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
Riccardo POV:Suicide? I felt like my heart got a pinch of electric shock. I did have guilt towards Cassie for whatever happened between us right now, but never to the intensity like tonight. It was just intense right now. It never had crossed my mind that she would think about wanting to die. Maybe I had been ignorant about how she felt all this time, I didn't even realize that her patience had probably reached the limit.The things she said to me in the bedroom before, about how she didn't care anymore even if I sleep with Carina just hit hard right now. Had she really given up on me? I felt so disturbed by the thought that I just left Dome and got into the house again.I ran up the stair and went straight to the bedroom. When I opened the door, the lights inside were off. I saw a glimpse of Cassie's silhouette laying on the bed, unmoving. I closed the door again and headed to her. The light from outside shone a bit through the windows, so I could see Cassie a bit in that dark surro
Cassandra POV:It felt like the most peaceful sleep I ever had. I couldn't remember how many sleeping pills I had taken before I went into my deep slumber. But one thing was for sure, I didn't regret it. My mind finally stopped thinking about Ricky. When I finally woke up, a bright light shone on my eyes."Miss Moore? Can you hear me? If you can hear me, blink once," a male voice instructed. I blinked and he instantly moved the lights away from me. He was wearing a doctor's coat and that was when I realized I was not at Ricky's mansion anymore.My head turned slowly, scanning the surrounding. It looked like a private ward for a patient. With the doctor around and some nurses, I could guess easily that I was in a hospital right now.Ricky appeared and talked with the doctor about something. After that, the doctor make a few checkups on me before he left with his nurses, leaving me and Ricky alone."Drink some water," Ricky said as he poured me a glass of water. He gave it to me before
Cassandra POV:"I'm not crazy," that statement slipped my mouth almost instantly.Dr Mala's smile became even wider. She gave me an approving look and nodded slightly."Of course, you're not," she said."That's why I'm here. We need to check if you have symptoms of it. And if you do, we need to work quickly on treating it," the doctor added."Symptoms?" My brows knitted in restlessness."Don't worry too much about it, dear. I'm going to ask you just a few questions," Dr Mala explained as she sat on the chair beside me, the one where Ricky sat before."Did Ricky tell you to do this?" I was a bit suspicious of her behaviour. Yet, she denied it with a shake."This is just part of the hospital protocol for a patient like you.""I want someone here with me," I demanded timidly.I didn't know why it was hard for me to trust the doctor. She seemed nice but that was not really a guarantee for me to trust anyone. Carina was nice too in front of everyone else but Leo had claimed to have eviden
Riccardo POV:Cassandra got released from the hospital two days after she woke up. That moment when she finally gained consciousness, Carina kept demanding from me to allow her to visit Cassie at the hospital. But, I disallowed it. She kept saying how guilty she was that Cassie tried to suicide thinking that she was the reason for it.Yet, from Dr Mala's clinical perception, she didn't think Cassie was trying to commit suicide. She said that Cassie was probably just oblivious to herself that night, causing her to not realize how much she had consumed the sleeping pills. If that was the case, then I was to be blamed for it.Cassie had shown signs that she was unwell that day. But I took it lightly and left her unchecked for too long. If only I went up to the bedroom right after dinner that night, she wouldn't have overdosed on the pills. Dr Mala informed me that Cassie was having trouble sleeping because she had too many thoughts on her mind. That was the thing that caused her to get f
Cassandra POV: Damn it! That old man must have noticed me. Ricky used to introduce me as his girlfriend during the late Don Luigi's birthday party before. At that time, every Mafia Don in this country attended the party. Surely everyone in the underworld knew who I was including Don Fabio. Why didn't I think about this before? I shouldn't have agreed to come here with Ricky. This was so embarrassing, meeting Don Fabio and his whole family again. Ricky married Carina when everyone know I was his future bride. With such humiliation, I should have left Ricky, but here I was still stuck with him. I tried to walk towards another direction, grabbing Dome and Marco by the arms so they would cover me from being seen. Unfortunately, Ricky beckoned me to come to him. Oh my God, he was so cruel. Why would he try to humiliate me even more? At this point, I think maybe it would be best for me to not attend the party held by the Fontana family tonight. "Ma'am, boss is calling you. Can't you see?
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