Riccardo POV: "Who else could it be?! Of course, their own men! Did you forget how much they don't like that Leo replaced his father? The changing of power? It's normal if he got attacked. Someone probably didn't like him and didn't want him to become the next Mafia Don. He was a weak leader! And it's not anyone's fault if he got attacked by his own men!" Cassie probably didn't know how the underworld worked. When internal issues arose inside a certain region, the other Mafia Dons won't get involved. The newly appointed Mafia Don such as Leo should claim his throne with confidence by showing how much he got support from the other Mafia Dons. I had helped him, but things went south and Nicola died. As much as he blamed me for it, he was to be blamed too. Her death was a sign of weak leadership in himself. "Wrong! They had long united again after Nicola died. Why would Leo risk his brothers coming back to this country if he couldn't control his own men yet?" Cassie argued. Looked at t
Cassandra POV:Ricky was extremely mad. I knew I ruined his plan after following Leo today, but then, that too was crucial for me to know better the situation. My eyes felt hot and teary as this helpless feeling slowly lurked in my heart. I glanced at Carina for a few seconds and saw her rolling her eyes away from me, daringly glaring as if I had made a huge mistake.She was probably mad because her plan might get exposed after I met Leo today. But then, Ricky refused to believe me and thus this witch still could act confidently in front of everyone. Suddenly, I was the one who became the black sheep. How could I win this battle if I was all alone? No one dared to back me up or supported me since Ricky, the head of everyone chose to side with Carina.I remembered Leo mentioning Coral Island before. How that island was important and Carina tried to get access to it to smuggle weapons and overthrow Ricky later. But she couldn't do it now since that land was inside the De Luca's region.
Cassandra POV:I didn't dare to speak again after. I just went into the bathroom, washed my face and sat on the closed toilet bowl to take a moment of thinking. Ever since we came home, I had been memorizing Leo's phone numbers in my head, repeating them one by one until it had become a habit. The paper he gave me that contained his phone number had been destroyed. I burned it as soon as I had the chance. Ricky shouldn't find out about it because I bet he had that number too in his phone. He would freak out again if he knows I had Leo's number in saving.Not long after, I suddenly heard some people coming into the bedroom, so I came out from the bathroom and saw two men beside Ricky. One was Sergio and the other one looked like a computer technician. The technician was looking at Ricky's laptop, probably fixing something. The three of them all gazed at me as they heard me close the bathroom door behind me."What's wrong?" I asked and had my eyes on Sergio. I knew Ricky wouldn't want t
Cassandra POV: The next morning, I woke up feeling numb. Ricky had long gone to the company and he meant for real that I was really fired. He didn't even wake me up for work today. I rose from bed when it was passed ten with the sun had risen up flashing its rays into the bedroom through the gaps between the curtains. There was only one word that popped up in my head. Trapped. Now that I lost my job, I was damned to be forever trapped inside this mansion. I bet Ricky won't allow me to work somewhere else. Yet, I still kept Leo's word in mind and the promise I made to him. I needed to try finding a way to make Ricky see through Carina no matter how impossible it seemed. Leo's phone number was still in memorisation and it helped me feel relieved a bit to know that someone out there would have my back in case I need to leave Ricky later. At least I knew, I was not all alone in this battle. The De Luca was on my side. I went to take a shower and cleaned myself up before going down to f
Cassandra POV:My head was just confused right now. I knew I should hide this matter but I guessed my brain stopped functioning for a while as the fear I had over Carina suddenly emerged again inside my heart. When you realized that you had to live inside a house with a real murderer who was after you, the last thing you wanted was someone who needed to rely on you. Right now, that someone happened to be my unborn baby. This child needed to be protected as he or she was innocent.I spaced out for a bit as my mind pondered on what I should do next. Maybe nothing? Just pretended as if nothing happened and acted like I was not pregnant? But how long could I pull that up before my stomach gets bigger? How much longer would Ricky stay in a marriage with Carina? Another few months? Should I start planning my escape from Ricky's mansion? Should I tell Leonardo about this? Would he help me escape if he knows?Amidst all those thoughts, my phone suddenly rang and that instantly snapped my mind
Cassandra POV:My heart just could feel that things were slowly getting out of my hand. If Carina dared to attack me now, who knows what she might do to me later? I no longer work so I spent most of my time at the mansion with her. What if she does something to harm me unintentionally? Like maybe offering me food that she poisoned or even drinks. It was possible and if I reject such gestures from her, I had a hunch she would use that to gain sympathy from Ricky again, maybe accusing me to ignore her when all I did was be careful.Paranoid? I couldn't help it. I'm carrying another soul inside my belly right now so I had no choice but to be extra careful with Carina. She probably would even try to kill me slowly without me realizing it. What if she poisons the air inside my bedroom and slowly causes me to die of suffocation? I didn't know why those kinds of thoughts just filled my head right now. I just felt like I was going to get murdered by that witch sooner or later.Oh God, I reall
Riccardo POV:As soon as I returned from work, Carina came running to me, having her eyes in tears. I was bewildered to encounter this kind of situation as this woman had never cried before when I came home. Carina was a strong lady, so I assumed whatever it was that managed to make her cry must be something so awful.I made her sit in the living room with me and slowly asked her what happened. Then she just told me everything. She said that she invited some of her friends over today and I knew it because she had asked my permission about it this morning. She said that Cassie was getting uncomfortable with it and started insulting her friends. They got offended, then some confrontation happened and Cassie just suddenly pushed her into the pool. She was so embarrassed by what happened that she needed to tell her friends to leave. How could Cassie do that to Carina? Was she jealous that I let Carina have her friends over but not hers?The story that Carina told me just made my blood boi
Riccardo POV:My body just turned stiff with no words able to come out of my mouth. Did I really had misjudged Cassie? Verona saw me being pensive and she just excused herself, doing some chores inside the kitchen.Cassie did cause a lot of trouble before. So when Carina told me about the pool incident, I didn't even hesitate to think that she might be lying. I immediately judged Cassie as the problematic one. Now Verona was telling me a different story and siding with Cassie. It just made me feel so awful inside that I had pushed Cassie aside and provided comfort to Carina instead. That kind of attention should only be exclusive to Cassie.My heart just didn't feel good as if there was this malaise feeling suddenly lurking in me. A suspicion just abruptly appeared inside my head. I had a hunch that Carina was secretly trying to break me off with Cassie. Yet I couldn't help but still pitied her because she was a woman who lost her entire family to the De Luca. She was all alone now an
Cassandra POV:Seven years of heartbreak and hell, and now seven years of heaven later. I gave birth to my son safely and he was six now. We named him Rafael. I knew not really a cute name. But it brought great meaning, which was, healed by God. I hoped his life would be much better than the one that I and Ricky had.Oddly, there was nothing much I should do after taking over the Rossi region. As I requested, Ricky took down the Rossi's mansion to the ground and built my very first art gallery on the land. Because of my anonymous identity in my painting business, I was able to continue it even after the cathedral case. So, I lived by making my own million dollars selling paintings til today. Certainly, a lot more companies began offering me collaborations too.News about my parents and Christopher? Well, nothing much. My father found out that he had stage four lung cancer and Christopher got a woman who was way older than him pregnant, forced to be married to her and now he was doing
Riccardo POV:If that was what she wished for then I won't stop her. She deserved to have all the happiness she could get now. No more Carina to shadow her from living her life to the fullest. Cassie can now finally live the life she deserved. I would make sure it stayed that way as long as I lived.The next day, I returned to the company again after a long break. Today was important because all the Mafia Dons along with some of their future successors would be having a meeting with me inside my office room. With the whole Rossi family gone, the Rossi region was left without any leader now.Everyone expected the leadership to fall into my hands. But I just didn't feel right taking power over half of the country's region. I just didn't feel like being in that much power. Carina's effort to overthrow me before had left a trace of sense in me that people would start envying you if you had too much power. But then again, the whole Rossi family members were dead now. Giving their land to o
Riccardo POV:I never would have expected that Cassie's relationship with her family was this bad. I got it that they weren't talking anymore but I never had the idea that they were treating her this disrespectfully.She just got out of jail after shooting Carina, had her dream wedding turned into a tragic incident of bloody red event and instead of comforting her, her parents just chose to annoy her even more. Not to mention the extreme entitlement her younger brother had over her, demanding a job from me because I married Cassie without their consent. The audacity."Leave... And stop bothering my wife again. If I see anyone of you try to step foot on my property again, I won't hesitate to sue for invasion of privacy and have the police take you all away. Don't even try to test me. Ernesto, tell Dome and Marco to escort them out. Put them on the blacklist. Don't let them enter my mansion again."Cruel? I bet Cassie would want it to be worse. I'm being kind enough that I let them leav
Cassandra POV:I didn't know what my family was trying to do by coming here to meet me after my court case had ended. It seemed like they were waiting to see if I was really innocent about it or not. They started showing how they cared about me. So for once, I thought maybe they were being real this time. I invited them to sit in the living room and I told Verona to go serve some drinks for them. My parents just started looking around the mansion and checking out every stuff their eyes could see."I have some work to do upstairs. Why don't you just have some private talk with your family first," Ricky said and I just nodded in agreement.Honestly, I could sense that they were having some ulterior motives to come here. But I tried to think positively and went to sit together with them in the living room. Maybe it would be different this time. Maybe they really wanted the four of us to be a real family now. The thought of my mother admitted that she never loved me when I had the phone c
Riccardo POV: When I woke up again, the doctor told me that I had been out for three days. Sergio, Dome, Leo and Franco were all around my bed. But Cassie was nowhere to be seen. "Where is my wife?" I asked firmly to them. I really thought that I was going to die but now that I'm wide awake and felt strong again, my heart just instantly searched for that one woman I loved the most. I turned to Sergio as he was the one responsible for everything if I ever was not fit to be in power. He looked down to avoid my gaze and started apologizing. "She's in jail. Convicted with first-degree murder of Carina at the cathedral," Sergio said timidly. That just instantly made me angry. "What do you mean she's in jail?! It was self-defence. You all saw it. Carina shot at us first. How long had she been in there?!" I asked fast and Leo told me it was ever since I was hospitalized. I sighed hard in frustration and my chest started feeling hurt, the effect of the gunshot wounds I got. They all star
Cassandra POV: When we arrived at the hospital, Ricky was pushed to the ICU instantly. I, Leo, Sergio and Dome were asked to wait outside. We waited for hours before the doctor came out and told us that Ricky was fine. The bullets had been taken out from his body and lucky enough none of them hit his internal organ. He just lost a lot of blood but was estimated to be in full recovery within two weeks. I finally could breathe normally again when the doctor said that. Everyone looked glad and maybe this was indeed going to be my happy ending, right? But who was I kidding? Not even a day passed but a few policemen had arrived at the hospital to take me in. "I'm sorry. Are you Miss Cassandra Moore or should I call you Mrs Xavier instead?" A police officer talked to me. "I'm her lawyer. Don't say anything," Sergio came forward and warned me to shut my mouth. He was ready to deal with the police in order to protect me. "We received multiple reports stating that a murder had happened ins
Cassandra POV: I couldn't believe that this was happening. Of all the days she could have come and attacked me, she chose to do it on the most important day of my life. My heart just shattered entirely the moment Ricky chose to use his body to shield me from the gunshot Carina fired at us. He instantly fell to the floor and I could only see death was coming to get him. My mind went insane at once and I could feel my whole life would be over if Ricky died. But I no longer wanted to live in fear if Carina was able to escape again. She must die today no matter what happened. With all my logical thinking going disarray, I just did whatever crossed my mind. I knew Ricky had a gun right now, so I went to get it. "I killed the Godfather! I killed the Godfather!" I heard how Carina was screaming happily to celebrate her success in shooting down Ricky. It enraged me so badly that I lost my sense of humanity for that split moment. "You're a f*cking monster! I'm going to kill you! I'm going t
Riccardo POV:"Do you take Cassandra Moore as your lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?" The priest's voice echoed all over the cathedral as he spoke on the microphone."I do," I replied solemnly without a single hesitation. I had been waiting to say those two words my whole life for Cassie."Do you take Riccardo Xavier as your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?" The priest repeated the same to Cassie."I do," she too seemed to be confident saying those two words for me.Then came the time for both of us to exchange wedding rings. We faced each other, looking dear as soon enough, we would be officially husband and wife for good. Actually, in legal law, we were already married as I had registered our
Riccardo POV:Cassie just automatically turned sad at the mention of Nicola. Now that she saw the heels Nicola made for her wedding, she just couldn't help whimpering at them. Maybe the memory was too horrible for her. I remembered how she was there too when we found pieces of Nicola's remains on the hill where her car was bombed by Carina. Cassie fainted that day and she was so taken aback to lose Nicola that way.How she had convinced me so much about Carina's wicked intention. If only I had trusted her that time. This memory just reminded me how stupid I was in the past. Now, it hit my feeling hard too. I quickly held Cassie tightly in my arms and kissed her forehead a few times."I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." I couldn't stop apologizing as the memory flashed in the back of my mind. It suddenly made me realize how lucky I was that I managed to make things right again with Cassie. To be able to come to this point again with her, it was somewhat amazing how the universe worked his mi