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.
Carina POV:Yes, that was right. I was the one who did all of it. I pranked Cassandra and tried to bomb her apartment before. Then Nicola insulted me and didn't want to concur with my plan, so I put a bomb inside her car. Now, I received information that Leo was going to pick up his two little brothers at the airport. So, I seduced some of his men and charmed them with my money and my beauty to help me put a bomb under Leo's car. Too bad it exploded right before Lorenzo and Louis could enter it and Leo was not even the one who was driving. Such a bummer, only his useless driver Logan died from the explosion.I admitted it. I did have some kind of attachment issue with bombs. Currently, I'm just an avid fan of them. Wasn't really my fault. I was a daughter of a Mafia Don. I was born to love these kinds of stuff."Why do we need to meet the Xavier right now?" I asked my father deliberately. I was not that clueless to not know the reason.We were inside the car heading towards Ricky's pr
Riccardo POV:I was expecting Don Renato Rossi's arrival tonight but it was weird that they didn't arrive yet when it was already passed ten at night. They should have been here like an hour ago. What happened to them?This was giving me a bad vibe as if there was something wrong happening. I got a call from Leo this evening threatening me to settle the issue he had with the Rossi family. I didn't understand why he was suddenly hating the Rossi. I found nothing that could connect the Rossi with Nicola's death. So I just didn't get why Leo insisted Carina was the one behind it. It just didn't make any sense to me."Do you maybe want to sit down?" Cassie asked. She was in the living room accompanying me waiting for the Rossi. I was walking back and forth from the front door to the living room, obviously agitated by the lateness of the expected guests."Something's wrong..." I muttered as I sat beside her.After Nicola's death, she had been experiencing depression. She rarely talked much
Cassandra POV:I didn't even trust Carina one bit, even now when she was experiencing such an unfortunate event. I clearly remembered when she tried to have a talk with Nicola during Don Luigi's funeral. Somehow, that thing made gave me a hunch that she was connected with Nicola's death. And now even Leo was forcing Ricky to believe it, that Carina was indeed the mastermind behind the murder of Nicola.I didn't know what to think now. I loved Ricky but I trusted Leo even more. There must be a reason why Leo was so desperate to make Ricky believe him. If he was really that bad, then why would he even give Ricky time to settle this issue between the Rossi and De Luca? Clearly, he still had his respect for the Godfather. Ricky just didn't seem to realize it.I had been observing Carina's behaviour the whole time at the hospital. When Don Renato gained consciousness and grabbed Ricky's hand, she seemed anxious out of a sudden and I was quite sure I saw her expression turned slightly annoy
Riccardo POV: Cassie broke down in tears and I just couldn't do anything about it. This was my final decision. It was not that I intended to marry Carina forever. Just for a few months until the issue with the De Luca was settled. I was sure if Carina be my wife, Leo won't dare to touch her as she would be the Godfather's wife, untouchable. After the mess was settled again, I would divorce Carina and marry Cassie directly. This was the only way for me to help Carina. I knew no other ways that could help her faster. I explained my plan carefully to Cassie but she still refused to accept it. Her heart was just filled with jealousy the moment I told her that I would marry Carina first. "Then why can't you just marry me then?! Since you're going to disregard the mourning period of Don Luigi's death, might as well just continue with our wedding plan. Why can't you just marry me now then?" She demanded an explanation. Of course, I could just marry her right away. But my priority right n
Cassandra POV:I would find a way out, sooner or later. I knew right now it would be impossible, but some days later, I'm sure my chance would come.How could Ricky marry Carina on the day when he had promised to give me a wedding? Was he trying to make me feel awful intentionally? This was just too much, I couldn't believe he really did it.The disappointment was killing me, I rather just stepped away from this relationship than be a mistress to Ricky. It was obvious now that I was the mistress because Carina had become his legal wife. If he really loved me, how could he let me be in this position? It was so embarrassing and humiliating, I didn't think I would be able to face Carina now. My fiance just became her husband. How ridiculous was that? It just felt like a horrible nightmare and I just wished to find a way to wake up from all of this.Ricky threatened me that I had no way out from him, that if I choose to leave him, I would die out there just like Nicola. Didn't he see that
Cassandra POV:The next morning, we were going to the company together like usual. Carina just stayed at the mansion because Ricky thought it was still unsafe for her to go out. I wondered what it would be like coming to the office with all those people there knowing already about Ricky's marriage. It was all over the news because Ricky had told Sergio to make a public announcement about it. Everyone thought I would be the bride. Unfortunately, Ricky chose to humiliate me in order to save Carina.The car arrived in front of the company building and Dome opened the car door for Ricky. He got out and usually, he would wait for me and walk side by side with me into the building. But not anymore. Now, he just walked straight into the company building and left me behind. I got off the car too and tried to catch up with his steps.As soon as I entered the building, I realized how many eyes were staring at me. All these people knew well enough about my relationship with Ricky because he was
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