All Chapters of His Unwanted Wife Returned as a Boss: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The trek out of the Maine "Wellness Zone" was a descent into a surreal, quiet nightmare. As Julian, Leo, and Clara moved through the shadows of the suburbs, they saw a world cured of its jagged edges. There were no sirens, no shouting matches, no broken windows. The streetlights dimmed and brightened in perfect synchronicity with the footfalls of the few citizens out for evening walks. It was a masterpiece of social engineering, and it felt like walking through a graveyard of ambition."Don't look at the cameras," Julian whispered, keeping Hope tucked close to his chest under a heavy, analog canvas cloak. "The system isn't just looking for faces. It’s analyzing gait. If you walk like you’re in a hurry, you’re an anomaly.""I feel like a ghost in my own backyard," Leo muttered, his hand white-knuckled on a hidden holster. "Every one of these people is connected to the 'Circle.' If we even brush against one of them, the biometric handshake will alert the grid that three 'Unprocessed Var

"Engine's cracked," Siren announced, her breath blooming in the air like white smoke. She kicked the iron housing of the diesel motor. "The cold brittle-fractured the fuel line when we hit that shelf. We’re officially a floating piece of driftwood."Julian looked at the horizon. The violet column of light was no longer a distant glow; it was a towering pillar of ionizing radiation that seemed to be stitching the sea to the stars. "We don't need the boat anymore. Look."He pointed to the north. The "Ice Graveyard" had tightened. What had been open water was now a jagged, continuous bridge of pack ice stretching toward the dark silhouette of the research station. It was a landscape of knives, a "Frozen Dead Zone" where the wind could strip the skin from a man’s face in minutes."We walk," Julian said, his voice flat."Julian, it’s minus forty out there," Leo argued, shivering as he pulled his collar tight. "Hope won't last an hour. We don't have the gear for a polar trek.""We have the

Julian hit the metal floor of the lift shaft as the artificial gravity flickered, failed, and then roared back into an unstable, pulsing state. The station groaned—a deep, tectonic shriek of steel protesting the sudden loss of its energetic heart."Hope!" Julian’s voice was a ragged scrape in the sudden dark.Emergency red lighting flared to life, casting long, jagged shadows across the chamber. The Core—once a shimmering sun of violet data—was now a jagged, smoking hunk of slag. Its cables had snapped, whipping through the air like decapitated snakes.In the center of the wreckage, Hope lay still.Julian scrambled toward her, his boots slipping on the coolant fluid that was beginning to flood the floor. He gathered her into his arms, his heart stopping until he felt the shallow, rapid hitch of her breath. Her eyes were closed, the violet glow entirely extinguished, replaced by a deep, bruised exhaustion."System... Failure... Detected..." the station’s voice croaked, no longer mother

The harbor of Port Trinity smelled of stagnant salt and rising panic. Without the "Circle" to manage the automated locks, the town’s primary grain silo was a sealed tomb of steel, and the desalination plant had ground to a shivering halt. People stood on the docks, staring at their dead devices as if waiting for a miracle that had been retracted."They're waiting for a signal that isn't coming," Julian said, his boots thudding onto the frost-covered wood of the pier. He held the amber bird close to his chest. "The Continuity didn't just take their freedom; they took their initiative. We have to give it back before the hunger turns into a riot.""Julian, look at them," Leo whispered, nodding toward a group of fishermen sitting on a bench, their eyes vacant. "They aren’t angry. They’re catatonic. It’s withdrawal."The emotional conflict hit Julian as he approached the town square. For decades, the Thorne-Vance legacy had been about controlling the macro—the global markets, the orbital w

The boiling water in Port Trinity’s harbor wasn't a natural phenomenon; it was the displacement of a nightmare. As the stealth frigate retreated to a safe distance, a massive, obsidian shape began to breach the surface. It wasn't a ship; it was a "Harvester"—a multi-legged, underwater drone the size of a cathedral, designed by the Continuity to "reclaim" coastal assets."They’re not negotiating anymore," Leo shouted, his voice nearly drowned out by the mechanical thrum of the rising leviathan. "The frigate was the carrot. This is the stick."The Harvester’s legs, thick as redwood trees and tipped with diamond-edged drills, slammed onto the harbor floor, sending a tremor through the village that shattered the remaining glass in the bait shop windows.The emotional conflict reached its breaking point. The faction of villagers who had been whispering about surrender suddenly surged toward the radio shack."Give it to them!" a man screamed, wielding a rusted gaff hook. "It’s just a toy! G