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:My lips trembled as I wanted to say something in return, but Ricky told me to get up and packed my stuff quickly. He was so eager to come home that very instant and the unreasonable jealousy just kept hitting my heart again."You seem to really miss your wife so much, you couldn't wait even one second to come home..." I mumbled under my breath, satirizing him slowly.His eyes that kept staring at me before finally looked away and he sighed with sound of exasperation. I could see his hands turning into balls, maybe having an intense desire to hit me but he seemed trying hard to refrain his anger from coming out."Can I go home using another car?" I deliberately asked. It felt so good to keep making him mad."No," he replied firmly."Then can you just go home first and then tell Dome to pick me up later?"Maybe I was just trying to dig my own grave. I knew he would eventually lose his temper any moment now, but I still asked him annoying questions because I wanted to go h
Cassandra POV:"I prepared dinner for you today. Chef Lando taught me how to cook and helped me a bit inside the kitchen," Carina said cheerfully as Ricky and I stepped into the house."Really?" Ricky acted slightly awkward with Carina's sudden friendliness. But he still kept it cool as if their interaction were just that of friends."Yeah. Chef Lando told me all your favourite food so I cook some of them to show my gratitude since you help me settle the issue with the De Luca family," Carina added coquettishly.Didn't she see me there standing beside Ricky? Why was she behaving so flirty with him out of a sudden? Oh, right. I forgot. She was his wife apparently. Now, I felt like I was the one who didn't belong there.There was no way I was going to just stood there hearing them having what sounded like an intimate conversation between a married couple. So, I made my way up the stairs, going to the bedroom. Ricky got flustered when I left and he immediately cut short his conversation
Riccardo POV:I missed Cassie, I really did. I missed how easy it was for me to approach her before without her retaliating at me. Now, whenever I tried to touch her, she just shunned me away. I could understand that I was not the best partner for her right now and how wrong I was that I put her in this situation with Carina involved, but I just wanted to make sure everyone was safe. I wanted her to be safe as much as I wanted Carina to be safe too. It was not that I loved Carina more than her. I had never intended for her to feel that way. Carina was just a responsibility but Cassie was far more than that. She was my life. I didn't know how I could make her understand that or make her believe me. She seemed to only have negative thoughts about me nowadays."Ma'am, your phone kept ringing inside the bedroom. I saw the caller ID. It's the same person every time, Tina Sanfield," Verona whispered to Cassie but I could hear them clearly.Cassie's expression instantly changed as if she was
Cassandra POV:Looked at these two teaming up as a married couple to push me to the corner. Today was indeed the shittiest day of my life. What happened at the company couldn't leave my mind yet, but now at home, it was just the same. Another depressing situation for me to face.It was just a simple request. Ricky just wanted me to take my friends' calls, especially Tina who kept calling me right now. But I didn't want to. Couldn't he see how much I didn't want to do it? Why did he force me and allow Carina to push me as well?This couple made me slowly get insane. I left the dining table without a word and just headed to the stairs. Maybe I should sleep but later, Ricky would surely berate me in private again. This was just an unending frustration, I literally had suicidal thoughts right now. I just want this nightmare to stop."Where are you going? Come back. Eat a little more," Ricky ordered, but I ignored him. "Carina took the time to cook for us tonight. Instead of acting like a
Cassandra POV:"You stupid bitch! Why did you keep calling me?!" I yelled at the phone and put it on flight mode instantly.Then I closed my eyes tightly and I could feel my hands shaking as I gripped the phone hard. How I wished I could just throw the phone on the wall. But if it gets broken, I would waste my money to buy a new one. That was not good because I had this strong feeling that I needed to save money from now on, just in case I needed to run away. If that were the case, I might need to change my name and maybe do plastic surgery on my face so I could live a new life in hiding and unrecognized by Ricky. That kind of plan would require a lot of money to be executed.I took a deep breath several times until my heartbeats slowed down. Only then did my tears stop falling too. After I felt like I could handle my emotion again, I turned off the flight mode of my phone and scrolled through my contact list to find Lydia's number. She was the one that I bought a car using Ricky's cr
Cassandra POV:Did he hear all the grumbling I made to Lydia about how I regretted meeting him again?"What... are you... doing here?" I stuttered a bit while asking. I thought he was downstairs, entertaining Carina for dinner. They obviously didn't even finish their meal yet when I went upstairs. And the phone call I had with Lydia was not long either. So, I really didn't expect him to be just behind the bathroom door."I had told Chef Lando to prepare a new meal for you in case you don't like the one made by Carina. Verona would bring it up later," Ricky said with his normal tone but it seemed like something was bothering his mind. He really looked a bit restless in front of me like he didn't know what else to do.Then he turned around and started having his eyes checked around the bedroom. This man acted like we were stranger, it felt like he was having a hard time trying to talk to me as usual. I knew he wanted to say something but he just shut his mouth tight.Maybe he really did
Cassandra POV:He marched straight to me domineeringly and I flinched a bit when he stopped just a few inches in front of me. His presence was somewhat terrifying, I swore it felt like I almost got a heart attack."Take this," Ricky said to Dome, handing the bodyguard his briefcase. Dome just adhered to his order and got into the car later, sitting in the driver's seat and starting the car engine.Ricky glanced at me and leaned forward to open the car door beside me. He told me to get in, which I did instantly. I didn't want any issues today. Last night was very tiring for me mentally, especially after venting out my problem to Lydia. Today, I just wanted to have some peace of mind.Ricky closed my door and he walked around the car to get into the seat beside me. He put the food container on his lap. I wondered if he did that because he disallowed me to eat and wanted to throw the food away later or because he wanted to berate me first before allowing me to eat.The car started moving
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