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:I just stared at him when he asked, a bit disbelief but no longer surprised. The corner of my eye caught Carina smirking a bit at me. She didn't seem like she disliked the idea. Maybe she was up to something but I remained calm and still gave no answer to Ricky."You should really go. It must be boring to not be able to attend any events and just stay at home all the time. Ricky's right. Everything is getting better now so you should attend the launching ceremony and socialize more. Everyone from the company would be there," Carina said.So, this couple finally had a reason to invite me to attend a function with them since it was a company event."Why should I? Aren't you worried anymore that people might think your marriage was unreal?" I satirized Ricky."It's technically real... legally... it's just that..." Carina dared to retort but when I glared at her, she immediately stopped talking. What was even more infuriating was the fact that Ricky didn't even feel like sh
Cassandra POV:"Did you see Cassandra tonight?""Yup. She's smoking hot. I bet Mr Xavier can't get over her yet.""Of course, he can't. Why do you think she still working at our company? I bet Mr Xavier paid her extra to make her stay.""Money runs everything, dude. She surely could be bought with just a few thousand dollars.""Mr Xavier is really heinous, don't you think? I heard that Cassandra moved in with him not long ago. I never heard of her moving out of his house. Now, he's married. And he's keeping his wife and his mistress in the same house.""Money, dude. I told you, it's because of money and power. What kind of stupid woman would leave someone like Mr Xavier?""Wow... it must be good to be rich and powerful... Women just settled with Mr Xavier because they didn't want to lose his influence or his money.""I know right... I bet he probably had a few women that he kept in his other residential properties. That guy owned multiple buildings in this country. I'm sure Carina and
Riccardo POV:I just allowed her, for the first time to attend an event with me and Carina around. Yet, she couldn't wait to give me another panic attack. Where the hell did she go? Was a kiss too much? Why would she be sulking over that? I explained to her that I didn't know why Carina acted strange tonight. I had firmly reminded Carina in private to not pull such a thing in public again. We never kissed in public or in private, so it was not okay for me especially when Cassie saw it.Carina apologized and she promised to not do it again. But it was useless because now the peace I had with Cassie was rumbled again. I messed up again and this time Cassie chose to go missing at a public event like this, where my potential enemies were also present.I kept calling my bodyguards to check which one of them found Cassie. Fortunately, after half an hour, Dome gave me the good news. She was with him and I firmly ordered Dome to tell Cassie to get inside again where I could see her.She was e
Cassandra POV:"He's crazy!" I repeated my words and this time even louder.Ricky got really annoyed and quickly grabbed my body and cupped my mouth with his hand. He signalled his men to cover him up as he dragged me to the car.I struggled hard to escape and muffled a few complaining words that were not even heard. Minutes later, I was already been shoved by him inside the car, locked in the backseat again, unable to get out as always. This was his normal way to contain me if I misbehaved when we were outside. I knew the car door was locked but the window could be pulled down. So I did it and deliberately laughed at him to mock his worries."Are you afraid that I might ruin your night? That new salacious rumours might start at the company tomorrow? Oh, look... the CEO is still so damn devoted to his secretary, he abandoned his wife alone at the launching ceremony to find his missing lover," another mocking from me and he instantly glanced back to meet my eyes."Pull up the window an
Cassandra POV:I saw Ricky got off the car that was parked in front of us. He turned around and helped Carina out as well. That witch was clinging to his arm when she was getting out as if she couldn't handle getting out of a car by herself."So that's love?" I asked Dome, making him see the irony of his words before."He's treating Carina better than me. And I have no say in it because she's his legal wife. So... that's what love is like for Ricky?" I added.Dome sighed a little and looked down. He was probably disappointed that I took it that way, completely the opposite of what he meant by his previous opinion about Ricky.I didn't wait for him to open the door for me. I just came out and showed Carina how easy it was to get out of a car. Ricky was a bit stunned to see me out of the car suddenly. Usually, Dome would open the door for me. I just glared at him and stepped into the house first."Cassie," Ricky called me and left Carina alone. He followed me into the house yet I spared
Riccardo POV:Get out of her face? Really? Did she even know why I was down there for over an hour? I tried to settle matters with Carina so the thing that happened at the launching event before won't happen again. I came into the bedroom, hoping she had the capacity to understand that I wanted peace for everyone living in this house, yet she accused me of trying to have an affair with Carina. If there was one person I cared about the most inside this house, it would be Cassie. Why couldn't she see that?Before we reached home, I called Sergio to come. I had a long talk with Carina inside the car, reprehending her over and over again until she understood that whatever action she made on the stage before was totally uncompromised by me. I let it slide this time, but I wanted her to sign a few papers of terms that she needed to adhere to if she wanted me to continue helping her.Those terms would be related to any excessive physical touch from her to me, whether it was intentional or un
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