Cassandra POV:Ricky puffed some smoke out of his mouth and looked down again, staring at his cigar in between his fingers. He just let the ashes from the cigar fall to the floor. No lights were on in that ballroom, yet I still could see him clearly because the gleam from outside shone through the uncurtained windows.I went to sit beside him carefully. He looked a bit confused by my action but he commented nothing and didn't even avoid me. Slowly, my arms circled his waist and gave him a loose hug. Still, he remained reserved and so I deliberately tilted my head to his left shoulder. Maybe his heart would melt a bit if I did this."Did you come down here because you're afraid to sleep alone?" He joshed.It was uncanny how he could be so mad at me a moment ago and now he was able to make a joke instead. Sometimes, I felt like Ricky had very unstable kind of emotions. One second he could be so calm and another second he might lose his temper. I couldn't read him most of the time, so th
Cassandra POV:"Take it," he slightly raised his voice and gave me a little glare. I knew right away that he meant it as an order and not a request.My hand trembled a bit as I took the gun from his palm and I pouted while holding the gun grip with two hands. Ricky pointed his hand to the front, telling me silently to look forward. I did and I stretched out my hands getting ready to fire to where he pointed. I guessed he noticed my hands were shaking uncontrollably and he suddenly just chuckled at me."Why are you laughing? Get this done fast. I don't want to touch this thing any longer," I grumbled at him."Okay... okay..." he said while helping me be in position."One... two... three. Shoot!" His voice got louder towards the end."Wait. Shoot on three or when you say shoot?" I was confused by his instruction.The man sighed and took the gun from my hand. He then just shot towards his aim randomly three times."I'm here! I'm here! Please don't shoot! I'm here!" Someone came out from
Cassandra POV:The whole ghastly atmosphere in this mansion just suffocated me, I felt like I needed to get some fresh air. I really needed to get away from this place for a while. Maybe I should find someone to talk to about all these things that bothered my mind since last night. But who could I meet? My friends? They won't understand what I was going through right now. Besides, I might put them in danger if they knew what I got myself into.Thinking of that, I suddenly realized that I could no longer meet my close friends as often as I used to. They might be a target of Ricky's enemies if I appeared close to them. They might get kidnapped and be used to threaten me, just like how I could be kidnapped and be used to threaten Ricky. Gosh, my life had really become complicated now. Everything seemed to turn upside down right after last night's incident.Yet there must be someone out there who I could talk to. A friend that I could trust and that friend should already know about the ex
Cassandra POV:Dome chuckled at my question and I guessed I knew what he was about to say. It seemed like that incident was something humorous to him. I was sure it must be something unpleasant to my ears, but I wanted to listen to it anyway."Answer me! Who told you to laugh?" I intimidated him a bit.Dome certainly won't dare to defy me. Even Ricky had to suck it up with my annoying behaviours sometimes, so this one bodyguard surely had no choice but to just endure me."Because you couldn't shut up. I'm sorry... I didn't mean to be rude... That's just what the reason was..." Dome replied while snorting, trying to hinder his laughter from coming out again. I instantly shot him a glare through the rearview mirror. He coughed discreetly before he continued his words."Mr Xavier had a very low tolerance to disobedience, ma'am. But you... you're so stubborn sometimes, you kept messing up with his head. You're shouting at him and being so noisy, he wouldn't be able to think straight that
Cassandra POV:I waited until they were done doing whatever kind of inspection and security checkup they needed to do on Nicola. It took about five minutes before Dome finally opened the car door for me. Actually, I didn't even know why the passenger doors of my car suddenly couldn't be opened from the inside. It seemed like Ricky had changed the lock just like he did to my apartment door lock before.I only could open it if Dome unlocked the door from the driver's seat or someone from outside opened it for me. This was very frustrating, they were treating me like I was a kid that needed child protection. I was a fully grown adult for God's sake. I could see now how scrupulous Ricky was to make sure I didn't try running away from him."Finally..." Nicola approached me and gave me a friendly hug."Let's go and have lunch inside. Just leave these two annoying men outside," I said while glaring at Dome and Marco. They just scoffed because they knew I was just kidding. Nicola chuckled at
Cassandra POV:"Yeah... my ex-boyfriend Ricky from seven years ago during college. It's the same man. He's my boss now and we're getting back together," I said calmly.Tina gasped hard and instantly covered her mouth with her hand. On the other hand, Nicola smirked a little with a meaningful smile plastered on her face."You should thank me then!" Tina slapped the side of my arm suddenly. I looked at her in confusion, didn't understand what she meant by saying that. Why should I thank her?"If it wasn't because of the prank call that we made at the nightclub when you were celebrating getting a job at RX Corp, you wouldn't get back with Ricky!" Tina added, giving credit to herself as if what she did to me before was such a good thing.As far as I remembered, she made it worse actually. If the prank call to Ricky was never made, he wouldn't have come to the nightclub and taken me home to his place. We wouldn't have made love that night which then led to me having an awkward encounter wi
Cassandra POV:"You know what? I think you should relax. Just stop thinking about it. How about we go and have some fun today? Let's do something fun so you could clear up your mind from this thing," Nicola suggested.She looked very excited about it so I went along with her idea. After all, this was why I went out anyway. I wanted a time out from thinking about Ricky. We went to have a full body spa session, and then Nicola invited me to the boutique she worked. I bought a few clothes and then we went shopping elsewhere too inside a mall. After feeling tired walking around, we went karaoke for two hours. It was the most exciting day of my life. Hanging out with Nicola was indeed different compared to hanging out with my friends."Valentine's Day is in two days. So be ready. I'm sure, Don Xavier would prepare something grand for you," Nicola said as she escorted me to my car. Dome and Marco were behind us looking tired like hell having to follow us around all day."You think so?" I re
Cassandra POV:Ricky filled the ballroom floor with rose petals and pink balloons. There was soo many of them I could barely see the ground. Then there was also this artificial fog covering the floor, giving out the scent of lavender and rose, making the space look magical like inside a fantasy book.In the middle of the hall was a square dining table set for a candlelight dinner. The meal had already been served and Ricky was standing just beside the table, wearing a tuxedo. My heart skipped a beat as our eyes met. He beckoned me to come forward as he pulled a chair for me to sit. Now, I knew from experience that this was no ordinary dinner setting. I dated a lot of men before and some of them did use to do something like this to me. Usually, the night would end with a marriage proposal from the guys. Then I, being the silly insecure complicated woman, would eventually turn down the guys and broke up with them a day after. I was so afraid of being in a serious commitment before, I l
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