Lahat ng Kabanata ng Claimed By My Father-In-Law: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

Khira’s POVMy blood turned cold as I picked up the tiny black pouch he had dropped. Inside was a flash drive.What if he came back for it?He would have to find me first and that would be almost impossible. He didn’t even know who I was.The train finally came to a stop. I stepped down onto the platform, my body trembled, every shadow made my heart jump. I half expected him to be waiting somewhere, ready to corner me and take it back.He wasn’t.I made it to my husband’s house without being ambushed.Only then did I allow myself to breathe. Alex wasn’t home yet. His security told me he wouldn’t return for another hour. I made them promise not to announce my presence. I wanted this to be a surprise.In his bathroom, I paused in front of the full-length mirror.I liked what I saw.The lingerie hugged me in all the right places, revealing just enough. Just the way he liked… or at least, the way I hoped he liked. Alex had always been kind to me, but sometimes I felt a distance especiall

Khira's POVDaughter-in-law…The word hung in the air. It sounded so wrong. How was this man with the way he looked, my father in law. Alex had told me that his father ended up in jail and died of a heart attack. It should have made me sick, what this man was saying. It should have made me scream.But as I stared into Adrien's abyss-like eyes, all I felt was a strange, vibrating numbness."You're lying" I whispered, though my voice lacked conviction.Why would he lie?He didn't flinch. He didn't blink. He just reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver key."Am I?"He stepped forward, the heat of his body radiated toward me before he even touched me. He knelt at the foot of the bed, his large hands grasped my ankle. His touch was rough and calloused just like the hands of a man who had worked, fought, and maybe even killed.Click.The shackle fell open.He moved to my wrists next. Click. Click.I was free."If I'm lying" he murmured, rising to his full height and towering

Khira’s POV By the time the evening settled into the quiet corners of the house, I found myself sitting on the cold tiled floor of the room Adrien had given me, curled into myself like a child who had nowhere else to go. My knees were drawn tightly to my chest, my arms wrapped around them in a desperate attempt to hold myself together, but it did nothing to stop the tears that kept spilling down my face in heavy, uncontrollable waves. The room around me looked nothing like the elegant guest room Adrien had first shown me earlier that day. Whatever calm it once had was gone now, replaced by chaos that felt painfully familiar to the storm raging inside my chest. Shattered pieces of glass glittered across the floor like tiny, cruel stars. A vase that had once held fresh flowers now lay broken beside the wall where I had thrown it in a moment of blinding frustration. The flowers themselves were scattered everywhere, petals torn and crushed beneath my bare feet when I had paced the

~Khira I picked up my fork and pretended to be very focused on the omelette sitting in front of me, as if my entire existence depended on how evenly I could cut it into perfect pieces. It didn’t, but it gave me something to do. Anything to avoid looking up at him. Anything to avoid the heat that had climbed up my neck and stubbornly refused to leave after that ridiculous comment he made. Across the table, I could feel his presence before I even dared to glance at him. I stabbed a piece of the omelette and brought it to my mouth, chewing slowly, deliberately, as if I hadn’t just been flustered seconds ago. I needed composure. “You’re overthinking,” Adrien said casually. My fork paused mid air. “I’m eating,” I replied flatly, without looking at him. “No,” he corrected calmly. “You’re avoiding eye contact, breathing slightly faster than normal, and cutting your food like it offended you personally.” I finally looked up. “You analyze too much.” “And you react too obviously.” I

~Khira For the first time since I had stepped foot into Adrien’s house, he actually allowed me to leave the property without him hovering somewhere nearby like a silent bodyguard. Of course, that freedom came with conditions. Several conditions. He had stood in the hallway earlier that morning, leaning casually against the wall with his arms crossed, listing the rules in the same calm tone he used whenever he was giving instructions that were not meant to be negotiated. “Stay within the neighborhood,” he had said. “No unnecessary conversations with strangers.” “Keep your phone with you.” “And if anything feels even remotely wrong, you come back immediately.” I had rolled my eyes at least twice during the lecture, but deep down I knew he wasn’t being dramatic. The life I had fallen into wasn’t exactly the type where people could wander