All Chapters of The Son-in-law: Chapter 111
- Chapter 120
127 chapters
THE BOUNTY WORTH MORE ALIVE
CHAPTER 111 :The vault doors parted with a slow hydraulic sigh, releasing a thin exhale of cold air that brushed past Billy’s face as he stepped out. His mind still thrummed with the remnants of Alexander Anderson’s blueprint—the relic echoes, the strategic layers, the analytical precision that now lived inside him like a whispering engine. Tyla and Owen flanked him with the same quiet resolve. For the first time in hours, the sterile metallic corridors of the underground archive felt almost… grounding.But Billy felt something else too.A pressure in the air.A tension that didn’t belong to the vault.“Move carefully,” Owen murmured, scanning the shadowed hallway ahead. “Something’s off. The AI dropped its alert protocols too easily when we disengaged. That usually means the external environment changed.”Billy tightened his jaw. Owen didn’t speak without reason. He might’ve been the most mistrustful of the team, but that mistrust had saved them more than once.They moved forward,
THE SHIFT IN THE AIR
CHAPTER 112 :Something in the vault changed the moment they stepped away from the AI core.Not visually. Not physically.Just… the air.The fragments’ glow dimmed to a steadier pulse, like the room exhaled after holding its breath for too long. Billy felt the shift before he understood it—an instinctive tightening beneath his ribs, as if a thread he hadn’t noticed before had just snapped.Tyla noticed first.“Billy.”She didn’t raise her voice, didn’t panic. But there was a sharpness in her tone, like she was pulling him back from an edge he hadn’t realized he was drifting toward.He blinked. “What?”“You spaced out,” she said. “Not the normal thinking kind. The AI still has a hold on you. You’re processing more than you’re admitting.”Owen stepped closer, scanning Billy with a portable analyser. “Your neural frequencies are elevated. And your fragment resonance is… bleeding.”Billy frowned. “Bleeding?”Owen turned the scanner so Billy could see the data—his fragment synchronization
THE MIRROR THAT REMEMBERS
CHAPTER 113 :Light swallowed him so completely that, for a moment, Billy wasn’t sure if he was standing, floating, or dissolving into the beam. There was no floor, no ceiling—just a suspension of thought, like his body had been peeled away and only awareness remained.Then the world snapped back.But it wasn’t the world.It was a memory.His father’s memory.Billy stood in what looked like a dimly lit command chamber, old technology humming around him—analog screens, static interference, wires coiled like veins. The air carried the metallic tang of electricity and something heavier: fear. Controlled fear.Alexander Anderson stood at the center.Young, sharp-eyed, shoulders tense with the weight of decisions he never had time to explain. Not a ghost, not a projection—this was a reconstruction of a moment carved into the fragments themselves.Billy stepped closer instinctively.“Dad…?”Alexander didn’t turn. He couldn’t—the mirror wasn’t interactive. It was a recording of consciousness
THE PATH THAT WASN'T MEANT TO EXIST
CHAPTER 114 :The doorway wasn’t really a doorway.Not in the physical sense.It looked like a vertical tear of starlight cut into the air, edges rippling like water disturbed by a silent touch. Darkness shimmered beyond it—not empty darkness, but the kind that held depth and shape, as if a whole unseen world waited on the other side.Billy stared at it, pulse steady yet charged, like his bloodstream had shifted into a higher frequency.Tyla stepped beside him, eyes narrowing. “This wasn’t in the star-map. Not even in the late-stage variations.”“Because it wasn’t part of his father’s design,” Owen added. His voice was firm but tinged with respect. “This path is responding to Billy’s signature alone. It’s uncharted. Adaptive.”Billy inhaled deeply.Good.He didn’t need another echo of Alexander’s intentions. He needed a route that matched what he had become.“Stay close,” he said quietly. “If this thing reacts to my decisions, you two might feel the fluctuations.”Tyla placed a hand l
THE CORRIDOR OF BREATHS
CHAPTER 115 :The new doorway didn’t open so much as unfold, like the chamber itself was exhaling after holding secrets for too long. A ribbon of starlight stretched into the darkness, thin and soft but unmistakably deliberate, like a trail laid by something ancient that expected someone like Billy to finally step through it.Tyla clicked her lightband on. Owen checked his scanner, brows tight, but not with fear—more like he was mentally preparing for whatever twisted logic the Luoshen ruins were going to throw at them this time.“Billy,” Tyla murmured, voice steady but tender, “you lead. It’s calibrated to you.”He nodded. Not out of bravado—out of a strange, newly rooted certainty. The mirror had peeled him open, but somehow the seams came back stronger.He took the first step.The corridor responded instantly.A soft thrum echoed under his feet, almost like a heartbeat. Or maybe a recognition pulse—the ruins acknowledging another mind in the Anderson line… but one with a different
COLLISION AT THE AUCTION
CHAPTER 116 :The auction hall buzzed with a tension that was almost tactile. Crystal chandeliers cast fractured light across polished marble floors, bouncing off tailored suits and the glint of hidden weapons. Collectors, mercenaries, and shadow brokers mingled in a tense, orchestrated dance—everyone there a predator in a jungle of wealth and ambition.Tyla, disguised as a high-profile collector with an air of casual authority, moved through the crowd with practiced ease. Her eyes flicked to each face, memorizing microexpressions, noting the subtle shifts in posture, the hands brushing over concealed holsters.Billy stayed just out of sight, observing the energy of the room with a careful intensity. The key fragment, pulsing faintly under his coat, resonated like a heartbeat in sync with the auction’s tension. It wasn’t just a piece of relic—it was a signal, a beacon that drew attention from every corner of the globe. And right now, that attention was dangerous.“They’re all here,” O
THE FRAGMENT'S.EMBRACE
CHAPTER 117 :Billy’s hands trembled slightly as he held the key fragment. Its energy thrummed against his palms like a living heartbeat, pulsing in resonance with his own. Unlike anything he’d experienced before, the fragment wasn’t just an object—it was aware. Responsive. Demanding recognition, alignment, and control.They had escaped the chaos of the auction hall, ducking into a narrow side corridor that led to the building’s lower maintenance levels. The dim lighting reflected off the polished steel walls, casting long, jagged shadows that twisted like living things. Tyla moved beside him, her presence steadying. She kept a hand close to his arm, grounding him through the fragment’s insistent vibrations.Billy closed his eyes, focusing inward. He could feel the fragment’s essence weaving into his own energy signature. It wasn’t malicious, but it was insistent—demanding more than passive acceptance. It wanted him to bond, to synchronize fully. And as he felt its power coiling aroun
WHEN THE BODY BETRAYS
CHAPTER 118 :Billy didn’t even make it three steps before his knees buckled.One second he was breathing hard but steady, clutching the newly-retrieved key fragment like he could force it to behave. The next—his entire body seized. His spine arched so violently Tyla heard it crack, and the air around him snapped with a static that made the hairs on her arms stand up.“No—no, no, Billy… Billy!”Tyla caught him just before he hit the ground, but his weight dragged her down too. His muscles jerked out of rhythm, like something inside him was pulling the strings without knowing the patterns of a human body.His eyes weren’t his eyes.Not anymore.The pupils had thinned into star-shaped slits, glowing faint azure from the inside, like embers trapped behind glass.“Billy, talk to me!” she begged, smacking his cheek lightly. “Hey—stay with me! Don’t you disappear on me!”But he couldn’t hear her.Couldn’t even see her.His jaw clenched hard enough that a line of blood trickled where he bit
THR CURATORS SLIPS THROUGH
CHAPTER 119 :Billy was still trembling when Owen forced him to sit upright, but Tyla kept one hand braced against his back in case another seizure hit. The ground around them was scarred — the relic’s outburst had carved thin, jagged fissures through the dirt like lightning had crawled under the earth.Billy blinked, exhausted, his eyes still carrying that faint unnatural glow.He hated it. She could see the shame in his jaw, the way he wouldn’t meet her gaze.“Slow breaths,” Tyla murmured, guiding him. “You’re back. Stay here with me.”But Billy shook his head, his voice barely steady.“Where’s… where’s the Curator?”And just like that, the panic Tyla had been suppressing roared back to life.Because she hadn’t seen him.Not since—Not since Billy collapsed.Owen cursed under his breath. “Damn it. I should’ve kept my eyes on—”A sharp whistle sliced across the wind — distant, high, almost metallic. All three of them snapped their heads toward the ridge.A silhouette moved across the
WHISPERS IN THE BLOOD
CHAPTER 120 :Billy didn’t speak for almost a full minute.He just knelt on the cracked ground, breathing like someone trying to force their soul back into place. The relic had quieted… but not fully. Tyla could still feel the faint hum of it beneath his skin — like something alive pacing behind a door.Owen paced nearby, checking the ridge with tight, agitated steps.“We have maybe… what, two hours? Three? Before the Curator reaches the volcanic zone.”“Less,” Billy muttered without lifting his head.Tyla leaned closer. “What do you mean less?”Billy swallowed, forcing himself to speak through the shaky exhaustion. “When he stole the map, I felt the route imprinting. The relic… it recognized the constellation path the moment the Curator activated it. He’s already aligning the direction signatures. If he’s smart—and he is—he’ll use the northern fault-line shortcut.”Owen’s face drained. “That cuts travel time by half.”“Exactly.”Tyla cursed under her breath. She’d hoped they had some