All Chapters of 37 Times You Called My Name : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Mia POVThe sixth day of silence from the island felt different from the ones that came before it. Not safer, exactly, but heavier with the sense that something had shifted. Ryder noticed it first. He stood at the kitchen window at dawn with a cup of coffee, watching the security team change shifts, and said, without turning around, “He’s either given up or he’s preparing something final. People like Thorne don’t do quiet for this long unless they’re out of moves or about to make a big one.”I came up behind him and slid my arms around his waist, resting my cheek against his back. He covered my hands with one of his.“Whichever it is,” I said, “we’re still here.”“We are.” He turned in the circle of my arms and kissed me properly, morning-slow and unhurried. When he pulled back there was a new determination in his eyes. “Harlan wants a call at nine. After that I’m yours for the rest of the day. No office. No extra briefings. Just us.”The call lasted twenty minutes. I stayed in the k

Mia POV The eighth day of silence dawned clear and cool. I woke to the sound of Ryder moving quietly around the bedroom, pulling on a shirt. He saw I was awake and came back to the bed, leaning down to kiss me before I could sit up. “Harlan has a briefing at ten,” he said against my mouth. “Short one. Then I’m free. Stay in bed if you want. I’ll bring coffee up.” I pulled him back down for another kiss instead. “I’ll come down. I like watching you try to be quiet in the mornings. You’re terrible at it.” He smiled, the real one, and left me to stretch. My leg felt stronger again. I flexed it under the sheet, then stood and tested my weight. Solid. I dressed slowly, listening to the low murmur of his voice on the phone downstairs and the clink of mugs in the kitchen. Breakfast was simple—coffee, toast, the last of the jam my mother had made. She joined us halfway through, hair still damp from a shower, and announced that the garden needed weeding whether Richard Thorne liked it

Mia POV The tenth day of silence felt earned. I woke to the solid weight of Ryder’s arm across my stomach and the early light already moving across the ceiling. For once I didn’t immediately catalogue threats or check the window. I just lay there and let myself believe the quiet might actually be sticking. My leg felt strong under the sheet. I flexed it, then stretched the whole length of my body until my joints popped. Ryder made a low sound of protest and pulled me back against him without fully waking. “Five more minutes,” he muttered into my hair. “You said that yesterday. And the day before.” “And I’ll say it tomorrow.” He kissed the back of my neck and finally opened his eyes. “Harlan’s update came in overnight. I read it when I got up for water. Still nothing on the island. One more account they were watching went dormant instead of trying to move money. She thinks h

Mia POVThe twelfth day of silence arrived with the kind of clear, bright morning that made the garden look almost too perfect. I woke to an empty bed and the smell of coffee drifting up the stairs. Ryder’s side was still warm. I stretched, testing my leg out of habit, and found it strong and steady. No lingering stiffness. No reminder of the cast. Just my own body again.Downstairs he was at the counter in a T-shirt and sweatpants, phone pressed between his ear and shoulder while he poured coffee. He saw me and smiled, the real one, then mouthed *Harlan* and pointed at the mug he had already fixed the way I liked it. I took it and leaned against his side while he finished the call.“Understood,” he said. “Keep me posted.” He set the phone face-down on the counter and kissed the top of my head. “Morning.”“What did she say?”“The last of the secondary accounts they were watching has gone completely dark. No attempts to move money in forty-eight hours. The island is still quiet—no boa

Mia POVThe first of the three days before the meeting passed in a strange mix of preparation and stubborn normalcy. Ryder spent the morning on calls with Harlan and the legal team, mapping every possible angle of the sit-down. I stayed close without hovering, bringing him coffee, listening when he wanted to talk through a point, and pulling him away from the laptop when his shoulders started to climb toward his ears.By late morning he closed the computer and reached for me.“Enough,” he said. “Harlan has the structure. The room is secured. The recording protocols are set. If I keep turning it over I’m going to start inventing problems that don’t exist.”We went out to the garden where my mother was already working. The three of us spent two hours among the roses and the lavender, talking about nothing heavier than whether the mulch needed refreshing and how soon the first cooler nights might arrive. Every so often Ryder’s han