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
Riccardo POV:I knew it was my fault. Why did Lydia have to say it to my face? As if my heart was not wounded enough by what happened, she really needed to rub more salt on it and made it worse. Thankfully, Sergio could read me well. He grabbed that woman out before I lose my shit.I went to Cassie and just stood by her bed, staring at her face and the patch that covered her wounded cheek.'Did you give her a scar on the face too now? Like the scars on her neck from the necklace you forced her to wear weren't enough.' Slowly what Lydia said before haunted the back of my mind again.The memory of Cassie breaking the emerald necklace when she left my mansion flashed back in my head too. These words, this memory, were so bitter and I couldn't just skip them out of my brain as the trace of them was clear on Cassie. Her wound, her scars, they were showing all over her body.I felt terrible and the feeling when I found her at the factory began conquering my heart again. The guilt was too ov
Riccardo POV:Strange how two weeks went by so fast. Last night Dr Claus met me again inside Cassie's wardroom. He explained how their medical team had removed the needle behind her hand, the one that put sedation liquid into her body."The effect is estimated to wear off by tomorrow. We can't really confirm what time she would be waking up, but definitely be tomorrow. If she continues sleeping until evening, the nurse would wake her up for sure," the doctor said before leaving.So, this morning, I just had a sudden nervous breakdown. I was excited, yet worried at the same time. I just realized I had been concerned too much about having her wake up but I hadn't even thought about how I could have a conversation with her after.How should I ask for forgiveness from her? Did she even want to see my face again after my mistake regarding Carina? How would she react to the horrible scar on her face? If she asks about the unborn baby she used to carry, how should I tell her that we had lost
Cassandra POV:I still remembered what happened at the factory, each moment of it was a picture clear in my head. But the last thing that I remembered was the worst one because I saw Cristian's head explode right before I closed my eyes.I was sure that I was dying when I went blacked out because my body hurt everywhere and I didn't think I would be able to stand those pain. But when I woke up today, it was strange how the pain had gone away. The only obvious thing was that my body was still weak.'Where am I?' That was the first thing I thought when my eyes finally opened again. I honestly didn't think this was even possible. I even started thinking that maybe I was in heaven right now. But how could I be so sure about that anyway? I am not really an entirely good person when I was alive and I made so many horrible choices back then. I couldn't be in heaven, that made more sense to me.I slowly forced my body to be in a sitting position. Then my eyes scanned around, noticing that I w
Cassandra POV:Cut a few fingers? Sure, why not? So, I took his hands and just touched them in a way of preparing to cut one of his middle fingers. Now I could feel his hand shaking even more.Are you afraid of pain, Ricky? Did you know how much pain I suffered in the hand of the Rossi because of your mistake? The tip of the knife slightly touched his skin and blood instantly emerged from that tiny wound, showing how sharp the blade was.His expression changed and I saw how he began to grit his teeth to be courageous enough to take the punishment he offered me to do. But then, I knew who I am. I was not this violent. I didn't do revenge in this way. And it just made me hate him, even more, that he thought this kind of thing would make me feel better.So bitterly, I just threw away the knife on the floor instead. I sniffed hard trying to avoid getting sobby."Get out..." I said gently at first. He didn't listen to it at once and just gazed up, giving me his annoying confused look."Ju
Cassandra POV: "You're right. I worked for Mr Xavier. Now that we had come to this point, I don't see a reason to hide it anymore. He's a very special client for me. I helped him recover from his grief when his father died years ago," Dr Mala admitted it. "You're... you're his ex-girlfriend too?" I asked nervously. I didn't know why I thought that way. Probably because I never imagined Ricky being close to any other women. The closest he had ever been with apart from me was Carina and that creature was a monster. I was not up to being against another ex-girlfriend now. Not with my body this weak. "No..." But Dr Mala chuckled instead and shook lightly. Her mellow eyes were still looking at me with concern. "I'm engaged..." She added while showing me a diamond ring on her fourth finger. "Mr Xavier just entrusted me to help you too. He started hiring me the moment he decided to marry Carina Rossi months ago. He kept asking me ways to help you deal with the situation and when your co
Cassandra POV:"That's not even your fault. Ricky made the decision to take in Carina and everything just went downhill after. None of us had control over it. He was the only one who had the power to change it... But... he didn't want to..." I sighed.I wished I had the power to erase all those horrible memories from my mind, but I couldn't. Again, the resentment over Ricky came rolling to conquer my heart. His mistake caused a lot of damage to me. I just didn't know if I ever could forgive him again. I still couldn't entirely accept what had happened to me."Can you forgive him again?" Dome asked as he looked at me seriously. Yet I didn't answer because I didn't have the answer yet. My heart just couldn't decide yet.I changed the topic and we just talked about other trivial things instead. Nothing that might touch the matter regarding what happened at the factory or anything about the Rossi. I had the urge to ask about Carina. God, I really wanted to know what happened to that bitch
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