All Chapters of Supreme Son-in-law: Reborn With the Apocalypse System: Chapter 71
- Chapter 80
85 chapters
Chapter 71- The World Holds
POV: JaredThe shaking stopped sometime before dawn.Jared noticed it the way you notice silence after living inside noise for too long. Not all at once. Not dramatically. Just the absence of something that had been pressing against his bones.He sat up slowly.The ground did not answer with a tremor. The air stayed still. No alarms. No distant thunder rolling under the soil like a warning that never finished forming.The world stayed where it was.Emma slept beside him, curled on her side, breath shallow but steady. Her face looked softer when she slept, like the strain forgot to hold itself together. One hand rested near her chest, fingers loose, no tension coiled there.She was still here.That thought used to come with panic. With counting. With waiting for something to correct the moment.Now it simply existed.Jared stood and stepped outside the shelter. The grass was damp beneath his feet. Cool. Honest. When he shifted his weight, it bent and stayed bent for a second before ris
CHAPTER 72 – Staying
POV: JaredThere was no signal to mark the day as important.No shift in the sky. No hum under the ground. Morning arrived the same way it had the day before, light easing across the field without urgency, shadows pulling themselves apart inch by inch.Jared woke to the sound of Emma moving.Not alarms. Not warnings. Just the soft scrape of wood and fabric as she tried to stand without waking him. He kept his eyes closed for a moment longer, listening. The small noises told him more than words ever had. She was slower today, but steadier. Careful, not fragile.When he finally opened his eyes, she was outside the shelter, back turned, crouched near the stones where they had tried and failed to make a proper fire pit. Smoke curled weakly into the air.She had tied her hair back with a strip of cloth torn from his old sleeve. He noticed that before anything else.“You’re awake,” she said without turning.“I’ve been awake,” he replied.She glanced over her shoulder, lips twitching. “Liar.
Chapter 73- The Third Step
POV: JaredEmma laughed like the world had not taught her restraint yet.It slipped out of her when a small gray bird swooped down, bold as hunger, and stole a strip of dried food from the pack they had left open on the rock. The bird flapped away clumsily, prize dangling from its beak like a bad joke.“Did you see that?” she said, half offended, half delighted. “It didn’t even hesitate.”Jared smiled, reflex more than choice. “You left it open.”“I trusted nature,” she replied, mock serious. “Clearly a mistake.”She went after the bird for three steps, shooing it with her hands, laughing when it only hopped farther away, unimpressed. The sound of her laughter spread across the clearing and came back softer, like the place itself was learning it.That was when he saw it.Just past the edge of the soft earth where their footprints tangled and overlapped, there was another mark.Single. Clean.Jared’s smile faded without him noticing.He took one step closer, careful not to disturb it.
Chapter 74- The Visitor Who Knows His Name
POV: JaredJared noticed the silence first.Not the good kind that settled after sleep or after rain. This one sat wrong, like a held breath that refused to release. The river was ahead of him, sunlight breaking on its surface in thin silver lines. He had come alone to fill the containers, giving Emma time to rest. She had slept deeper lately, like her body was negotiating with itself.He slowed before the water came fully into view.Someone was sitting on the flat stone near the bank.Not standing. Not hiding.Just sitting, feet bare in the river, hands resting loosely on their knees as if they had all the time in the world.They looked ordinary enough that his first thought was that his mind had misfired again. Average height. Dark hair tied back with a strip of cloth. Clothes worn thin at the elbows. No weapon in sight. They turned their head slightly when he stopped, eyes lifting with mild interest, like he was the one arriving late.Jared’s hand tightened around the strap of the
Chapter 75- Emma Doesn’t Step Back
POV: JaredJared felt it before it happened.That instinctive shift in his body, the one that had kept him alive through collapsing systems and choices that bit back. The stranger stood a few paces away from their shelter, hands visible, posture open. Too open. Nothing in their stance asked for permission.Jared moved without thinking, one step forward, then another, placing himself slightly in front of Emma. Not blocking her view. Just enough to say I’m here first.Emma did not stay behind him.She stepped to his side, then past him, bare feet pressing into the dirt like she trusted the ground to hold. Her shoulder brushed his arm briefly, not apologetic, not defiant. Just deliberate.Jared turned. “Emma.”She did not look back at him.She looked at the stranger.“You said you come from a place that adapted,” she said. Her voice was steady. Not cold. Curious in a way that sharpened the air. “How many people are there?”The stranger blinked, clearly recalibrating. Their attention shif
Chapter 76- The Price of Being Real
POV: JaredThe visitor returned the next morning.No warning. No dramatic entrance. They were already there when Jared looked up from the river, standing where the mist thinned and the stones broke the current into quiet lines. Like they had always belonged there.Emma was behind him, rinsing a cloth, humming under her breath. Off key. Comfortable.Jared straightened slowly. He did not reach for anything. He did not step forward either.“You’re early,” he said.The visitor inclined their head. “Time matters more outside.”That word again. Outside.They sat on a flat stone by the river, close enough to be heard but not close enough to feel familiar. Jared stayed where he was. Emma came up beside him without asking, water still clinging to her fingers.The visitor looked at her first.Not with hunger. Not with awe.With need.“You deserve the truth,” they said.Jared felt his spine tighten. “You already gave us your version.”“This one costs more,” the visitor replied.Emma wrapped the
Chapter 77- Love Is Not a Cage
POV: JaredEmma waits until evening.Not because she is afraid. Because she wants the light right. The soft kind that settles instead of accusing. She sits on the steps outside the shelter, knees tucked in, hands folded like she is holding something fragile that might break if she grips too hard.I know before she speaks.That calm. That careful quiet. It has weight.“You don’t get to choose safety for me anymore,” she says.No anger. No shaking. Just truth laid flat between us.I sit beside her. Close enough to feel her warmth. Not close enough to pretend this is fine.“I wasn’t choosing safety,” I say. “I was choosing you.”She nods slowly. “I know. That’s why it hurts.”The sky shifts color. Birds move somewhere above us. Ordinary sounds keep happening, like the world does not understand the moment it is standing inside.“I’m losing time again,” she says.My chest tightens. I keep my eyes forward.“Seconds?” I ask.She shakes her head. “Minutes.”The word lands heavier than I expec
Chapter 78- The Offer That Breaks Him
POV: JaredThe visitor comes back at dawn.No warning. No drama. Just there again, sitting on the same rock by the river like time never learned how to move them away.Emma is boiling water. She hums under her breath, off key, focused. I almost tell the visitor to leave. Almost pretend this is just another morning that belongs to us.They clear their throat instead.“You were right to be afraid,” they say. “But we can do better than last time.”Emma turns first. Not startled. Just alert. Like she already knew today would ask something of her.I step forward without thinking. Old instinct. Put myself in front. Be the thing that gets hit.The visitor’s eyes flick to me, then back to her.“You can leave,” they say to Emma. “Help stabilize the others. We have places failing by the hour. Minds burning out. Systems collapsing into noise.”Emma’s hands still. Steam curls up between us.“And him?” she asks.The visitor finally looks at me properly. Not hostile. Not kind. Assessing.“He can co
Chapter 79- The Thing He Doesn’t Tell Her
POV: JaredI lied to her.Not loudly. Not in a way that would echo.Just enough to keep the day intact.I told Emma I was at peace with staying. With watching the seasons change. With letting the world take whatever pace it wanted with her. I said it like it was a conclusion I had reached carefully, like something solid and finished.She believed me. Or maybe she chose to.She smiled, tired but warm, and leaned her head against my shoulder like that was all she needed. Like my answer closed a door she did not want to keep staring at.I held her until her breathing slowed. Until the small lines between her brows eased. Until the moment felt safe enough to live inside.That was the lie.What I did not tell her was that sleep had started betraying me.It began softly. I would wake up and the room would be wrong. Not empty, exactly. Just unfinished. Like someone stopped building it halfway through remembering what it was supposed to be.Walls without weight. Light without a source. Silenc
Chapter 80- Emma Chooses Something New
POV: JaredShe did not say it like a sacrifice.That was the first thing that scared me.Emma said it while folding her sleeves, like she was preparing to wash her hands. Calm. Thought through. Already lived with the idea long enough that it had softened around the edges.“There’s a third option,” she said.I waited for the catch. There was always one.She would go with the visitor. Not forever. Not to save everything. Just one breach. One place that was still tearing itself apart. She would help them stabilize it, show them how to listen instead of forcing fixes, teach them how to let broken systems breathe.Then she would come back.No vows attached. No guarantees smuggled into the sentence.Just intention.I opened my mouth and nothing came out.I wanted to argue. I had the words ready. I had them memorized. I could list risks and probabilities and timelines like scripture. I could tell her how fragile this world still was, how fragile she was, how every separation felt like tempti