Cassandra POV:A week passed and somehow the heaviness I had about the wedding slowly reduced. Maybe it was because I never saw Ricky killing anyone these past few days and he was never missing after midnight too. I knew several people had died at his hands because of Pedro's matter before, but he had a fairly good reason why he did it. Pedro was obviously damnable for killing women and children. My mind had probably been convinced that what Ricky did to Pedro was justice and my heart had slowly accepted it too.This morning, I received an unexpected text message from Nicola. She congratulated me for the engagement I had during Valentine's Day and informed me that Ricky had asked her personally to custom made a pair of heels for my wedding day. I guessed Ricky must be really serious about the wedding. He also had been asking a few fashion designers to come to the mansion to take my measurements so they could make my wedding dress. I didn't even know what it might look like, Ricky was
Cassandra POV:The next morning, Ricky was the one who woke me up. I was so confused that he was able to be up that early since he must go to sleep late last night. Or was it that he didn't even go to sleep at all? It was still dark outside because the sun didn't even rise yet."Wake up, honey. Get ready now. We need to go to the airport early," he said.I rose from the bed and just stared at him. As far as I remembered, I booked the flight at nine in the morning. It just passed five now. There were like three hours before the flight. So why did we need to get ready now?"Last night... the flight... it's at nine..." I said indistinctly with a drowsy voice."The funeral will start at nine. I called the pilot and he said he could move forward our flight to eight. So as soon as we land, we'll go to attend the funeral directly."I was dumbfounded by his words, I literally gaped at him in disbelief. Ricky had no time to have an argument with me, so he just grabbed my body up and made me st
Riccardo POV:Cassandra looked fuming. I could see her nose flaring and her cheeks reddened. I noticed the movement of her chest getting up and down as if her heart was beating fast right now."Cassie, don't make a scene. Don't disrespect the De Luca family. Now is not the time for you to lose control," I whispered in her ear and she met my eyes, glaring for no reason.I should have known better than anyone else to not let her mingle with Carina. I thought she would handle it well, unlike what happened during Don Luigi's birthday party. Apparently, she was still easily provoked by that Rossi woman. It was a close call, thank goodness Nicola knew how to stop her. If only she was a little late, Cassie might create another trouble for me. Who would want to start a cold war between the Mafia gangs during a funeral? This woman really didn't know how much she had almost given me heart attacks. Her actions were really unpredictable sometimes, it stressed me out if she failed to behave nicely
Cassandra POV:"What?!" Ricky got enraged.Now, I was not really a petty woman and I really didn't like to repeat what Carina had said to me before. But it was not fair because I couldn't retaliate with that bitch this morning since Nicola and Ricky stopped me. I had been keeping this intense dissatisfaction within myself for the entire funeral, only able to glare at Carina from afar. And it was annoying as hell to see her smirking at me all the time as if she knew I couldn't do anything even after she angered me with her vile words.So to make it fair, I told Ricky exactly what that Carina bitch told me and it was really satisfying to see his furious face after he knew the truth."See? You couldn't even hold your anger in. But you force me to hold in my anger this morning? I even started to wonder if you somehow loved Carina too much, you literally never allowed me to retaliate at her," I finally had the chance to criticize Ricky. He was speechless for a moment and just blinked his e
Carina POV:It had been a week since the old Don Luigi was dead. I guessed Nicola would be in a more stable condition by now. I invited her to meet up at a private club for the elite in the city. The place was located on a hill and Ricky didn't even know I was here.Strangely, Nicola accepted my invitation without much hassle. That woman was getting brave now. She realized that she didn't have any bodyguards, yet still agreed to meet me in secret without telling her boyfriend. Leo would be furious if he knows about this. But Nicola probably thought I wouldn't dare to harm her since now Leo was the new Mafia Don of the northeast region.After half an hour of waiting, the little princess of the De Luca family finally showed up. We ordered a few drinks and food and started discussing our business."Why do you want to see me?" Nicola sounded annoyed, yet still had the audacity to eat the food that I ordered."I want access to Coral Island," I said my demand clearly. She scoffed and just s
Cassandra POV:I was lounging in the living room with Ricky, watching television when he suddenly received a phone call from Sergio. We just had lunch about an hour ago."What? Missing? What do you mean missing? Shouldn't our men be following her around?" Ricky said something intriguing on the phone. His expression changed to a stern one as if some trouble had arisen."How about Leo? Was he the one who called you and told you she was missing?" He spoke more.At this point, I had my full focus on Ricky. He mentioned Leo and someone missing which he addressed as female. Now, my investigating skill wasn't that great but I could read easily that the person who was missing right now could be Nicola."Shouldn't our men have their eyes on her? Why would she suddenly be missing? Did they not get the order to give extra protection to Nicola?!" Ricky looked furious and he just confirmed my guess to be true.My heart instantly got a sudden nervousness. Nicola was like a sister to me and hearing
Riccardo POV:I went to grab Cassandra's body before she fell entirely to the ground. The woman had fainted and probably was too shocked to see what was left of Nicola. This was a murder case, someone was responsible for Nicola's death and I had a hunch it was someone from De Luca's side. Maybe some of the late Don Luigi's followers didn't approve of the changing of power, so they attacked Nicola as a warning to Leonardo.But this was really bad because Nicola was in my region and under my responsibility to protect as I had promised Leo before. So, I didn't think Leo would just let it slide so easily even to me. He would blame me and come after me, especially right now. That was why I didn't want Cassie to follow me before because the De Luca gang might have a fight with the Xavier gang."Take her to the car. Guard her and make sure no De Luca come after her," I instructed Dome and he took Cassie to safety.I saw from afar Leo glaring at me and he suddenly stood up and marched to me w
Leonardo POV:Three days since she was gone. I couldn't even give her a proper burial. There was no body, just some fleshes and part of her hand. So I gave Nicola the kind of funeral that suited her, a cremation. Her ashes were put inside an urn and I placed it in my bedroom on the bedside table. Creepy? I didn't care. This was the ashes of my loved ones, my lover and our unborn baby.On the day of the incident, I actually received a call from Nicola. But I missed it because I was in a meeting and my phone was in silent mode. She left me a voicemail that until today was heartbreaking for me to hear again. She was crying throughout the recording and her terrified voice felt like a million blades striking through my heart, shattering my soul into pieces."Hello, Leo. It's me, baby. I think I'm in trouble. My break is not working. I can't stop the car and I'm driving down the hill right now. I tried to do a zig-zag so the car would slow down, but it's not working. The road is too steep.
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