All Chapters of The Son-in-law: Chapter 61
- Chapter 70
127 chapters
THE QUIET BEFORE THE BREACH
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE :The descent from the mountain should have been noisy. Engines, rotors, gear slamming into metal cages — all the usual chaos of extraction. But for Billy, the world moved inside a thick, padded silence, as if someone had pressed two palms against his ears. He walked with the others, boots crunching the loose gravel, yet every step felt slightly detached, like he was watching himself from a half step behind.The Luoshen fragment lay in his palm, cold despite the heat radiating from his skin. A simple shard, dull at first glance. But now and then, the surface pulsed faintly — the same ghost-light he’d seen deep under the ruins. The same whispering glow that had never meant anything good.Owen marched ahead of him, barking instructions into a headset. Tyla trailed behind, gaze fixed on Billy like she was waiting for something — maybe an explanation, maybe reassurance, maybe the truth Billy kept refusing to say out loud.The sky was thickening, clouds piling into a brui
THE QUIET THAT WATCHES BACK
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO :The descent from the mountain should’ve felt like relief — like the air itself was letting go of the tension that had strangled them for hours. But for Billy, every step downward only made something coil tighter inside him. The Luoshen fragment in his pocket felt heavier than a stone. More like a heartbeat.The team moved carefully along the narrow trail, their boots crunching against fractured gravel still warm from the explosions earlier. Owen walked ahead, flashlight sweeping the mist, his shoulders tense. Tyla stayed close behind Billy, but she barely spoke. She just kept looking at him in that silent way that said she had questions she didn’t dare voice — not yet.The clouds above were bruised, swollen with rain. Dusk hadn’t even settled, but the sky already looked like evening pressed its palm over the world. Billy kept glancing back at the ruins up the slope — or what was left of them. Smoke still curled upward, thin and restless, like whispers escaping a gr
THE SHADOW ON THE PERIMETER
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE :The lab dome always felt too bright, too sterile — like a place that tried too hard to pretend the outside world didn’t exist. But tonight, as Billy stepped inside with the Luoshen fragment hidden under his jacket, the brightness only made everything feel exposed. Too open. Too breakable.The door sealed shut behind them with a hiss. The storm still muttered outside, but inside the dome, the air hummed with electricity from the active equipment. Owen wasted no time; he strode toward the central table and snapped on the overhead lamps.“Alright,” he said, forcing calm into his voice. “Billy, place it here.”Billy hesitated. The fragment felt unnervingly still now — the faint pulse he’d felt earlier had gone quiet, like it was hiding.Tyla watched him with a tension in her shoulders she didn’t bother masking. She’d always been good at reading danger even before she could articulate it.Finally, Billy unwrapped the cloth and placed the Luoshen fragment on the metal
THE EDGE OF THE ECHO
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR :Rain had softened to a thin, cold mist by the time Billy reached the abandoned checkpoint. The place looked older than it should—rusted barricades, a torn flag half-buried in mud, the metal containers leaning like tired bones. The quiet wasn’t peaceful; it was the kind that waited, listening, judging. And Billy felt every heartbeat inside his throat as he stepped forward.He wasn’t supposed to be here alone. Owen had insisted on a three-man escort, but Billy had waved him off. Lying to Owen was becoming easier than lying to himself. There were some paths a man had to walk without witnesses, especially when the ghosts he was facing weren’t from the ruins… but from his own past.The mist curled around his shoes as he stepped into the checkpoint building. The air smelled of old paper and something burnt—something recent. His eyes adjusted to the dim light leaking through a cracked window, and then he saw it: the message.A single sheet of paper pinned to the dusty wa
THE MARK BENEATH THE FLOOR BOARDS
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE :The rain had stopped, but the world still smelled like it. Wet earth. Cold metal. Distant smoke. Billy felt it all sitting on his skin like another layer of clothing — heavy, uncomfortable, and impossible to ignore.He pushed the door open and stepped inside the dim warehouse, letting his eyes adjust. It wasn’t a real base, not even close. Just an abandoned storage facility on the edge of the county — the kind of place people forgot existed until they needed somewhere quiet, hidden, and inconvenient. Exactly why Ezekiel had suggested it.Tyla followed behind him, her footsteps light but tense. She hadn’t said much since they left the mountain. She didn’t need to — Billy could feel her thoughts pressing against the silence.The Luoshen fragment was wrapped in a cloth inside his jacket, warm despite the cold air. Or maybe that was just his nerves tricking him again.“Generator’s on,” Billy said, spotting the faint hum and flicker from the far side. “At least he kept
BLOOD IN THE WALLS
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX :The night pressed against the abandoned industrial district like a held breath—thick, watching, waiting to see who broke first. Billy tightened the straps of his vest as Tyla finished checking the charge on her sidearm. Her jaw was locked, eyes sharp, every muscle coiled with purpose. Behind them, the tactical crew Owen arranged fanned out, silent as ghosts in the fog.“This is the last confirmed location,” Owen whispered, pointing to the rust-scarred warehouse looming over the cracked asphalt. “They move often, but we intercepted chatter—something big is supposed to happen tonight.”“Big like what?” Tyla asked.Owen hesitated. “A ritual. Something involving… lineage.”Billy didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. A cold weight settled under his ribs—familiar, unwanted. The cult had been circling his family history like vultures, but this was the first time they were openly talking about it.“Let’s move,” Billy said, his voice low but steady.They approached in a stagge
SHADOWS THAT KNOW YOUR NAME
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN :The night hit differently in this part of the city — heavier, like the air was carrying secrets it wasn’t sure it should be sharing.Billy felt it the moment he stepped out of the cab. The warehouse stood at the edge of the harbor, lights low, metal walls humming with the quiet vibration of generators. Owen had chosen this place because “no one sane comes here after dark.” Billy believed him.Inside, the operation was already in motion.Tyla spotted Billy first. “Finally,” she exhaled, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. Her eyes scanned his face — the same eyes that had learned his moods without him saying much. “You look like someone who hasn’t slept.”“That’s because someone texted me at 3 a.m. saying they needed backup,” Billy muttered.“You replied.”“Doesn’t make it less rude.”She smirked but there was tension behind it. The kind that only showed when something was genuinely wrong.The team was gathered around a table scattered with blueprints, surve
THE VAULT BENEATH THE BONES
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT :The rain that had threatened all afternoon finally broke open at dusk, turning the abandoned mill into a cavern of echoes. Water hammered the rusted roof in hard, angry bursts, each drop landing like a warning. Billy moved quietly through the corridor, flashlight slicing across broken machinery, careful not to step on shattered glass. The air smelled of mold, oil, and something older — something that whispered of blood and ritual.Tyla followed behind him, her boots squelching against the wet concrete, her breath quick but steady. She’d been unusually quiet since they left the cult’s burned-out hideout, and he could sense the weight sitting behind her silence. Maybe it was the prophecy. Maybe it was the way the cultists had chanted his name like he was both salvation and destruction. Or maybe it was the way she had looked at him when the fire died — that thin line between trust and fear.“Billy,” she whispered, voice barely rising over the storm, “the readings st
THE PATTERN THAT SHOULDN'T EXIST
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE : The air inside the vault felt heavier than the stairs they climbed to reach it. It wasn’t fear — not exactly — but the kind of pressure that settles on your chest when the truth starts getting loud. Owen stood closest to the wall-sized map, arms crossed, jaw hardening as more of the red markers began to blink.Tyla was still scanning the abandoned Luoshen interface like she expected it to lie to her. She kept muttering calculations under her breath — distances, timelines, activation sequences. Billy didn’t say anything. He stood behind both of them, hands in his pockets, gaze glued to the pulsing constellation lines.If anyone walked in right now, they would think Billy was the most composed one in the room. But inside, something was clawing at him. A memory he couldn’t fully catch — like the way a nightmare fades the moment you wake up.Owen finally broke the silence.“Alright. Everyone stop staring. Look here.” He tapped a blinking cluster on the South-American
THE AUREN TRIGGER
CHAPTER SEVENTY :The vault’s hum still clung to their skin long after they climbed back to the main floor, as if the machinery below had left a faint vibration inside their bones. Outside, the night felt unnaturally quiet, the kind of quiet that arrives only when the world is holding its breath. The hideout sat on the outskirts of a half-abandoned industrial zone, and the streetlights flickered weakly as though they, too, sensed something had shifted.Tyla walked ahead of Billy and Owen, her brows knit tightly, jaw set. She wasn’t talking, which was unusual—Tyla’s silence was never empty. It always meant she was thinking in some accelerated internal language the others couldn’t quite follow.Billy’s mind wasn’t any clearer. The vault map kept replaying in his head: the red markers, the pulsing constellation, the fading nodes swallowed by an unseen hand. And the largest marker—its rhythm, slow and steady, like a heartbeat—felt like an accusation pointed directly at him.He hated that