Falling at 30,000 feets
On Valentine's Day, love is in the air-but so is danger.
At 30,000 feet, trainee captain Jane Harley proves she's more than just a rising pilot when she navigates a terrifying turbulence that leaves passengers shaken and lives hanging by a thread. Calm under pressurej and fiercely capable, Jane becomes the unexpected hero of Flight 423.
But while she's saving lives in the sky, fate is already setting something far more complicated in motion.
Among the passengers is the powerful and ambitious mother of Jayden-Aurelia Air's largest shareholder-whose midair health crisis is only the beginning of a chain of events. Grateful and intrigued, she sets her sights on Jane... not just as a hero, but as a future daughter-in-law.
Jayden, a grounded pilot with a sharp mind and guarded heart, has no interest in his mother's schemes-until one unexpected name changes everything.
In a world of wealth, expectations, and high-altitude emotions, two lives are about to collide.
Love, ambition, and fate take flight in Falling at 30,000 Feet.
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Chapter 20
⸻
The air tightened like a drawn bowstring. Every breath in the room seemed to come harder, heavier.
Jenny's confidence flickered for just a second-her eyes darting away from Jane's steady gaze-but she recovered quickly, lifting her chin with practiced arrogance.
"My boyfriend's father is an Aurelia Airlines shareholder," she said, her tone sharp with pride as she looked directly at Jane, as if flaunting the connection like a trophy. "Arranging a lowly security guard position is nothing-child's play, really."
Her mother beamed immediately, reaching across the table to squeeze Jenny's hand. "Our Jenny found such a catch," Rosa added, nodding approvingly as she glanced around the table for admiration. "Handsome, rich-and useful to the family. That's how you pick a partner."
The grandmother leaned forward slightly, her wrinkled hands folded on the table as she looked at Jane with what might have been concern-if it weren't so heavily laced with judgment. "Jane," she began, "now that you're an airline captain-surely you have some influence you could use for the family..."
"Jane," another voice cut in, sharp and eager.
All heads turned to Lucia-Jane's mother's younger sister-who was leaning forward in her chair, her eyes bright with expectation. She wore a cheap polyester dress that wrinkled as she moved, and her nails were chipped despite her attempts to paint them neatly.
"My son has always dreamed of being a flight attendant," she said, as if this were news to everyone. "Now that you're a captain, you can arrange that for him, right? Just pull a few strings-tell them he's your cousin. They'll hire him on the spot."
Jane exhaled slowly, her fingers resting on the edge of the table as she kept her voice steady. She'd been through this conversation before-too many times.
"Flight attendants go through strict recruitment and training," she replied patiently. "It's not just about serving food-it's about passenger safety, emergency procedures, medical training. I can recommend a good training program for him-help him prepare for the entrance exams-"
Lucia waved her off with a dismissive flick of her hand, her face hardening with irritation.
"No, no," she said, cutting Jane off. "Why go through all that hassle? Can't you just hire him directly? He's a quick learner-he can learn on the job. How hard can it be?"
A ripple of discomfort passed through the table.
Jane didn't answer immediately. She just looked at Lucia, her expression calm but her eyes growing colder by the second.
Jenny's lips curled into a satisfied smile. She knew. Jane wouldn't do it-she'd never compromise safety standards for anyone.
"There's nothing difficult about being a flight attendant," Lucia continued casually, as if she were discussing grocery shopping. "You just serve meals, hand out snacks, smile at passengers... it's simple work. Anyone can do it."
Still-
Jane said nothing. Her hands were folded in her lap now, her knuckles white with restraint.
Her silence spoke louder than any refusal ever could.
"Aunt," Jenny chimed in sweetly, glancing at Lucia with faux sympathy, "I think Jane just doesn't want to help. She's too busy with her important captain duties to worry about family."
She flicked her fingers dismissively in Jane's direction, her nails clicking against the glass cups as she did so.
"Don't worry-I'll ask my boyfriend instead. His father can get your son hired without any of that tedious training."
Lucia's face lit up instantly, her eyes shining with gratitude as she reached across the table to pat Jenny's arm. "Jenny, you're so thoughtful," she said warmly. "Always putting family first. That's what matters."
Rosa nodded, smiling proudly as she looked at her daughter-then her gaze shifted to Jane, her expression hard with disapproval.
"Unlike some ungrateful wretch," Lucia added, her tone turning sharp as she looked at Jane-then shifted her gaze to Jane's mother, who had gone very still.
"Back then, when you were young and foolish," Lucia continued coldly, leaning forward as if sharing a secret, "she was abandoned by a man. Left pregnant and alone. We all had to come together to help raise her child-scraping together money for diapers, for formula, for school fees."
Her lips curled slightly into a sneer.
"And now that her daughter is successful... she looks down on us. Thinks she's too good to help her own family."
That was it.
The final straw.
Jane's mother's hands trembled as she gripped her fork, her knuckles white against the silver. She'd been quiet all night, taking the insults and the judgment-but this was too much.
"I begged you for help," she said suddenly, her voice shaking but rising, cutting through the room like a whip. "When Jane was born premature, when I had to take her to the hospital every week, when I lost my job because I couldn't work the long hours-"
Rosa rolled her eyes, leaning back in her chair as she muttered something about "drama."
But Jane's mother didn't stop. Tears spilled down her cheeks.
"You told me I deserved it," she continued, her voice breaking with emotion. "That I should suffer... that I should starve on the street for 'sleeping around'! You wouldn't even let me borrow your car to take Jane to the emergency room-you said I'd 'ruin the upholstery'!"
Her voice cracked completely, and she buried her face in her hands, shoulders shaking with sobs.
"And now you call my daughter ungrateful?"
"Mom..." Jane said softly, reaching out and placing a steady hand on her back. She could feel the tremble beneath her palm, could feel the years of pain and resentment pouring out in those tears.
Then-
Jane inhaled.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
The sound was quiet but deliberate, filling the silence left by her mother's sobs. She turned to face the table, her expression no longer controlled or restrained-but cold as ice, hard as steel.
"This dinner," she said, her voice low and even, each word measured and precise, "is clearly not meant for us. It's meant to judge us, to belittle us, to make us feel small so you can feel better about yourselves."
A pause. The room was so quiet you could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall.
"Then there's no reason for us to stay."
"What do you mean by that?" Lucia snapped, her tone rising as she stood up abruptly, her chair scraping against the floor. "We only asked for a small favor! You refused-that's fine. But can't we comment on it? Isn't family allowed to have opinions?"
Jenny lowered her head, laughing quietly into her hand-enjoying the chaos she'd helped create.
Jayden's jaw tightened, his hand closing into a fist on his thigh. He'd had enough of their cruelty, enough of them hurting Jane and her mother.
Lucia continued, relentless as a storm.
"Instead of helping your family," she said, pointing an accusing finger at Jane, "you're busy chasing men-marrying some unemployed nobody just to have someone on your arm!"
Something in the air snapped.
Jane inhaled sharply, her eyes flashing with a fire that made even Lucia step back slightly.
"The only courtesy we asked for," she said, her voice now edged with steel, cutting through the room like a blade, "was to have a peaceful dinner. To be treated like family, not like charity cases or punchlines."
Her gaze swept across the table-from her aunt's shocked face to Jenny's smug smile to her grandmother's disappointed expression.
"But clearly, even that is too much for you people."
Then-
She pushed her chair back and stood fully. The movement was sudden, sharp, making several people jump.
Her hand brushed the edge of the table as she stood-knocking over a ceramic coffee cup that had been sitting near her elbow.
Crash.
Porcelain shattered against the tile floor, pieces scattering across the room like broken teeth. Dark coffee spread in a sticky pool, seeping into the grout lines.
The sound echoed through the silent room like a gunshot.
Rosa flinched, her hand flying to her chest.
The room froze. Every eye was on Jane-on the fierce set of her jaw, the fire in her eyes, the way she stood tall despite her small frame.
Jayden turned to look at her-his eyes widened slightly with surprise.
He had never seen her like this before.
Not controlled.
Not restrained.
But fierce.
Unyielding.
And done holding back.
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9.6
In the two years after I married Daniel Carter, my private photos had gone viral nine times, and Daniel had been taken into custody ten times.
Because every time his mistress, Emily Morgan, was unhappy, she would leak my private photos all over the internet.
I, Claire Parker, never let it slide. I reported every shady business Daniel was involved in and personally sent him behind bars.
That lasted until an unexpected kidnapping. I took a bullet for him, one aimed straight at his heart, and he shielded me beneath his body, taking the brunt of the explosion for me.
After we survived, the man who had always been so cold-blooded knelt before me, his voice hoarse beyond recognition.
"Honey, let's leave the drama behind. I just want a peaceful life with you."
Right in front of me, he ordered his men to send his mistress out of Northhaven and never let her appear before him again.
In the third year after we reconciled, I carried my eight-month pregnant belly and brought him lunch.
But on the way there, I was hit by a car. The hospital issued three critical condition notices, yet they still could not save the baby.
Daniel rushed over, but he did not even spare me a glance. Instead, he pulled the woman who had hit me and her child into his arms, soothing her in a low voice.
"Don't be scared. I'll protect you and the child."
Only then did I realize that the woman who had hit me was the very mistress he had sent away three years ago.
When I demanded an explanation, Daniel brushed it off as if it were nothing. "She didn't do it on purpose. Don't take it out on her and her son. You can have a baby another time."
At that moment, I finally understood. They had gotten back together long ago.
I looked at him and nodded. "Don't worry, this will never happen again."
7.8
My abusive ex was threatening a lawsuit that would destroy my father's career and wipe out my PhD. I was completely out of options.
That night, Graham, the boy from next door I hadn't seen in a decade, showed up at my apartment in the middle of a hurricane. Now a wealthy orthopedic surgeon, he offered a transactional marriage: he needed a local wife to keep his family away while he cared for his sick mother, and in return, he would make my ex disappear.
I thought it was a simple deal. But the morning after we signed the marriage license, Graham didn't just scare my ex off—he ruthlessly dismantled him. Then, Graham turned to me. His eyes were dead as he pulled out his phone, showing me a high-resolution photo of the night I illegally sold lab samples to pay off my ex's initial blackmail. He had hired a private investigator to stalk me. If that photo leaked to the FDA, I wouldn't just lose my degree; I'd go to prison.
"I needed a guarantee," he said flatly.
I was shaking with rage and terror. This wasn't a rescue. It was a hostage situation. Why did he hunt me down? Why use my darkest secret to trap me in this twisted marriage?
I couldn't live like this. I demanded an immediate divorce. But at the courthouse, the clerk dropped a bomb on us: state law required a mandatory thirty-day waiting period. Thirty days trapped with a ruthless, manipulative stranger. I had to find a way to break his leverage before the month was up.
7.1
I was the top commander of a black-ops military program. After slaughtering my way through a hellish mission, I reached the extraction helicopter, trusting my second-in-command to watch my back.
But the moment our hands locked, he didn't pull me up. Instead, he plunged a syringe of lethal neurotoxin directly into my neck.
He aimed his gun at my chest, coldly stating that I was too dangerous to live. My lungs stopped, and I died in a pool of my own blood. But the endless blackness suddenly shattered. My consciousness violently forced its way into a new, broken shell. I woke up in a freezing alley, soaked in muddy rain.
This body belonged to seventeen-year-old Eliza Wyatt. A massive wave of foreign memories crashed into my brain. Her own younger sister had just stood at the top of the stairs with a mocking smile, watching street thugs beat Eliza to death.
"Take good care of the Wyatt family's eldest daughter. Tonight is the night she finally disappears."
The endless humiliation, the cold stares of her family, and the brutal betrayal by her own blood flashed before my eyes. Why was this fragile girl treated like garbage and pushed to her death by the very people who should have protected her?
I looked down at my pale, trembling hands. The top commander was dead, but in this bleeding shell, Eliza Wyatt was very much alive. I picked up a switchblade from the bloody puddle and stood up in the storm. It was time to hunt.
9.7
For three years, I was the dutiful wife of billionaire Ervin Valdez.
On our third wedding anniversary, he came home smelling of his mistress's perfume, pinned me down, and brutally mocked me.
His mistress, Sylvia, had even sent me a fake ultrasound report to force me out of the picture.
In Ervin's eyes, I was just a vicious, calculating liar who used a pregnancy to trap him into marriage.
He didn't care that I had actually lost that baby, nor did he know the trauma of my gambling father selling me to a dark club where I was assaulted by a stranger.
When I finally handed him the signed divorce papers, giving up all assets, and left the penthouse with nothing but an old suitcase, he just sneered.
"She is playing a game of hard to get. She won't last three days before she comes crying back."
He froze all my bank accounts, let his mistress humiliate me in public, and waited coldly for me to starve and beg.
He thought my entire existence relied on his wealth, completely confident that I would inevitably surrender to his control.
But he was wrong.
I calmly opened my old laptop, bypassed the complex encryptions, and looked at the dozens of unread emails from top-tier global brands begging for my return.
I resurrected my hidden identity as the legendary jewelry designer "R," and walked straight into the top design firm in Manhattan.
"It is time to find myself again."
9.2
After six brutal months, I returned to my Seattle villa, my sanctuary. An unsettling quiet, then a cloying mix of cheap vanilla and baby talc hit me. Pink slippers, a cookbook, and a blonde hair on Nathan's hoodie screamed betrayal.
Unwashed baby bottles and a note from "M" to "feed the baby" confirmed my dread. A baby's cry led me to Misty, holding a baby with Nathan's exact curls. She claimed Nathan called me his "bankrupt ex-wife," my clothes gone, wedding photos crumpled, and his loving text proved his calculated fraud.
Nathan burst in, spewing gaslighting lies, despite finding a deed transfer for *my* house. His blame—that I was a "cold work machine"—only solidified my resolve. My husband used my money, home, and trust to build a new life, systematically trying to erase me. He didn't just cheat; he tried to steal everything. A venture capitalist doesn't just walk away from a hostile takeover.
8.0
"Don't you dare touch me. You bloody monster," Eric whispered glaring at me, which only turned me on the more.
A beautiful smile crossed my lips; luckily for us, his fake mother was so focused on Katherine, she did not know I was fucking her son before her eyes.
"So I am now a monster, huh? That was not what you said yesterday. Or have you forgotten about our hot night?" I asked as I traced my way to his lap again, approaching his groin area.
He swallowed hard, his eyes roaming around. "Damien. I am Katherine's fiancé. your niece" He reminded me as my hands reached his groan, caressing it through the layers of his trousers.
"Yesterday you were Mike's boyfriend, and what did I tell you? I don't give a fuck!," I whispered back. "Now be quiet and try to control yourself" .
Eric's life is thrown upside down when his brother is killed on his coronation day, and he now has to become the king. and he can't because he is gay and he has a boyfriend who he loves dearly, or so he thought until he met Damien Monetro, his fiancée's uncle and his former one-night stand