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:"What?" That came out of my mouth almost instantly.Honestly, it was not a surprise at all because Franco showed the signs ever since we met at the airport this morning. I was just confused about whether he really meant it for real. How could he like someone he just met? We talked for the first time today, so I didn't think he would just suddenly fall in love with me for that. It didn't make any sense to my logical mind. I had a hunch that the Fontana siblings were up to something."In case you wanted a new environment, the Fontana is more than happy to help you get a new life, away from Don Xavier. You could work in Fontana Corporation and be Franco's secretary instead. He's single, you're single, so..." Bella brazenly suggested, pushing that idea into my head unconsciously, my way out of Ricky's life.I was bewildered by her blunt suggestion. It sounded too good to be true. My face slowly turned to see Franco and he met my eyes. He raised his champagne glass from afar
Cassandra POV: I heard Franco calling me from behind, but I just ran ignoring it. Now, even another person was calling me too but I still didn't want to bother checking who it was. I wanted to be out of here as soon as possible. In less than a minute, I managed to get out and I tried to take a few deep breaths while hiding in some secluded hallway. I didn't know why my heart just suddenly pounding so hard just now. It seemed like there was this sudden terrifying feeling I could feel appearing inside of me over Carina. "Ma'am... why are you running away from us?" Marco showed up with Dome, asking me in annoyance. Dome just remained with his calm composure. No expression on his face. They both came closer to me and began examining if there was something wrong with me. "What did Franco say to you just now? You looked so pale," Dome asked. "Really?" My palms both touched my cheeks. I could even feel a sudden chill go down my spine. "Where's Ricky?" I asked. I just didn't know what to
Cassandra POV:Why did my heart feel so hard to bear this? Indeed, was I still in love with Ricky? I just felt so heavy inside, I didn't even have the courage to take back my phone from the floor. How I wished I could just get drunk and forget about this suffocating feeling for a moment. It felt like my heart was stabbed and like I was screaming in pain internally.I took a long coat and wore it, then took my purse before heading to the door. When I came out, Dome and Marco were standing outside guarding my door.'Where do you want to go this late?" Marco asked. I scanned his expression and he seemed like he was not mad at me anymore. Maybe Dome had told him that I apologized before."I... need to get some fresh air..." I said slowly. Honestly, I didn't even know where I wanted to go."There's an air conditioner inside the room. You could have a lot of fresh air there. You can't go out right now," Marco advised strongly. I knew he was probably afraid that Ricky finds out about it.The
Riccardo POV:I was focusing reading on some business reports on the bed when a text message from Dome popped up on the screen of my phone. Carina had long gone to sleep after taking hundreds of selfies in her sleeping gown. I couldn't care less because my mind was just frustrated due to Cassie. That was why I tried distracting myself by doing some work from the company.But when I opened the text from Dome, my mind just exploded entirely. It was almost midnight but Cassie dared to go out of her room. Dome then sent me a picture of her sitting at a bar counter with Franco Fontana. That was it. That was my final straw. I got to teach her a lesson tonight for kept disappointing me over and over again."Get her to her room right now," I said to Dome through a phone call. I didn't even wait for any reply and just cut it, went to the living area to put on my shirt and my coat before heading out to Cassie's hotel room.Minutes later, I arrived and just entered Cassie's room using the spare
Riccardo POV: So one day, my mind just had the thought of inviting her for lunch. We went to work as usual that morning. I knew Cassie would come into my office to give me my morning coffee and some company files she had reviewed for me. I took that opportunity to invite her for lunch. "Let's go have lunch together today," I said to her casually as she handed me some company files. Her brows knitted in confusion. It was an expected reaction since we never went out for lunch together ever since I married Carina. "We can go something far..." I added and she slowly nodded in understanding, yet said nothing. We couldn't eat at the restaurants near the company because I needed to avoid the employees from seeing me with her. "I'll make a reservation. What kind of food do you wish to eat?" I asked kindly. "Anything will do..." Cassie only replied uninterestedly. She then just left my office. My heart was a bit disheartened by her reaction, but I didn't want to think about it that much. I
Cassandra POV: I didn't know what Ricky was expecting from me when he kept apologizing that our lunch plan together was ruined by Carina. Obviously, I knew he would choose her over me. He loved me? He lied. I didn't want to think otherwise anymore. I just assumed he lied about his love. Saved me a lot of headaches. When the clock struck five, I decided to go down to the lobby first. I didn't wait for Ricky. I reached the lobby and a lady just bumped into me causing all the files I held in hand to fall on the floor. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to bump into you..." That lady said, strangely with a cheerful voice. We both bent down to pick up the files on the floor and as I straightened my body again, I faced her. She had a wide smile on her face and I didn't think I ever saw her inside this company before. She looked new. "Who are you?" I asked unconsciously but she replied with a weird answer. "May Nicola rests in peace," she whispered to me and handed me a tiny piece
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