Cassandra POV:I had enough money to sustain my life now. But in order to survive, maybe I need a new name and a new face. I recently surveyed a few doctors who could perform plastic surgery in this country and reached them for the quotation price. For a whole face surgery, most of the doctors offered the cost within my budget, so I just needed to choose which clinic I wanted to go to later.This felt like a deja vu. I had left Ricky's mansion before and got away. I shouldn't have come back. Why did I make that stupid decision? Why did I have to break my heart like that? Seeing what happened at the mansion between him and Carina, was just savage. I didn't think I could recover from such betrayal.Just like before, when I reached the city area, I just abandoned my car by the roadside. But this time it was a different place than previously. Taxis could be found quite easily in a place like this because it was packed with humans. So, I had no problem moving from one place to another with
Cassandra POV:I walked out of the mall and just took another taxi. I gave the driver the address of Lydia's apartment building. She said previously that my new place was just nearby hers. I leaned my back on the backseat and just called Lydia to inform her about me going there."Gosh... Cassie... I thought you couldn't make it," Lydia sighed on the phone, sounding as if she had just got woken up from sleep. That put a pang of guilt inside my heart. I was supposed to be there like hours ago but the silly me just decided to come back to Ricky's mansion only for me to see a horrid show from Carina.Thinking back about it, my heart just slowly developed such an intense resentment towards Ricky. How could he let this happen to us? How could he claim to love me so much but made me see him naked in bed with that witch? The biggest resentment would be why I needed to run away to provide safety for our unborn child when it should have been his responsibility to protect us from someone as vile
Cassandra POV:"You don't know Ricky like I do..." I said and she sighed at the mention of his name."You know... I was once grateful to him that he let you use his black credit car and you ended up giving me a free car... But now... not anymore..." Lydia grumbled."I'm sorry about the car... I shouldn't-""Oh, stop it... I'm not even mad that I needed to sell it back. It was never mine, to begin with. I'm simply borrowing it from you. I had enough savings to buy a new one anyway. But this..." she pointed her hands at my body from the top slowly going down."How could he make Cassandra Moore cut her majestic hair and wore cheap clothes? It feels like you are an entirely different person right now. I couldn't even recognize you anymore," Lydia whined hard like she was my big sister."That's the intention... To be unrecognized..." I said calmly and she sighed again.Lydia gave me the paper bag she held before and just had her face frowning all the time. I guessed she really disliked it
Leonardo POV:I woke up in the morning feeling tired mentally. Cassandra called me last night and said she had left Ricky's mansion. But then she just suddenly cut the call abruptly and told me that she would reach me back. But she didn't and that had bothered my mind the whole night.I was so worried about her that I kept thinking of calling her back. I did that during breakfast while at the dining table but her phone was no longer in service. That instantly added to my worries. What if Ricky got her back and found the record of my call and my text messages from Cassandra's phone? Wouldn't that might worsen the situation?"Why are you looking so tense this morning? You had black eyes too. Did you not sleep last night?" My brother, Lorenzo asked. He was the middle child."He probably hooked up with a new chick and got into an argument with her. Then, she refused to call you back, isn't she?" Louis the last child teased.Lorenzo turned his head to Louis immediately and gave that little
Cassandra POV:Minutes later after the call ended, Leonardo sent me a location in a text message with the time he planned to meet up. It was far, almost at the border between the Xavier's and De Luca's regions. It probably took over an hour of driving to reach there.Should I go? I didn't know. Taking a taxi there? It seemed inconvenient to do that too because it was too far. Maybe changing several taxis along the way? Probably a good idea, but still, should I go?I could understand though why Leo didn't just pick me up again like how he did when he took me from the company before. I think Ricky probably had ordered some of his men to watch the border to see if Leo might enter Xavier's region again.Regardless, I found it strange that Leo think my place might have been exposed to the enemies. How? I had just stayed here for a day. It was kind of impossible that my place had been known that fast. I had changed my appearance too, so it should be harder for the enemies to find me, right?
Cassandra POV: I lay on the sofa and just stared at the ceiling emptily. How did my perfect life turn this way? I had a good job before, bought my dream apartment, had my first car, living my life comfortably with freedom and without fear of getting killed. Now, all those had gone. I was fired, my apartment was sold without my will, and I had to abandon my car because Ricky could track it and had to live my life in hiding due to fear of Ricky's enemies. Everything went downhill the moment Carina got into our life. It felt like falling into an abyss. My tears fell unexpectedly as I pondered over my fate, but then those sad feelings were shunned away by the ring from my phone. I wiped my tears immediately and took it. Maybe it was Leonardo. I stared at the screen and saw the caller ID. It was Lydia instead. Well, I needed someone to vent out anyway so I just took the call. Besides, I had no one else to talk to other than Lydia. I could have called Leo but it was just weird if I compla
Cassandra POV: I woke up the next morning feeling empty. Usually, when someone tried to move away, there should be a lot of things that he or she would feel heavy to leave behind. But in my case, there was none. Maybe just one, Lydia. But then it was not like I couldn't contact her again after moving abroad. So, there was no heaviness there. I got ready and rearranged my stuff inside the travel luggage before zipping it. I wondered if I should just bring it along with me when seeing Leo later. It was just one piece of luggage and not heavy at all. I could even run while holding it on top of my head. Nonetheless, I still wanted a reason to come back to this apartment later. I had a hunch that I would be gone for a very long time, so I wanted to have a proper goodbye with Lydia. She deliberately only worked half-day today so she would be home by noon. She would come to my place later so I could give her back my apartment key. Estimating the journey back and forth from the secret locat
Leonardo POV: After getting caught up in a traffic jam for more than thirty minutes, I finally arrived at the location I was supposed to meet with Cassie. It was weird that there was a traffic jam today. The road I had taken wasn't usually packed with cars unless it was a holiday session. It was not right now so I couldn't understand why there were so many cars on the road today. That had totally ruined my original schedule. My new driver, Adriano parked the car in front of the Lombardi Company building. So did the other four cars that were filled with my bodyguards. They all parked behind my car. After Logan died due to the bombing incident at the airport, I made Adriano replace him since this one guy was also among those that I trusted dearly. I didn't usually use a driver but going here was an hour's journey and I didn't like getting tired due to driving. Cassandra should be inside this building waiting for me. I tried calling her but the call didn't get through. I wondered if sh
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