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 41
"Mom?" Jane called out, staring at Eleanor in astonishment. The resemblance was undeniable-same dark eyes, same high cheekbones, even the way she held her head when nervous was exactly like Jayden's.
Eleanor froze on the staircase, one foot still on the step above, her fingers tightening around the hem of her silk dress until the fabric wrinkled. "J-Jane..." she stammered awkwardly, forcing a smile onto her face that looked more like a grimace. "What a... lovely surprise to see you here."
Jane slowly turned toward Jayden, the same stunned expression still lingering in her eyes. The file she'd been holding felt suddenly heavy in her hand. "Jayden... what are you doing here? "
Jayden opened his mouth, but no words came out. His mind raced through a dozen different lies, but none of them felt right-not now, not with her looking at him like that.
"I..." Eleanor began nervously, scratching the back of her head as she took a small step down the stairs. She looked toward Jayden helplessly, her eyes wide with panic-silently begging him to save the situation before she said something irreversible.
But Jayden himself was already panicking internally, his hands growing clammy as he tried to think of anything-anything-that could explain his presence in the chief pilot's home.
At that exact moment, Mr. Green suddenly stepped forward smoothly, his movements deliberate and calm as he positioned himself between Jane and the staircase.
"Linda," Mr. Green called out firmly toward Eleanor, using the name he'd picked out in that split second of clarity. His voice carried the authority of someone used to managing a household.
Eleanor blinked in confusion for a second, her gaze flicking from Mr. Green to Jayden and back again.
"Did you finish cleaning the upstairs rooms yet?" he asked in a professional tone, his eyes holding hers with a look that clearly said play along.
The moment the words registered, understanding dawned in Eleanor's eyes, followed quickly by relief.
"Oh!" she exclaimed quickly, her voice brightening as she clasped her hands together. "Right... the cleaning. I was just on my way to finish dusting the master suite. Mr. Blackwood is very particular about keeping things spotless."
She turned toward Mr. Green and secretly flashed him a thumbs-up near her waist, hidden behind the folds of her dress.
Mr. Green gave the faintest nod in return, maintaining his calm, composed expression as he adjusted his gloves.
Jayden immediately looked at Mr. Green with deep appreciation in his eyes-silently thanking him for his quick thinking-before quickly turning back toward Jane. His expression shifted into something more relaxed, more familiar.
"Yeah," he said casually, walking over to wrap an arm around Eleanor's shoulder. "I forgot to tell you... my mom works here now."
Jane's expression softened instantly, the confusion melting away into something warm and understanding.
"I just came by to check on her," Jayden added with a reassuring smile, giving Eleanor's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Make sure she's not working too hard."
"Oh..." Jane murmured slowly, understanding dawning in her eyes as she looked from Jayden to Eleanor and back again. "That makes sense. I should have realized-"
"Jane," Eleanor interrupted hurriedly, afraid she might accidentally expose herself if the conversation continued any longer. She could feel her composure slipping, could feel the truth pressing against her teeth like something she was about to swallow whole. "I still have work upstairs, so I'll catch up with you another time. We can have dinner together soon-you can tell me all about your flights."
She gave Jane a bright, slightly forced smile before practically fleeing upstairs, her heels clicking rapidly against the marble steps until she disappeared around the corner.
Jayden immediately grabbed the opportunity, squeezing Jane's hand gently. "I'll wait outside for you," he said quickly. "Let you finish up with... Mr. Blackwood."
Jane watched him leave, a small smile on her face, before turning back toward Mr. Green.
"Ms. Harley," Mr. Green said warmly as he handed the signed documents back to her, his hands steady now that the immediate crisis had passed. "Everything is in order-"
"Thank you, Mr. Blackwood," Jane replied politely, bowing slightly as she accepted the files. She'd never met the actual chief pilot, but she'd heard enough to know he was respected throughout the airline. "Please tell him we appreciate his prompt attention to the safety protocols."
"You're welcome," he said, gesturing toward the door with a slight bow of his own. "Have a safe journey back to the city, Miss Harley."
Jane smiled politely and walked out of the mansion, her mind already moving through her to-do list for the next day. The lie had settled easily into place-she'd never been one to question things that made sense, and Jayden's explanation fit perfectly with everything she knew about his family.
Outside, Jayden was already waiting near the pathway leading toward the estate gates, his hands in his pockets as he watched the sunset paint the sky in shades of gold and pink. The evening breeze swept gently through the luxurious gardens, rustling the leaves of the manicured hedges and carrying the sweet scent of roses from the flower beds lining the walkway.
The two walked side by side hand in hand, their footsteps soft on the stone path. For a while, neither of them spoke-the silence comfortable, as it often was between them.
Then suddenly-
Jane stopped walking, pulling gently on his hand to make him turn toward her. The setting sun cast a warm glow over her face, making her eyes shine like dark amber.
"Jayden," she called softly, her voice serious but gentle.
Jayden's heartbeat skipped, a familiar knot forming in his stomach. He'd been waiting for this moment-waiting for her to ask the questions he couldn't answer. He slowly turned toward her, his expression careful, guarded.
"Be honest with me."
His expression dimmed immediately, the last of the sunlight seeming to drain from his face. He'd practiced this moment a hundred times in his head, but now that it was here, all the words he'd prepared vanished.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly, lowering his gaze to where their hands were still joined. His thumb traced small circles on the back of her hand. "I shouldn't have lied to you."
Jane stared at him seriously, her fingers tightening around his. She'd thought about this all the way from the mansion to the gate, had turned over every possible explanation in her mind.
"The truth is-" he began, his voice catching slightly.
"You're out of money, right?" she interrupted suddenly, her brows knitting together with genuine concern. "That's why your mom is working here, isn't it?-you're broke, and you didn't want me to know."
Jayden blinked, his head snapping up to look at her. The words hit him like a physical blow-not because they were true, but because they were so far from it. "...What?"
"So you're broke," Jane concluded, her expression softening with sympathy as she reached up to touch his cheek. "Why didn't you tell me? We're married-we're supposed to share these things."
"I have money," Jayden replied almost immediately, a helpless smile touching his lips as he squeezed her hand gently. He wanted to tell her-wanted to say I own the airline, I own this estate, I could buy us a dozen homes if you wanted-but the words stuck in his throat.
"Jayden," Jane said softly, her eyes filled with concern as she looked at him. "We're family now. We're supposed to face problems together. You don't have to carry everything by yourself."
Her thumb brushed against his cheek, warm and gentle. He could feel his chest tightening-tightening with guilt, with love, with the overwhelming desire to protect her from the complicated truth of his life.
"Why don't we bring Mom over to stay with us?" she suggested, her voice brightening with the idea. "We'll be able to take care of her-she won't have to work so hard for someone else."
Jayden's steps halted completely. For a second, he simply stared at her-at the woman who'd married him knowing nothing about his real life, who was now offering to take his mother in because she thought they were struggling financially.
Then he slowly looked away, a complicated smile appearing on his face-part sadness, part gratitude, part something else she couldn't quite read.
"But Mom has her own life," he said carefully, choosing his words with care. "She may not want to move in and... suffer with us."
Jane frowned immediately, pulling her hand from his to cross her arms over her chest. "Her current life is already difficult," she insisted, her voice firm with conviction. "Living under someone else's roof can never feel comfortable-no matter how nice they are. She's your mother-she should be with family."
Jayden's chest tightened hearing her defend his mother so earnestly, hearing her talk about family like it was the most important thing in the world. He'd spent his whole life surrounded by wealth and power, but never once had he felt like he belonged to something as real as what she was describing.
"But-" he began, trying to find a way to gently turn her down without revealing the truth.
"Jayden," Jane interrupted again, stepping closer until she was standing just inches from him. "If I told you today that I wanted to bring my own mother to live with us, would you refuse?"
"Of course not," he answered far too quickly, without even thinking. It was the truth-he'd never turn away someone she loved, never make her choose between him and her family.
Jane's smile immediately returned, bright and genuine as she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. "Then it's settled.
Jayden stared at her silently, his hands coming to rest on her waist. He could feel the lie stretching between them, thin as spider silk but strong enough to hold up the world she believed in. And for a moment-just a moment-he let himself imagine it:
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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