The Beat of a Heart

Madison Caruso has always known what it feels like to stand on the outside; too quiet, too strange, too easy to overlook. But at home, in her father’s arms, she is safe. She is enough.
Until one sudden loss takes that refuge away, and Madison is left to face cruelty, loneliness, and grief with nowhere left to hide.

Chance Hill has everything people admire. Popular. Talented. Untouchable. Life has always bent in his favor, and he’s never had to ask who he is beneath the applause. But entitlement is a fragile shield, and when the path he’s coasted on disappears, Chance is forced to confront the emptiness he never noticed.

From opposite ends of the social world, Madison and Chance grow up believing different lies about themselves. Until life turns both upside down. Only then do they discover a soundless truth: before you can be loved by someone else, you must first learn your own worth.

Tender, emotional, and deeply human, this is a story for anyone who has ever felt invisible, misunderstood, or afraid they weren’t enough, and dared to hope they might be wrong.