CHAPTER 381. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. Something’s happened"Very well, Jhon, it’s clear you need some time off," the Deputy Director replied with a stiff smile. "I’ll arrange for a plane to take you both, and of course, I’ll assign agents to be around you the whole time. Don’t worry, ma’am," he said, turning to Chiara. "You won’t even notice them—it’s just to ensure Jhon stays safe. He’s a very important asset to us, as I’m sure you understand." Chiara nodded, though Jhon’s face remained unreadable and stern. That same night, they flew back to Paris. Several hours later, they arrived at their apartment. Chiara led Jhon to the bathroom and pampered him as they soaked in the tub together for a long while. She wanted to know everything that had happened, but he was still tense, and she chose not to press him. "Do you want a sleeping pill?" Chiara asked later, noticing how on edge they both still were. "No, love, but you should take one. The jet lag and lack of sleep might take a toll o

CHAPTER 382. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. Who’s behind this?Chiara paced back and forth across the room, desperate.“This can't be... God, this can't be happening!” she exclaimed as panic gripped her heart.Across the desk, Noémi looked just as distressed and frightened as she was.“I don't understand how this could have leaked. I mean... *only* we have access to those accounts! Not even the regional managers... no one besides us, Chiara!”“Then how did it happen?! Were we hacked?!” her twin sister snapped. “This can’t be real, God! We need to figure out how they got into our servers. The rest of our clients could be compromised too. Damn it!”Chiara felt like her head was about to explode. She grew dizzy and leaned on the desk, lowering her head to bear the weight. Noémi rushed off to deal with one task after another, but Chiara had no choice but to pick up her phone and make that call.Unfortunately, she soon realized the problem was even bigger than she had imagined. Franco Garibaldi, t

CHAPTER 383. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. YouChiara swallowed hard and looked away. The only person who came to mind was Jhon—not because she thought he had anything to do with it, but because her first instinct was to ask for his help to solve the crisis.“It’ll only be a few days, Mr. Garibaldi. I promise I’ll get you out of here.”And it was a promise she had to keep, no matter what.She left the courthouse and let the lawyers settle in the city while she returned to Paris on the same plane. As she climbed the stairs to her penthouse, her heart pounded in her chest, and the moment she stepped through the door, Jhon had to rush to catch her, as she looked like she was about to faint.“Chiara! Babe, what’s wrong?!” “Damn it!” He knew very well what was wrong.But she just headed to the kitchen, splashing her face with water from the faucet, trying to shake off the dizziness.“I need your help,” she murmured. “I need your help, Jhon, please! Everything is a mess, the bank... my family...!”

CHAPTER 384. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. A MistakeChiara felt like she couldn’t breathe, her chest tightened, and tears welled up in her eyes, unstoppable.“How could you...?” she sobbed, trying to pull away from him. “How could you do this to me? You... you betrayed me!”“I didn’t betray you! I’m just trying to get you out of trouble!”“Get me out of trouble?!” Chiara shouted, desperate, clutching her head with both hands. “Out of a mess that *you* put me in? No one knew about Franco Garibaldi! No one had access to his account but me until...”Chiara staggered away, leaning on the kitchen counter for a moment before rushing to the trash can to vomit what little she’d eaten that day.Jhon ran his hands through his hair, helpless, but when he tried to help her, she instinctively recoiled. Chiara splashed water on her face from the kitchen sink, but she knew those tears wouldn’t stop. How could she have been so wrong about him? How could he hurt her so much after all they had been through t

CHAPTER 385. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. What do you mean?A week ago, she had been desperately praying for Jhon not to die, and now, all she could think about was how much harm he caused her with just his existence.She curled up in a seat and cried the entire flight, unable to stop. But by the time she landed in The Hague, she had made a decision. She headed to the hotel where the legal team was staying and met with them. Even though they all advised against the strategy she wanted to follow, Chiara knew it was the only way.That very afternoon, Noémi arrived in The Hague. She protested, screamed, threatened to massacre Jhon and all his ancestors, but she couldn’t make her sister change her mind. They returned to Zurich the next day, and Chiara began liquidating all her personal assets. It wasn’t easy to gather the money she needed, but she knew that getting the Italian out of jail wasn’t enough.“This can’t be happening, God! It’s so unfair!” Noémi growled as she watched Chiara gather m

CHAPTER 386. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. I, Chiara Keller…"She will pay for him..." "She will pay for him..." "She will pay for him..." "She will pay for him..." "She will pay for him..."Those words echoed in Jhon's mind like a bottomless pit. He grabbed the documents and immediately began reading Chiara's statement. She had turned herself in, confessing to everything that had happened, even to committing fraud against Mr. Garibaldi, using his name to hide the money she was concealing from the tax authorities."This can't be..." he muttered in despair."Oh, but she did!" growled the Deputy Director. "And now Garibaldi is free, and he's disappeared again!"Jhon stood up from his desk and grabbed his jacket to leave, but his boss grabbed his arm."Where do you think you're going?""Where do you think?! To The Hague. I need to see Chiara."Jhon pulled away and left without another word. The only thing that mattered at that moment was finding Chiara. He boarded the first flight he could

CHAPTER 387. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. I've Already Made My DecisionShe stared blankly at a point on his white shirt and nodded for a few seconds before parting her lips."I, Chiara Keller, used Franco Garibaldi's name to open a fictitious account of one hundred and thirty million euros to evade...""Chiara!""I've already made my decision.""It's the wrong decision! Please, Chiara!" Jhon begged, tears filling his eyes. "I don't care what happened. I won’t let you be condemned for something you didn’t do. Look at me... Look at me!"Chiara lifted her eyes to his, but when he saw them, all Jhon could see was emptiness."I, Chiara Keller, used Franco Garibaldi's name to open a fictitious account of one hundred and thirty million euros to evade the tax authorities of my country..."Jhon growled in frustration, a mix of anger and helplessness, as he let her go, understanding he wouldn't get through to her. Desperate didn’t even begin to describe it. He couldn't believe Chiara was in that pla

CHAPTER 388. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. It’s not too lateJhon didn’t know exactly what it meant, but he understood the concept of "hell." The days that followed were absolute torment for him. The judicial police in The Hague weren’t investigating whether Chiara should be tried but rather where she should be tried. Jhon was more than convinced that Chiara wasn’t involved in anything close to money laundering—she had simply hidden money for the wrong person, nothing more.“You’ve got to make her retract her statement!” yelled the Deputy Director, furious that the biggest case of his career had slipped through his fingers. “You’ve got to make her blame Franco Garibaldi!”Jhon clenched his fists as he stared at a fixed point on his desk.“Did you savor it?” he asked suddenly, catching his boss off guard. “I get it now. You tasted it, but only for a moment.”The Deputy Director had been on edge for days. After handing the case over to the international authorities, he could no longer reclaim

CHAPTER 389. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. Special ingredient“Do we know anything?” he asked one of his agents, who had stayed behind to inform him of any developments.“Nothing new. I overheard the investigators say that the case is still inconclusive, but everything depends on... you know, our boss. They say this case wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for his insistence. So, if he decides to charge her with something more serious, they’ll back him up.”Jhon ran his hands through his hair in frustration. More than anything, he wanted to get Chiara out of there, but he couldn’t. The best he could hope for was that she’d be sent back to Switzerland for a simple fraud trial.He didn’t manage to speak with Chiara that day. He thought it was because she didn’t want to see him, but when a guard gave him a different answer, he felt like his world was crumbling.“In the infirmary?... What do you mean, in the infirmary? Did something happen to her?!” he asked frantically.“No... well, yes. It seems

CHAPTER 390. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. What kind of deal?Chiara took a deep breath as she received the news.“We’re going back to Switzerland,” Noémi told her, hugging her. “The lawyers just told me, and I ran over here, Ara. I wanted you to know as soon as possible. The case will be transferred to the Swiss authorities, and things will be much easier there.”For a long moment, Chiara remained silent. She felt unwell, exhausted, her head spinning. She had fainted a couple of times, but that was fairly normal given her condition.She lowered her head and looked at her belly. She had known for just a few days: she was pregnant. Pregnant with Jhon’s child. And the worst part was that she couldn’t do anything about it because she wasn’t willing to lose anything else at that moment, least of all her child.“That’s good news, but they’ve been postponing the deliberation for a while now. What happened? Why did they suddenly agree?” she asked, unable to believe her luck.Noémi hesitated before