nothing will hurt."
But Luna didn't believe her. Why would she? These were strangers in a strange place touching her with cold hands and colder instruments.
The first scanner looked like something from a science fiction film-a large ring that descended from the ceiling on mechanical arms.
Luna's face crumpled. "Maman?"
Celeste slammed her palm against the glass. "I'm here, baby! I'm right here!"
But Luna couldn't hear her. The soundproof barrier swallowed every word.
The technician positioned the scanner around Luna's head. The machine hummed louder, and rotating lights began circling in hypnotic patterns.
Luna started crying.
Not loud, theatrical crying. The quiet, desperate kind that broke something fundamental in Celeste's chest. Tears streamed down her face, her small body shaking, her mouth forming the word "Maman" over and over again behind the glass.
Celeste's nails dug into her palms, leaving crescent-shaped marks that would bruise later.
The scan continued. Five minutes that felt like five hours. The medical staff made notes on their tablets, completely unmoved by the crying child between them. To them, Luna was data. A subject. A case number on a form.
When the first scan finished, they moved to blood work.
A young nurse-she couldn't have been more than twenty-five-approached with a tray of vials and needles. She spoke softly to Luna in Korean, then switched to English. "Small pinch. Very fast. You are brave, yes?"
Luna shook her head violently, pressing herself back against the table, Monsieur Hopps held up like a shield.
"No! I want my maman! Please, I want my maman!"
The nurse reached for Luna's arm.
Luna jerked away, nearly falling off the table. Her crying escalated into something close to panic-short, gasping breaths between sobs, her face red and wet.
"Please hold still," the nurse said, frustration creeping into her professional tone. "We must take the blood sample."
"No! No, no, no!" Luna scrambled backward, and the nurse grabbed her wrist to hold her steady.
That's when Celeste broke.
She didn't think. Didn't plan. Just moved.
She spun toward the door and found it locked. Of course it was locked.
Everything in this place was locked. But she grabbed the handle anyway and yanked with all her strength, then slammed her shoulder against it.
"Open this door!" Her voice was raw, feral. "Open it right now!"
Behind her, the air pressure changed.
Jae-won.
He'd appeared silently, the way predators do. Standing against the far wall like a statue, his hands in his pockets, his face an unreadable mask as he watched the procedure through the glass. Watching the little girl cry. Watching Celeste fall apart.
How long had he been there?
"Open the door." Celeste's voice shook with barely contained rage. "She's terrified. She needs me. Open the goddamn door."
Jae-won didn't move. Didn't even look at her. His eyes remained fixed on the examination room, on Luna thrashing against the nurse's grip.
"The protocol requires-"
"I don't care about your protocol!" Celeste shouted. "That's just a little girl! She's two years old and some months old and she's scared!"
In the examination room, Luna's panic escalated. Her breathing came too fast, irregular. Her lips were starting to lose color. The nurse looked toward the glass, uncertainty finally cracking her professional facade.
She shoved past Jae-won-actually put her hands on his chest and pushed-and ran to the connecting door. It was locked too, with a keypad.
She slammed her fist against it over and over. "Let me in! Let me in right now or I swear to God-"
Behind her, a soft electronic beep.
The door unlocked.
Celeste didn't wait to see if Jae-won had done it or if someone else had taken pity. She burst through the door into the examination room, and Luna's head snapped up.
"Maman!"
Celeste swept her daughter off the table and into her arms, holding her so tight Luna gasped. She buried her face in Luna's hair and rocked her, murmuring in French, words that meant nothing and everything.
"Je suis là, mon cœur. Je suis là. Tu es en sécurité. Je ne te laisserai pas."
The medical staff stepped back, exchanging uncertain glances. The young nurse still held the empty syringe, looking lost.
Luna sobbed against Celeste's shoulder, her whole body shaking.
And then Celeste started to sing.
Softly at first, then stronger. An old French lullaby her own mother had sung to her before she died. Before her father's work consumed everything. Before the world became laboratories and experiments and running.
"Fais dodo, Colas mon p'tit frère. Fais dodo, t'auras du lolo."
The room fell silent.
The machines stopped humming. The staff stopped moving.
Luna's sobs quieted to hiccups, then to shaky breaths. Her small hand fisted in Celeste's shirt, holding on like she'd never let go.
Celeste kept singing, swaying gently, and somewhere in the back of her mind she was aware of the glass wall behind her. Of the observation room beyond it.
She didn't turn around. Didn't acknowledge him. Just held her daughter and sang until Luna's breathing evened out, until her body stopped trembling, until she felt safe enough to whisper against Celeste's neck.
"Don't leave me again."
"Never," Celeste whispered back. "I promise. Never."
JAE-WON
Behind the glass, I stood motionless, my expression revealing nothing.
But my hand, pressed against the glass, had curled into a fist so tight my knuckles had gone white.
I stared at the woman holding the child, at the way she curved her body protectively around the small form, at the way she sang with her eyes closed like nothing else in the world existed.
Three years.
Three years I'd searched for her. Three years of rage and obsession and sleepless nights wondering if she was alive or dead.
And now she was here, in my building, under my control, singing a lullaby to a child I hadn't known existed.
A child with my eyes.
My jaw tightened.
Dr. Min appeared beside me, clipboard in hand, his face carefully neutral. "Sir, should we continue the examination?"
I didn't answer immediately. I watched Celeste sway with the child, watched the little girl's tears dry against her mother's shoulder, watched something I didn't have a name for unfold behind the glass.
"No," I finally said, my voice cold and flat. "Reschedule for tomorrow. Make sure Dr. Reeves is present."
"And the woman?"
My fist tightened until my nails bit into my palm.
"Send her to Lab 4."
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7.7
CONTENT WARNING ⚠️🔞
This book is strictly for a mature audience only. Reader's discretion is advised.
On her eighteenth birthday, Sabrina's life is stolen from her. She was sold into marriage to Scott Wendell, a ruthless and powerful billionaire more than twice her age. A man she's never met. A man who claimed her as payment for a debt she never owed
But the real problem wasn't the vows she took or the marriage document she signed.
It's his son. The revelation that Ace Wendell, the one boy in school that she's always fantasized about, the boy she's secretly loved from afar, is now her stepson.
Now living under the same roof, Sabrina finds herself torn between duty to her marriage and the dangerous pull toward the stepson who has wanted her just as desperately.
7.2
I didn't hear it from my mother or from family... I saw it online, just like everyone else. A headline, a picture, a ring on her finger. And the man standing beside her? Philip Davenport. Billionaire. CEO. Untouchable. The kind of man who takes what he wants and keeps it. Including my mother.
I was supposed to hate him-the man who replaced my father, the man I swore I'd destroy. So I made a plan: get close, get under his skin, make him want me... then watch everything fall apart. It was simple.
Until he looked at me like I was the only woman in the room. Until his touch lingered longer than it should. Until every glance, every word, every moment started to feel like something I couldn't control.
Now I'm caught in a dangerous game of desire and deception, where the lines I drew are slowly disappearing. The closer I get to him, the harder it is to remember why I started. My mother trusts me, my boyfriend loves me, and the man I was supposed to ruin is becoming the one I can't resist, and every step I take only pulls me deeper into something I was never meant to feel.
I wanted revenge. What I got instead was something far more dangerous. And now? I might lose everything. Because falling for my mom's fiancé was never the plan. And if I'm not careful, I won't just lose the game... I'll lose myself.
9.8
They say when life throws you a lemon, you should turn it to a lemonade, even though some things weren't just intentional.
"For the next three years, you will work under my son, Anthony. You will obey him unconditionally and assist him in developing the first humanoid robots. It's all stated in the contract."
Melissa, a brilliant first-class robotics engineer, signs a binding contract to save her only sister who urgently needs surgery. Not only must she work for Anthony-the arrogant CEO of the Morgan Group-but she must also marry him.
Throughout the contract, Anthony treats her like a lowlife, belittling her at every opportunity and even stealing credit for her achievements, convinced she would never dare to leave. But as the three years draw to a close, her supposed knight in shining armor, Josh, shows up as he promised.
Will Melissa walk away from Anthony, reclaim her freedom, and rekindle the spark with Josh? Or will Anthony realize too late just how much he stands to lose when the countdown to their divorce begins?
And what if there was more to the accident that left Melissa's sister in need of surgery-and forced Melissa into this contract?
If you want to feel first hand what it means for a lady to possess her possession, then get over here!
8.8
I was the despised adopted daughter of the Sanders family, hiding behind heavy gothic makeup and enduring their daily disgust.
The day my adoptive father died in a severe car crash, my adoptive mother and stepsister didn't even bother to call me.
Instead, while his body was still warm, my mother filed a multi-million dollar life insurance claim.
"I am not feeding a useless freak for another day. Pack your trash and get out."
She kicked me out into the freezing rain, but that wasn't the worst of it.
My stepsister Cornelia stole my greatest secret. Five years ago, I saved the life of Fidel Vaughan, a ruthless billionaire heir, from a burning estate.
Cornelia claimed my identity, accepted a million-dollar reward, and secured a marriage proposal from him, burning my only proof to ashes.
They thought I was just a helpless, pathetic high schooler they could discard and replace.
But when I hacked the police files, I discovered my father's crash wasn't an accident. It was a targeted hit, and the Vaughan Group had hijacked the traffic cameras to cover it up.
I washed off the ugly black makeup, shedding the disguise of a pathetic outcast.
I am Spectre, the world's most elusive hacker and underground doctor.
I intercepted the billionaire heir's heavily armed convoy in the dead of night. They thought they could steal my life and murder my father, but now, I hold the needle that controls Fidel Vaughan's sanity, and I will make them all pay.
8.4
The night her father is arrested outside their Manhattan townhouse, Amara Bennett's world collapses under flashing cameras and whispered accusations.
Behind the chaos stands one man.
Damian Wolfe.
New York's most feared billionaire CEO - ruthless, controlled, untouchable.
Years ago, Amara's father betrayed him.
Now Damian wants revenge.
He offers her a deal:
Marry him for one year.
Play the perfect wife.
And he will make her father's charges disappear.
It's supposed to be punishment.
A calculated humiliation.
But inside his glass penthouse high above Manhattan, hatred begins to blur into desire.
And when Amara uncovers a secret that proves her father may have been framed, she realizes she didn't just marry her enemy...
She married a man who might destroy everything she loves.
Because in New York, power is everything.
And love is the most dangerous weakness of all.
8.7
I was pregnant with the future heir of the Blackwood Pack, but my fated mate, Alpha Gavin, was nowhere to be found when sharp, tearing agony ripped through my swollen belly.
Instead of rushing to my side, he was in a luxury penthouse with his mistress, Piper.
When I desperately called his human number for help, it was Piper who answered the phone.
"I'm Piper. His future Luna."
Minutes later, I received a leaked audio file of Gavin promising to formally reject me the moment our pup was born.
Before the heartbreak could even set in, my armored SUV was violently rammed off the road by a massive truck.
It wasn't an accident. It was a targeted hit paid for by Piper's pack.
I woke up in the clinic with an empty womb. My pup was dead.
Gavin didn't even show up. He just mind-linked the butler to say he was "too busy" to deal with my loss.
He let his mistress murder our child and treated me like disposable trash, assuming my grief would make me a weak, compliant victim.
He thought he could just bury my trauma and move on with his perfect new life.
He was wrong.
I faked my own death in a fiery crash, leaving him with nothing but my signed rejection papers and the bloody receipt proving his mistress hired the killers.
Now, armed with a new identity and untraceable wealth, I am stepping out of the shadows.
I am going to bankrupt their packs from the inside out and make my former Alpha watch his empire burn.