CHAPTER 401. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. I love youChiara stared at that letter over and over again. She hadn't dared to open it, but she also couldn't bring herself to throw it away. She didn't know why. She didn't fully recognize the handwriting as Jhon’s, but something inside her told her that the passage in the book had been written by his hand.Many things had been making her uneasy lately, but she was alert enough to know that Jhon hadn't sent any other letters.Three days later, she finally opened the book and pulled out the envelope. Even though her whole soul trembled, her hand was steady as she tore it open, and on the other side of the cameras, Jhon held his breath.Chiara closed her eyes for a moment, summoning the courage to read its contents. Only then did she realize that the handwriting in the book was very similar. She sat on the sofa, afraid she might collapse, and began to read:"Chiara.I don’t even have the right to call you 'love,' 'dear,' 'my beloved,' even though I

CHAPTER 402. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. A ProposalBilly had to remind him over the intercom not to risk too much or he wouldn’t be able to return. But the next morning, when Chiara woke up and sat on the bed, that scent of Jhon still lingered.Maybe it was just pregnancy hormones. Maybe it was her imagination, but Chiara swore his scent was in the room. The day dragged on as slowly as all the others, but at least she had a pleasant surprise when Viktor appeared with Noémi behind him.The twins hugged, and the warden gave them space to talk.“Are they treating you well here?” Noémi asked as she sat down and sipped her coffee.“Yes, Viktor takes care of me as if *I* were the baby,” Chiara sighed. “I thought I’d miss seeing people, talking to others, working... but I don’t, Noe.”“Don’t you miss me?” her twin pouted.“Of course, and our brothers, and my nieces and nephews... and Mom and Dad.” For a second, her eyes welled up, but she shook her head to stop the tears. “But that’s not what I m

CHAPTER 403. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. A Game for the QueenChiara flinched, startled, and on the other side of the cameras, Jhon jumped up from his chair, breathing as if he were swallowing his tongue. —“Go... go out...?”— she murmured, trying to find a way out— “Where to?” —“For a walk,”— Viktor replied, and Jhon exhaled— “There are beautiful gardens here, and we even have a small orchard. Don’t tell anyone, but we’ve got strawberries.” Chiara smiled and accepted the invitation to go for a walk. A weight lifted off her shoulders because at that moment, any romantic proposition would have made her faint—and not out of excitement. They left the main building, followed by one of the guards, and headed down a path toward one of the side gardens. As they walked, Chiara felt herself relaxing more and more. The pleasant chill in the air, the scent of herbs and flowers, the soft breeze on her face… She began to feel good and remembered why she had always loved walking outdoors as a child. V

CHAPTER 404. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. One More GameJhon felt like his heart was about to burst out of his chest. That simple gesture, that simple move meant everything to him. He rushed to the table, grabbed his own tablet and chess set, hurriedly organized it, and placed that move on the board. He didn’t even have to think much before responding.“e6. Your move,” he wrote, his hands almost trembling as he waited for a response. He watched the screen, and on the other side of the cameras, Chiara was eating and thinking.“Cf3,” she decided almost ten minutes later, and for a long while, they exchanged moves.Jhon frowned, unable to see what she was trying to do.“f5. Are you playing with me?” he asked, unable to hold back.“I thought that was the point of the board,” Chiara typed. “Cc3.”“You know that’s not what I meant. You’re playing aimlessly, and that’s not like you. Cf6.”Chiara read that message for a moment, got up, walked around the room, took a deep breath, drank a glass of wat

CHAPTER 405. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. The End of the GameShe wanted only one thing, and Jhon knew it: to save her family. Before, he had thought he shouldn’t get involved, that she was doing it for her name, and that money was more important than her freedom. But seeing Chiara in that cage was enough to make him realize that no, money wasn’t just money, and Asterion Bank wasn’t just a bank—it was her family’s entire legacy. He had destroyed generations of work with a single USB. He didn’t sleep that night, not when he knew he had one last chance with her, the final one, and that he needed to find a way to earn another at any cost. He waited, waited impatiently for the next day, after the morning nausea and the rejection of any food, for Chiara to sit down in front of that chessboard. But first, she received a visitor. Chiara hugged her sister and accepted the gifts the whole family had sent with her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come yesterday. It was complete madness. I wasn’t even in t

CHAPTER 406. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. NegotiationsJohn paced around the courtyard of the large mansion, his footsteps echoing through the stone galleries, utterly exhausted. The last two days had been spent being interviewed, beaten, and threatened by people loyal to the man he wanted to meet. But he was determined to be brought before Franco Garibaldi, the Count of the Italian 'Ndrangheta.Now, he was alone—just him, his thoughts, and his guilt. He thought about Chiara and the promises he'd made to her but failed to keep. Now, he would do anything to help her and make amends for what he'd done.He hadn’t been waiting long when a tall, broad figure entered from one corner of the courtyard. John recognized him instantly: it was Archer, the nameless man, Franco Garibaldi’s right hand and personal Executioner. Archer nodded at John and glanced at the dried blood on the corner of John’s mouth.“Tough welcome?” Archer asked in his gravelly voice, and John grimaced.“No one can ask to see the

CHAPTER 407. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. Trust MeJohn was on a roll. He could feel it in each of his two broken bones. It wasn’t just because he had struck a deal with Mamma and the Conte, but because he knew they wouldn’t go back on their word. At least on their end, the clients would return to Asterion Bank.Now, he faced another battle, one much tougher because it was against people who were used to being untouchable.“Malcolm Sabater, none other than the Chief of Staff of the White House.”The president’s right-hand man and the one who knew all forty-six dignitaries in the government who kept their corrupt money at Asterion.“Is everything ready?” John asked Billy as soon as he landed in Switzerland, and Billy handed him the Malcolm Sabater file.“Now the hardest part remains, and that depends on your wife’s goodwill,” Billy warned, not seeming too confident about that particular fact.However, John seemed more than determined. “Give the package to Speedy. He knows what to do.”From t

CHAPTER 408. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. ChocochipsJhon was good at many things, and threatening with precision and conviction was one of them. Perhaps that’s why the next day Noémi was surprised when she was told that Malcom Sabater had returned and wanted to see her."Excuse me, what did you say?" she asked, needing to confirm because she thought her ears had deceived her. "Did you say 'reopen his account'?"The White House Chief of Staff nodded without offering many more explanations, and within a couple of hours, everything was set up again.The following week was just as strange, so much so that when Noémi went to visit Chiara six days later, she didn’t even know where to start."Is it bad news?" Chiara asked when she saw her sister’s expression."No… I don’t think so… I don’t know!" exclaimed Noémi, sitting beside her on the sofa. "Ara, the Mamma was at the bank."Chiara felt her voice leave her, and her heart raced so fast she could hear it thudding in her ears."Did she do anything

CHAPTER 409. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. Shall we play tonight?Chiara hung up and placed the phone beside her as she kept her eyes fixed on the floor. Then she curled up on the bed and closed her eyes, trying to process everything that was happening, especially what she had just learned.Three hours later, Jhon started to worry, but eventually, he saw her get up to have something for dinner. She walked her usual rounds around the room and then stopped in front of the box where she had stored the chess set and the remnants of the tablet they used to communicate."We shouldn’t have broken this, right, baby?" she said, caressing her belly. "Sometimes we feel like talking to someone, even if that someone is your father and he drives us crazy."Jhon felt his heart swell when he heard those words, and within seconds, he was already asking Billy to prepare another tablet for him. He was sure that for Speedy, smuggling it into the prison wouldn’t be any harder than the first time, and Jhon smiled

CHAPTER 410. A CAGE FOR THE QUEEN. DarknessHe could have stammered, trembled, mumbled, run... any reaction would have been valid at that moment, but Jhon just stood there, frozen, looking into her eyes as his own filled with tears that he couldn’t hold back.The pajamas Chiara wore weren’t loose, so he could see the slight curve of her belly, just starting to show."Are you spying on me?" she hissed, though the question was purely rhetorical. Of course, he was spying on her! "I asked you a question, Jhon! Or do you want me to scream in the middle of the night and see if you can escape all the guards that will come running?"He shook his head, trying to approach, but Chiara’s first instinct was to step back."How...? How did you figure it out?" he asked."‘Special clients,’" she replied in an icy tone. "My sister said those words, and less than ten minutes later, you repeated the exact same ones, referring to the same people."Jhon closed his eyes, grimacing. It seemed like he was lo