All Chapters of The Useless Son-In-Law Is A System God Of War: Chapter 11
- Chapter 20
91 chapters
Chapter Eleven. Smoke and Signals
The morning after Haven Trust fell was strangely quiet. Milwaukee’s skyline gleamed under a thin mist, as if the city was pretending nothing had happened. But underneath that calm, everything trembled. Phones buzzed in secret boardrooms. Politicians whispered behind closed doors. And somewhere between those whispers, Landon Hale’s name kept surfacing, sharp, unsettling, impossible to ignore.Inside Westhill Dynamics, the air was tense. Employees moved faster, talked softer. The new leadership was efficient, precise, and terrifyingly silent. No one quite understood what had changed, only that something, or someone, had taken control.On the twenty-seventh floor, Landon stood near the wide windows, watching the lake through the gray fog. He wore a black suit, no tie, sleeves rolled back just enough to make him look unbothered. Beside him, Claire scrolled through her tablet, her eyes flicking from report to report.“They’re calling it the Haven Collapse,” she said quietly. “The CEO’s
Chapter 12. The Hollow Circle
The city didn’t sleep after Grayson vanished. It just pretended to. Behind glowing office windows and late-night diners, Milwaukee whispered. Rumors spread like smoke, some said Grayson fled the country, others swore he’d been taken. But one name always followed the story like an echo: Landon Hale.By sunrise, the newspapers called him the man behind the storm. His face wasn’t on the front page.But his shadow was everywhere, in headlines, in radio talk shows, in the frightened silence of every boardroom.Inside the penthouse, the light was pale and cold. Landon stood at the wide glass wall again, watching the sun creep over the lake. Claire sat at the dining table, her laptop open, a half-eaten piece of toast beside her. The television hummed softly in the background, a reporter’s voice echoing: “Mariner Transport faces a federal inquiry following the disappearance of CEO Martin Grayson. Anonymous sources suggest, ”Claire muted it with a sharp tap. “They’re circling you,” she sai
Chapter 13. The Line Between Shadows
The storm broke before dawn, leaving the city wrapped in fog. The streets were slick and empty, steam rising from the gutters like quiet ghosts. From the penthouse balcony, Landon Hale watched the mist crawl between the buildings, softening the edges of Milwaukee’s skyline. He hadn’t slept.The map on the wall behind him still glowed faintly, a web of names and connections. But one name pulsed red, standing out like a heartbeat: Vivienne Holt.Claire entered quietly, holding two mugs of coffee. Her hair was pulled back, her eyes shadowed with fatigue. “You’ve been up all night,” she said, setting a mug beside him.“I couldn’t stop,” Landon replied. His voice was calm, but his hands were tight around the railing. “I traced one of the Syndicate’s routes through their shell accounts. It loops back here, to Westhill.”She frowned. “How? We cleaned everything.”“That’s what I thought.” He turned toward her, eyes dark. “But there’s another account, hidden under Vivienne’s signature. Transf
Chapter 14. Bloodlines and Bargains
The rain returned before morning. It came in thin, steady lines, washing the streets clean but leaving the city colder. Milwaukee looked smaller in the gray light, quiet, bruised. From the safe house on the edge of the river district, Landon watched the clouds drag themselves over the skyline.He hadn’t spoken in hours. Claire sat at the small kitchen table behind him, tapping through encrypted messages on her tablet. Her hands were steady, but her eyes weren’t. They were the eyes of someone who’d seen too much too fast.When she finally spoke, her voice was low. “The news says the warehouse fire was an accident. Electrical fault.”Landon didn’t turn. “The Syndicate writes their own headlines.”She set the tablet down. “Vivienne didn’t deserve that.”He said nothing. Claire stood, crossing the room. “You’re not talking. You’re not sleeping. You can’t win this war if you break before it ends.”He turned finally, his face calm but pale. “She’s alive.”Claire blinked. “Who?”“My sister.
Chapter 15. The Ghost and the Flame
The fire burned for hours. By the time the sun rose over Lake Geneva, nothing was left of the Glasshouse but twisted steel and black water. The wind carried the smell of smoke all the way to the highway. Landon Hale stood on a ridge above the ruins, soaked to the skin, his coat heavy with rain. His face looked carved from stone, no anger, no fear, just a hollow stillness that scared Claire more than rage ever could.She stood beside him, arms crossed against the cold. “We should go,” she said softly. “Police will be here soon.”He didn’t move. His eyes were locked on the flames still licking at the shore. “She was alive, Claire. She was right there.”Claire hesitated. “You don’t know what they did to her. The Syndicate.”“She knew me,” he cut in, voice low and sharp. “She remembered things no one else could. The swing set in our yard. The scar on Dad’s hand. That wasn’t an impostor. That was my sister.”Claire’s heart sank. “Then she’s not the person you remember anymore.”Landon’s
Chapter 16: Ashes of the Glasshouse
The morning air was cold and sharp, biting at Landon Hale’s wet skin as he stepped onto the ridge above Lake Geneva. The storm had passed, leaving a pale, gray light over the wreckage. The Glasshouse lay in ruin. Twisted steel jutted from the shore like blackened bones. Smoke curled from the water, scenting the wind with fire, oil, and metal. Somewhere beneath the wreckage, systems still hummed faintly, stubbornly, like ghosts refusing to die.Claire stood beside him, arms crossed against the chill. Her eyes were bright and alert, scanning the ruins as if expecting something to crawl from the ashes. She had been quiet most of the drive north, letting Landon hold his silence, but now she spoke, her voice low. “You can’t stay here forever, Landon. Police will be here soon. And, anyone else watching, too.”He didn’t look at her. His gaze stayed locked on the burning horizon, on the fragments of glass and steel reflecting the morning light. “She was right there,” he muttered. His voi
Chapter 17: The Network Ghost
The safe house was quiet, too quiet. Rain tapped gently against the metal roof, a soft rhythm that felt like a heartbeat, a timer counting down to the unknown. Landon sat cross-legged in front of his laptop, the Flame Node humming faintly beside him. Blue light reflected on his face, painting sharp shadows across his cheekbones. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, trembling slightly, not from fear, but from anticipation.Claire leaned against the wall, arms crossed, watching him. “You really want to do this?” she asked, voice low but carrying an edge of concern. “Enter the system directly, ghost-walk through the Syndicate grids?”“Yes,” Landon said, his voice calm, steady. “Harrow isn’t hiding behind walls anymore. He’s hiding inside the network itself. If I want to catch him, I have to go where he thinks he’s safe.”Claire frowned. “And that’s,?”Landon tapped the node. The hum grew louder, and faint blue circuits traced across his skin. “Inside the system. Ghost-walking. I’ll
Chapter 18: Signal Wars
The city was quiet, but Landon knew it was a lie. From the rooftop of a deserted warehouse in downtown Milwaukee, he watched neon lights ripple across puddles, the streets slick with rain. Sirens wailed in the distance, distant echoes of chaos that had become routine. But tonight felt different. The hum in the air was heavier, almost electric, as though the city itself was holding its breath.Claire crouched beside him, scanning the streets with binoculars. “It’s too quiet,” she whispered. “Something’s coming.”Landon didn’t respond. His eyes were on the laptop in front of him, the screen glowing faintly with data streams from the networks he had infiltrated the night before. The Ghost’s signature was still there, pulsing faintly like a heartbeat. “Have you heard anything from Vale?” Claire asked. Her voice was steady, but the tension in her jaw betrayed her.Landon shook his head. “No. He’s gone dark. Good. That means he’s alive, and smart enough to know the Syndicate is watching.
Chapter 19: Emma’s Shadow
The safe house felt smaller tonight. Shadows stretched across the walls, long and dark, as if the corners themselves were holding their breath. Rain had returned, hammering against the windows with a dull, relentless rhythm. Landon sat at his workstation, hands hovering over the keyboard, eyes glued to the network feeds. Every light, every ripple of data, pulsed like a warning pulse directly into his chest. Claire stood behind him, her arms folded tight, watching him work. Her face was pale in the blue glow of the monitors. “Something’s different,” she said quietly. “You’ve been quiet for hours, and not the calm kind of quiet. The dangerous kind.”Landon didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. He had felt it before even seeing it: a signal, faint and trembling, yet unmistakable. Familiar. Almost human, and then, it arrived.The system interface blinked with a new alert, a direct channel from an unknown source. Landon leaned closer, his pulse quickening. The message was simple, almost pa
Chapter 20. Control Break
The storm hit Milwaukee just before dawn. Rain fell in sheets, flooding the streets, running down glass towers like tears. Lightning flashed across the skyline, cutting through the darkness. Inside a control room deep under the city, Landon Hale sat surrounded by blue screens. His reflection flickered in their glow, pale, sleepless, and cold.Claire stood behind him, arms crossed, her hair damp from the rain. The tension in the room felt sharp enough to break skin. “He’s moving again,” she said quietly. “Harrow’s back on the grid.”Landon’s eyes didn’t leave the screens. “Where?”“Downtown. He’s inside the central power hub.”Landon’s jaw clenched. He zoomed in on the digital map, a red pulse spreading through the network like a heartbeat. Only it wasn’t a heartbeat. It was a command signal.Claire’s face tightened. “He’s hijacking the grid.”The lights flickered overhead. Alarms blared across the board. One after another, sectors went offline, hospitals, traffic systems, communicat