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'
Riccardo POV:"We're here," Dome said and my eyes gazed up instantly.The sight of this abandoned factory just piqued some of my dark memories. My late father went here a lot in the past. Although the building was closed, he had used it as a place to dispose of bodies before throwing them into the sea. I didn't think it was just my father who did that. I think all the Mafia Dons had done the same thing, using this place for that purpose and I bet the Rossi siblings probably had this thought in mind regarding Cassie too."The lights are on upstairs. So did the ground floor. There must be people in there. Get ready with your weapons and stay calm," Leo advised.All our men began to get off their cars and held weapons in ready-to-fire positions. I and Leo got off too and we took the lead to march towards the building slowly. I signalled the rest to find someplace to hide first since we were planning of ambushing them silently. As I, Leo and Dome reached the closed entrance door, we sudde
Riccardo POV:The shooting downstairs finally stopped. I guessed my men and the De Luca's men had managed to control the Rossi. Leonardo finally showed up on the upper floor and rushed to me instantly. He sighed when he saw Cristian's body and me doing nothing and just embraced Cassie's body like I had lost my mind. I did feel that way right now. I didn't know what to do."Put her down. Step aside a bit," Leo told me and I just slowly lay her back on the floor. He checked her pulse, something that I was afraid to do because I couldn't accept it if she is dead."She's still alive, but her pulse is weak. We need to send her to the hospital now," Leo said but I just stared at him emptily. How? She was chained to the floor, I just couldn't think of any way right now to free her.Leo grasped my head between his hands and made me look him right in the eyes."Snap out of it! We need to take her out of here fast!" He yelled at me and just pushed me aside. He noticed the chains that bound Cass
Riccardo POV:I felt like an idiot. I couldn't explain the agony that I felt right now. It was just killing me inside as I knew this was all my fault. If only I have listened to Cassie, if only I have trusted her hunch a little and reinvestigated Nicola's death again, maybe none of this would have happened. I was just too late to see through who Carina really was and Cassie had to face the consequences of my mistake.Slowly, what Cassie said to me before came rolling back into my mind. 'Are you waiting for me to die before you could believe me?' Things just happened precisely how she predicted it. She almost died today and I just stupidly found out about Carina's wicked scheme, even worse from Leo, the man that I had disregarded all this time.A while later, some nurses came out of the ICU while pushing Cassie who lay on a bed stretcher. They were about to transfer her to a normal patient ward but I requested them to let her have a VIP patient room instead so she could recover in priv
Riccardo POV: 'CEO of RX Corp, Riccardo Xavier committed domestic violence over his mistress.' It was truly bizarre and unthinkable. Who would have come up with such rumours within a few hours? Now everything suddenly made sense to me. No wonder the nurses and the doctors were staring at me as I left the hospital before. They probably had read this shitty news. "This is bad, Ricky. RX Corp's stock value had gone down tremendously. A few investors called me up this morning and they wanted to withdraw from investing with us. But they did give you forty-eight hours to clear your reputation again. There's also this sudden boycotting movement on the internet toward our products. Your divorce process was still trending news and hasn't been resolved yet. Now, these rumours about you beating up your mistress are taking a toll on your reputation too. Some of these people even claimed that you're a misogynist," Sergio explained the situation as we both take a seat on the two-seater sofa. I
Lydia POV: "Let her in," I heard Ricky from inside the wardroom. Dome finally allowed me to step in and I went straight to the patient's bed only to see Cassie's unmoving body. Needles were pushed at the back of her hands and she seemed like in a vegetative state. She didn't seem like she was awake, but when I held her hand, her fingers moved a bit as if she tried to squeeze my hand. "What happened to her?" I asked as I looked straight at Ricky and another man wearing glasses. He seemed like a lawyer and he didn't act like he wanted to get involved in the conversation. He took a step back and just went to Dome, standing by the door, watching like a loyal spectator. "What happened to her?!" I raised my voice and marched to Ricky. My hand just reflexly slapped his face as I was so annoyed by his silence. Ricky sighed heavily as he fixed his composure again. He seemed angry but held in his emotion and looked at me with a calm expression. "I had to f*cking know that she's found from
Sergio POV: I saw Ricky's hands turn into fists. Any second now, he might hit this woman out of anger. So before that happened, I stepped in to get this woman out of Cassandra's wardroom. Ricky had it enough. He was not stupid to not know that he was to be blamed for what happened to Cassandra. He didn't need people to tell that right to his face. "Get off me! You nerd glasses-wearing man!" Lydia yelled as we got to the hallway outside of the wardroom. I chuckled at her insult, a bit embarrassed actually as a few nurses started looking at me when she said that. We stopped and I took a deep breath before introducing myself. I didn't think I ever met her in person, but I did know about Lydia's existence since she was the one who told Ricky when Cassandra went missing. "My name is Sergio Moretti. I'm a lawyer. Mr Xavier's private lawyer and the formal advisor of the Xavier family. Yes, I'm wearing glasses but I'm not a nerd. I only wore this to read documents," I said to her as I took
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