Riccardo POV:Cassie had been missing for five days now. I had told my men to watch over all her close friends' houses, just in case she came to see any of them. Yet until this point, the search didn't give me any positive results. It felt like she just vanished into thin air. She couldn't be tracked at all.Two days after she left, the police found an abandoned car in the city without a plate number. It matched the car that belonged to Cassie. So, I went to check it and confirmed that it was indeed her car. We then checked the CCTV footage of the nearby stores' buildings. In the video, she was seen walking two blocks away before vanishing again without a trace. The police assumed she was taking a taxi in a hidden area and just moved to another place. That was the last trace of her.Now, I had nothing. No new information about her at all. She didn't even use her credit card nor did she withdraw any money from her bank account. It really felt like she was trying hard to avoid getting c
Lydia POV: That scary bodyguard was called Dome and somehow it seemed like he was the head of all the other bodyguards. Ricky made him drive the car we were on and we headed to a location I didn't even know. Slowly those images I saw in movies before where a woman was kidnapped and brought to a secluded location, getting tortured and killed just flashed like a cinema screen inside my head. I instantly shook my head to brush away the thoughts. "What's wrong?" Ricky asked and slowly turned his stern face on me. He finally broke the eerie atmosphere inside the car, being the first one to talk ever since the car started moving. "Are your bodyguards always this scary looking?" I pointed at Dome. I saw him glance at me through the rearview mirror without a smile. Oh, gosh! It was so scary and I looked away instantly to avoid the short stare. "Dome here is my most trustworthy man. He used to be Cassie's personal bodyguard," Ricky explained still with his firm tone. He didn't seem like he
Riccardo POV: That was it! I couldn't stand this woman. I signalled the waiter to bring me the bill. I paid for it and just left her hanging. I didn't have the desire to bicker with her right now. Besides, I already got the information I wanted. I told Luffy to drive Lydia back to the company. I didn't want to sit in the same car with her because she was just too irritating. Who the hell she thought she was, dared to criticize me regarding my relationship with Cassie? She knew nothing about it, what my intention was and the problem that I needed to solve between the Rossi and the De Luca. I got into the car and told Dome to drive slowly. I just needed some time to think right now. Leo must have had her right now. If she couldn't be contacted any more, there were only two possibilities, either Leo disallowed her to use her phone or she already left the country. Regardless of it, the only way I could find her again was if I meet Leo personally. He held the information of her whereabou
Riccardo POV:"Give Cassie back to me," I went directly to the point. Leo instantly laughed at my demand as if he was mocking me."She's not with me," he said firmly later."Stop lying. I knew you asked her to meet you two days ago," I replied."I was. But the Rossi took her away before I was able to meet her," Leo seemed calm answering my question, it just annoyed me."Stop blaming this on the Rossi! Why would the Rossi want to take her away?! I knew she was with you right now! Give her back to me," I snapped.I didn't know why there were too many people who irritated me today. First, it was Lydia, then Carina and now Leo."How should I know that?! Why don't you ask your wife why she took Cassie?! Your wife was probably mad that you wanted to divorce her so maybe she wanted Cassie dead!" Leo snapped back. It seemed like he was irritated at me too."Stop making a fake excuse to me! I knew you had her! Her friend came to see me today and told me Cassie went missing after meeting you!"
Leonardo POV: It was after dusk when Luther came to my study at the mansion. "Sir, we found the spy. It was Adriano," he said. I nodded in understanding and just looked dejected for a bit. It felt like my heart got a pang at the information. All this time, I had treated Adriano like my own flesh and blood, just like Logan. He had been by my side, knowing all my plans and I never once would have thought he would betray me. "Take him to the torturing chamber," I ordered and Luther concurred immediately and went out to carry out my demand. I took a moment to process this and sat on my swivel chair behind the office desk. I opened the drawer under the desk and took out a red file containing all the evidence that linked Carina to Nicola's death. I didn't know when Adriano started getting close to Carina and how it happened. But to be betrayed this way and got my beloved Nicola killed was unforgivable. Slowly my hands trembled. I could feel an immense amount of rage filling my heart. T
Riccardo POV:It felt like my eyes just got opened. The evidence that Leo had was totally different from what I had. It was so detailed that I didn't think he was lying about all the accusations he had made towards the Rossi before. Did that mean that I had been deceived by Carina all this time?"That bastard over there was a spy for the Rossi. He was the sole reason why Carina was able to capture Cassie. Please, Ricky... Don't let this go on for too long... Wake up! You got to trust me! We can't just let Cassie die as Nicola did..." Leo sounded so desperate. He looked at Adriano referring to that man as the spy.I took the knife again and started approaching Adriano. I squatted down in front of him and had our eyes on the same level, glaring at him with murderous intention slowly lurking in me."Where is Cassie?!" I asked him harshly and he shook his head, refusing to speak."That walkie-talkie over there, it belonged to him. It wasn't one of our stuff," Luther spoke.My eyes began s
Cassandra POV:Cristian took me. That was the last thing I remembered. When I regained consciousness again, I found myself being taken to this abandoned factory in the middle of nowhere. Yet, my ears were able to hear the sound of water rushing the shore. So, I assumed this place might be by the sea and probably very secluded and far away.I didn't know how many days I had been here, but it felt like forever. My hands and my feet were chained to the floor and I had been lying flat like this for days. They only feed me water, no solid food at all. It was just plain water that honestly tasted like shit. It was probably drugged and not even clean because I felt like having hallucinations the entire time I was here. I couldn't keep track of the time at all. All I knew it was either daylight or night.Today, Carina finally showed her face in front of me. Previously, it was only Cristian and his men that attend to me. She entered the upper part of the factory, where I was held captive whil
Cassandra POV:"Why did you tear her face like that? Now it's turning me off!" Cristian complained again as he saw my bloody face.Carina glanced at him and just twitched her lips in annoyance."Then just cover her face with something. She's still alive so you can still play with her down there," she replied and just pointed her hand towards the part in between my thighs."Can I do it now? Leo's dead anyway," Cristian sounded impatient and began showing his lecherous gaze again at me."Wait up a bit. Let's just wait until Adriano returns here. I promised him that he would get his share from this bitch as well. He'll get sulky if you start without him," Carina halted his intention."Why do I need to wait for him..." he murmured under his breath but quickly shut his mouth when his sister shot him a glare."He helped us a lot, you idiot... Do you think we would be able to know what the De Luca did if not because of Adriano?" Carina berated him.Half an hour passed and Adriano still didn'
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