LOGINShare
•011
publish date:
2026-07-03 01:14:57
Latest chapter
37 Times You Called My Name •026
Mia POVI stared at the sterile white walls of the private facility, my mother’s hand cold in mine. Three days after the kidnapping, she was stable enough to talk in full sentences, but the fear in her eyes hadn’t faded. Every beep of the monitor reminded me how close we had come to losing her. How Ryder’s world — our world — kept exacting a price I wasn’t sure I could keep paying.“You’re pulling away from him,” she said suddenly, voice weak but clear. “I can see it in your face when you come back from the penthouse.”I squeezed her hand gently. “I’m trying to protect you. The doctors said any more stress—”“Baby, I’m dying anyway.” The bluntness hit like a slap. “Don’t waste what time I have left watching you punish yourself for loving the wrong man.”Her words lodged in my throat. I kissed her forehead and promised I’d think about it, but the truth was I had been thinking about nothing else. The slowed romance with Ryder wasn’t just about her health anymore. It was about me trying
37 Times You Called My Name •025
MIA POVThe days following my mother’s kidnapping blurred into a careful rhythm of hospital visits, security briefings, and quiet distance. She was recovering in the fortified private wing Ryder had arranged, her vitals slowly stabilizing under constant monitoring. The doctors credited the swift rescue and immediate treatment, but we all knew the emotional toll lingered. Every time a nurse mentioned the “incident,” her blood pressure spiked. The point was driven painfully home: our world — Ryder’s world — was toxic for her.I split my time between the facility and the penthouse. Mornings were for her. Afternoons for work from the guest room. Evenings for careful conversations with Ryder that never crossed into the physical. The romance we had once drowned in had slowed to almost nothing. No desperate kisses. No nights spent tangled together. Just shared meals, brief touches when we passed each other, and the heavy awareness that every step closer to him risked another crisis for my
37 Times You Called My Name •024
MIA POV The call came at 3:47 a.m., shattering the fragile peace we had built over the past week. I was half-asleep in the guest room when my phone rang. The number was from the private facility. I answered with a groggy voice that turned to ice the moment the nurse spoke.“Miss Thompson, your mother is gone. Security footage shows two men took her thirty minutes ago. They had hospital IDs. We’ve called the police.”The world tilted. I stumbled out of bed and into the living room, where Ryder was already awake, laptop open, working through another sleepless night. One look at my face and he was on his feet.“They took her,” I choked out. “Kidnapped her from the facility.”Ryder’s expression hardened into something lethal. He took the phone from my shaking hands, speaking rapidly to the nurse while pulling up security contacts on his laptop. Within minutes he had the head of his private security team on speaker.“Find her,” he ordered, voice like steel. “Every camera in the city. Ever
37 Times You Called My Name •023
MIA POVThe new facility was quieter than the city hospital, but the beeping machines still sounded like accusations. I spent most of my days there now, sitting beside my mother’s bed while she drifted in and out of consciousness. The foundation’s private care had stabilized her heart markers slightly, but the doctor’s warning from yesterday still echoed in my head: any additional emotional stress could reverse the progress. That stress had a name. Ryder Vaughn.I hadn’t slept in his bed for nine days. The distance I asked for was both a relief and a slow torture. Every night I lay in the guest room of the penthouse listening to him move around the main space, knowing he was respecting my boundaries while hating every second of it. The romance that had once consumed us had slowed to careful, loaded glances and brief touches when we passed each other in the kitchen. No more desperate sex. No more counting. Just the heavy awareness of what we were sacrificing.This morning my mother was
37 Times You Called My Name •022
MIA POVThe press conference bought us time, but peace was never meant to last in Ryder’s world. Or mine. Three days after we stood together on that rooftop and laid our broken history bare, the real cost arrived in the form of a single phone call from the hospital at 2:17 a.m.I answered it in the dark of the penthouse bedroom, Ryder’s arm still draped across my waist. The doctor’s voice was careful, professional, and devastating.“Miss Thompson, your mother’s condition has taken a serious turn. The stress from the recent media coverage appears to have triggered complications. We need you here immediately.”The words landed like ice water. I sat up so fast the sheet pooled around my hips. Ryder woke instantly, sensing the shift.“What happened?” he asked, already reaching for his clothes.I repeated the doctor’s words in a numb voice. The media storm we created to fight the blackmail had circled back and hurt the one person I was trying to protect. The point was brutally clear: our l
37 Times You Called My Name •021
MIA POV The final video changed everything between us, but it also clarified one brutal point: Ryder Vaughn had never loved me. He had collected me. From the very beginning, I was a possession he refused to lose, and every act of cruelty, every obsessive move, every tender touch in the present served the same purpose — keeping me trapped in his world forever.I played the video alone in the penthouse bathroom the next morning while Ryder was in the shower. The footage was old, grainy, but unmistakable. It was from a school board meeting weeks before the arena incident. Ryder, seventeen and already radiating that dangerous charisma, sat with his father, arguing heatedly. The audio was clear enough to destroy me.“She’s writing about me,” teenage Ryder said. “Dirty shit. Fantasies. I can use it. Make her obsessed. Break her down so no one else wants her. Then she’ll be mine. Completely.”His father laughed. “Smart. Control the girl early. Lock her in before she realizes what she is.”T
You may also like
The Breaking Point of Love
Cloudsearcher4.0M viewsHer Graceful War Song
Summer's Blaze968.9K viewsSatisfying Her Darkest Fantasies
Shile1.0M viewsDivorced My Cheating Husband, Married A Billionaire
LiLhyz835.5K viewsCLAIMED BY MY BROTHER'S TEAMMATE
Beth Writes134 viewsRECLAIMING LOUELLA
Sorcha_1180 viewsThe Billionaire's Counterfeit Fiancee
Silentreign129 viewsMy Billionaire DOM Wants Me Back
unusualdee173 views
