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:"Cassie," Ricky growled hard while suddenly gripping my right wrist, pulling it backwards so I turned around to face him. He glared at me sharply that I felt like his eyes were blades piercing my heart."Ricky..." Carina moaned annoyingly, pretending to be sulky that Ricky ignored her. She walked even faster to reach us. But then, Ricky felt hostile to her sudden movement and he unconsciously glared at her too."Stop right there. Go back to your seat and be quiet," he ordered Carina harshly, in front of everyone and I could see her face slowly turn red due to embarrassment.This was getting interesting. I guessed Ricky was right about wanting me to socialize more with other people. I never thought it would be this compelling to see Ricky getting jealous and accidentally getting mad at his fake wife in public. Everyone had their eyes on Ricky now, including the whole Fontana family members.He slowly released my wrist as he realized the situation and obviously looked flu
Riccardo POV:Dome texted me the room number for Cassie and even got me a spare keycard for her hotel room. He also told me how Cassie just concurred with Franco assigning the room for her. I didn't know what was wrong with her today. She just seemed like she deliberately trying to touch my nerve. If this was her way to get back at me for marrying Carina, then I didn't like it one bit. I got to tell her to stop before I explode in public. I almost did that in the lobby before. Thank goodness, I still could hold in my emotion. There was no need for me to start a feud with the Fontana just because of Cassie. That would make me look stupid and unmatured.I reached her room in less than five minutes and just opened the door using the spare keycard I had. But the chain lock was on and I heard her asking from inside who it was with a worried voice."It's me," I replied and Cassie ran to the door hastily to get the door fully open."Can't you at least knock?" She rebuked me while flashing he
Cassandra POV:He loved me? Was that even believable? I had lost faith in him the moment he forced me to wear the emerald necklace that had the tracking chip device in it. Ricky knew wherever I went. There was no more privacy for me. He took away all of it including my freedom. Now, he even wanted to decide which people I could socialize with and which not. It was troublesome.I just read the text he sent me without replying to it. What should I reply anyway? That I loved him too after he pulled my hair just now? This man clearly didn't realize how he had turned abusive over time. I didn't know how to tell him this without making him offended. Sometimes, I even felt like my life was in danger when he was around. Wasn't that a big red flag inside a relationship? That wasn't even the biggest one. The biggest red flag would be him marrying Carina but still keeping me around.I kept convincing my heart that I didn't want this. I didn't want to be treated like a mistress, having to face ev
Cassandra POV:"Do you need me to accompany you, ma'am?" Marco asked when we reached my hotel room. His tone didn't sound sincere at all."Would Ricky allow it?" I replied with a hint of satire. He laughed a bit and shook his head, knowing well enough that the only person Ricky ever trusted to be alone with me was Dome. But that too had been disallowed now ever since Ricky got jealous at the hospital before during my therapy session. Now, he ordered two bodyguards to accompany me every time, Dome and Marco. So in case one of them tried to do unpleasant things to me, the other one would report to Ricky.I gave the hotel room keycard to Marco. Having no energy to do anything, even a task as simple as opening a door. My entire self just felt dispirited after seeing Carina's Inst*gram. It even felt like I was being poisoned on the inside."Why are you sulking so much?" Marco jested on me while opening the door. I went in without replying and just sat on the bed. He just stayed at the door
Cassandra POV:"So... how old are you?" Bella asked as she clung our arms together so we could walk side by side. She led me to the front of the hall where the VIP tables were. Ricky was sitting at one of the tables looking at his phone attentively with Dome standing by his side, whispering something to his left ear. That was probably to ask about me, wanting to leave just now.Ricky looked up and turned his face to Dome. But then he also automatically saw me there standing right in front of him about five meters away. Bella made me sit at the table next to him. I didn't know if she did that deliberately, but to be honest, I was glad she did it. At least, I could see Ricky now.Dome looked surprised that I was there and seconds later, Marco showed up too and went to stand beside Dome. Those three men just stared at me in puzzlement, probably wondering what I was up to with Bella Fontana."Here's a drink for you," Bella offered me a glass of champagne and I just took it, taking a few s
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