Riccardo POV: I was a ruthless man for years, I didn't feel any sympathy anymore when I saw people crying in front of me. But when it was Cassandra, the rue suddenly hit me hard inside. I really wished she didn't have to see what happened inside that room. She might not believe me but I didn't intend to cheat on her. I simply wanted to see how far Carina would go to degrade herself in return for my love. I just wanted to mock that bitch later. But Cassie came at the wrong timing, seeing only the surface of the event without knowing what I intend inside. She probably didn't understand that the type of seductive provocation Carina showed to me was something normal in my underworld. It would be such a lie if I said I never encountered something like that during my reign in the underworld. I visited nightclubs and casinos quite a lot in the past for business purposes and each time, there were always women throwing themselves on me. It was normal, at least for me. It was not like I'm sl
Cassandra POV:Dome finally entered the driver's seat again after Ricky took almost half an hour venting his frustration outside like a moron."Sorry for the long wait, ma'am. Mr Xavier is going to ride the car at the back. You must be tired with all the yelling. Do you want to drink some water?" He said after starting the car engine. His hand handed me a water bottle that looked new. I just grabbed it without much thought because I did honestly feel thirsty right now.Unfortunately, I should have known better, that everyone who was associated with Ricky couldn't be trusted, not even Dome. The car started moving and I drank the water slowly until the bottle was almost empty. My head started to feel dizzy but I didn't think it was because of the water at first. I closed my eyes a few times and all I could sense was that my head getting heavier each time."Dome... what's in the water?" I asked faintly as I felt like passing out now. I began to suspect that the water must be the cause of
Riccardo POV:I didn't really mean to harm Cassie. But somehow, she was just so annoying tonight, I couldn't help it. She should have known how little my patience was, considering she was my secretary who lived with me. Sometimes, I felt like this was a test from the Almighty to see if I was really serious about making this woman my wife.Just looked at her, struggling like an animal to escape when I pushed her to the bed. She made it seem like I'm the bad person here. If she was not so irritating during the party and on the journey back before, I wouldn't have drugged her and put that handcuff around her wrists. She tried to run away. It was not that hard to sense her intention.We were inside the region of a potential enemy right now. It would be a big problem if she went missing here. Although all those people who attended Don Luigi's birthday party seemed to show respect for me, that didn't mean they were my friends. They all were still potential enemies that I needed to beware of
Cassandra POV:The smell of wine from his breath disgusted me, a trace of drink he gulped at the birthday party before. I opened my eyes again and realized the light inside the bedroom was already out. Some trace of light from the living area shone through the opened door and my sight slowly became clear.Ricky was on top of me, exploiting my body again. He really had no shame. He moved my handcuffed hands on top of my head and lecherously ran his fingers on my stomach. Seconds later his hands sneaked to my back and unhooked my bra."I guess you really a pig then," I muttered to his face and he chuckled as if I was joking.He said nothing in return. He just threw my bra to the floor and slowly rose to sit straight right on my thighs. Ricky grabbed the lining of my panties and just ripped them apart. I gasped as I saw his eyes darken while doing that. This man was almost like a devil. It scared the shit out of me and my body couldn't help but turn stiff instantly.Maybe he just wanted
Cassandra POV:I shook my head, trying to brush away the confusion in my head. What the hell did I want actually?"Come and sleep on the bed again," Ricky's domineering voice instructed me. But my head was just too numb to even process his words.I slowly lay down on the sofa, ignoring his demand. Thank goodness he wasn't trying to force me or anything. He just went into the bedroom again and seconds later came out with a blanket in his hand.Ricky approached me and my body flinched a little when he sat beside me. His hands meticulously spread the blanket over my body covering me until my shoulders."It's cool tonight. If you decided to sleep here, then I'll join you," he said as if he was considerate to keep me company.Ricky moved to sit on a one-seater sofa and he laid his body and his head backwards, sleeping in that position. Was he trying to guard me from leaving? Why did he need to sleep so close to me?An hour passed and I just couldn't seem to sleep at all. My mind was in a m
Cassandra POV:"You sold my apartment?!"The two men looked stunned by my sudden aggression, they turned their faces to look at me in seconds. Sergio followed the direction of my eyes and he noticed that I had seen the sale and purchase agreement paper of my apartment unit on the table. He took it and gave it to Ricky, shutting up his mouth to give Ricky full authority to handle the situation."You're living here now. So, I don't see why you would need that apartment again," Ricky said his reason simply."Really? Who gave you permission to sell it? I told you before that I never intend to live here forever. I wanted to come back to my apartment again. How dare you sell it without asking me first. I mean how the hell did you able to do this anyway? I never sign any documents before. You need my signature if you want to sell it, my name was in the deed.""It's not that hard to fake a signature, Cassie," Ricky replied with a slight chuckle, glancing at Sergio as if making a joke of me. T
Cassandra POV:"Hello," my mother's voice was heard on the other end of the line.I was a bit glad that she didn't change her number yet. But she didn't sound like she knew the call was from me. That was weird because I never changed mine too. So, did that mean my mother deleted my phone number?"Hmm... is this Mrs Moore?" I asked in the hope that she would recognize her daughter's voice. But her reply was heartbreaking to me."Yes, this is Julia Moore. Who is this?"For a moment, I didn't know what to say. I took a deep breath as my ear heard my mother saying hello a few times, probably wondering if the call was cut."Mom... it's me. Cassie...""Who's that?" I heard my father's voice talking in the background."Is it a scam call?" And Christopher's voice came along after that too. He was my younger brother.I guessed my mother covered the phone and I heard some whispering between them. My mother probably told the men of the house that it was a call from me."So, you finally called us
Cassandra POV:Ricky took a moment of silence before he said no to me."But you're a bit greedy now," he added which sounded like a tease."What do you mean by that?" I asked while half laughing. Honestly, I didn't really want to know, but his words just intrigued me."You always waste my money buying stuff you don't need," he said with a meaningful gaze."I never do that!" I bashfully denied it fast."Hah... hah... hah!" He put his forefinger to my mouth, telling me to stop talking."Do you know how many handbags and heels you bought this month? Just this one month, tell me how many?" Ricky playfully berated me while glaring. That made me laugh instantly and I could feel my face getting hot as my cheeks were probably blushing in embarrassment right now. This man was trying to label me as a gold digger indirectly.I knew what he was trying to convey. He might be joking but his words rang the truth too. Ever since I lived with Ricky, I always asked him to buy me stuff like handbags, cl
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