Riccardo POV:My heart was still pounding hard. When I didn't see her on the bed, that just sent an instant surge of panic to my brain. I immediately just thought she had left and gone missing again. With such anxiety, turning my body around certainly won't be my first action. Now that I realized she was just behind me, I couldn't help but felt flustered at the situation. It was kind of embarrassing to act that nervous in front of Cassie.She stared at me with mellow eyes and I could feel that she probably felt sorry for me. Did I really look that pathetic in her eyes? I hadn't combed my hair yet so I may look a bit messy right now. But then again, it was not like Cassie never saw me this way. Why did I feel like the way she looked at me right now was different? It seemed like she was being sympathetic to me."Why don't you just..." she said hesitantly and slowly moved her gaze to see the two-seater sofa against the wall."Sleep here tonight... I mean... If you're going to stay here l
Riccardo POV:At noon, Dr Claus came to Cassie's wardroom while she was having lunch. At this point, I signalled Verona and Lydia to head home. They bid their goodbye to Cassie and just left. I could see Cassie's face fell a bit when her close buddies were leaving but then she tried to act fine when Dr Clause approached her.The doctor handed her the hospital release form and she signed it promptly. Then Dr Claus took it again and headed out with me. We went to the front counter of the hospital so I could settle the medical bill for Cassie's release.A few hundred of thousand dollars gone and it was fine. I rathered see her alive and healthy then kept that money. It was not like I couldn't produce more money later. My business was still thriving at the moment.After everything was settled, I went back to Cassie's wardroom. She had finished her meal and Dome was helping her clean up the dishes. She turned her gaze on me when I opened the door. From her expression, it was clear that her
Riccardo POV:"Cassie... Cassie, wake up..." I shook her shoulders lightly to wake her up when Dome stopped the car right in front of my mansion. It was almost eight o'clock by now. Perfect timing for dinner and I knew everyone must have been inside the ballroom on the first floor, waiting for our arrival.Cassie slowly opened her eyes and scanned the surroundings. She instantly realized where we were right now and started looking at her lap silently to recollect herself. After a while, she finally wanted to come out of the car. I led her inside and she looked so confused to see no one was around."Where is everybody?" She asked.Her step slowly wanted to go towards the staircase, probably having the thought to just crash in the bedroom. But once again, I held her hand and just led her to the ballroom."What are you doing?" She looked somewhat uneasy and her eyes just looked scared."It's fine. Everyone is waiting for you," I said gently and just assured her by rubbing her back a bit.
Cassandra POV: "What's wrong? Did you find Carina already?" I asked Ricky but he was just silent. "Why are you out here? You should be partying with the rest and eating something right now," he avoided answering my questions. "You haven't eaten anything for dinner yet. Maybe you should go in there and join the rest," I replied, a bit considerate about his well-being. I knew he was hiding something from me. Sergio didn't just be going to come here at night for nothing. Usually, when that lawyer came, he would bring serious news with him that needed Ricky's attention. So, I wondered if it was about Carina just now. "Why did Sergio come?" I asked more when he still said nothing. If Sergio came because of the party, he would have joined us just now. But he didn't so I knew he came for another reason. "We'll talk about it later," again Ricky avoided giving me a clear answer. He just escorted me back to the ballroom and this time he joined us too. But he didn't go all out partying and
Cassandra POV: "Ricky, you're... someone else's husband..." I reminded him of the fact that he was still legally married to Carina. "No no no..." He started chuckling a bit and stood up, walked to his desk, pulled out the drawer under it and took out a piece of paper. He brought it to me and let me read the content. Then he just knelt again. It was a divorce certificate between him and Carina that had been approved by the court and was stated to start being effective yesterday. This man in front of me right now was finally a single man again. It was really strange to realize that. I really thought he might have to stay in a marriage with Carina until she is found. This was too soon and I just didn't expect the divorce to be settled that fast. Not that I'm not happy with it, but still, I was just too perplexed to process this new information. Was that mean we're finally able to become a couple officially again? "Sergio just now... he came for this?" I asked passively. "Yes..." he
Cassandra POV:After breakfast, Ricky headed to the company. He was not supposed to work today as it was Sunday. But he hadn't been at the company for so long, so he tried to return as soon as he could. There were just a lot of matters being delayed since he was not around for two months.I pondered over his suggestion in the living room alone after he left. Get a hobby, he said. What hobby? I had been trying hard to manage my life before into a perfect routine of a career-oriented woman who had a nine-to-five job and went home to rest. Everything was in order and it was a perfect life for me before he decided to fire me from my job as his secretary. Now I was just bored. Previously, I was still allowed to go out and went shopping at the malls. Now, I couldn't even do that anymore.Two hours before noon and I noticed the sun outside wasn't shining that bright. I went to the backyard garden as how Ricky suggested with the intention of just enjoying the beautiful scenery. But then I saw
Cassandra POV:Minutes later, Ernesto showed up to help me with the paintings. Verona was there too, holding a tray of drinks in her hands. She placed it on the ballroom floor near me and started pouring a glass of water. She then just offered me the drink.I took it immediately and drank it in one go. I really felt like these people were really considerate of my well-being. Slowly, this mansion that I hated to come back to before gradually felt more like home right now."I have a question to ask your guys," I said as a thought just crossed my mind. Ernesto and Verona immediately gazed up to focus on me."Do you guys think I should marry your boss?"Instantly their eyes lit up and their faces showed intense joy. Verona caught both my hands quickly and started asking when did Ricky propose. Meanwhile, Ernesto just started to have that teary eyes as if he was really glad such an occasion finally happening. That just made me blush unthinkingly. I didn't expect them to be that happy with
Riccardo POV: The following Monday, I brought three of Cassie's paintings to the company, those that I had chosen the other night. She was reluctant to let me do it at first as she didn't feel confident to show them in public. I just didn't understand why she refused to believe my judgement when I said her paintings were good. They were the kind of sellable paintings in my thoughts and I could feel that if she kept doing a good job in this hobby, she could turn it into a business. A very convenient business since she only needed to do it at home. I knew how ambitious Cassie was. So, when I saw how she had a hidden talent in art painting, it just hit me that I should support her further in this activity. I wanted to help her raise again in a new career. That was why I took her paintings and placed them at the company. Who knew some of my clients might catch eyes on them and maybe start asking where I got them. If I could see potential clients for Cassie, I won't hesitate to invest in
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