December 1, 2025 • 12 mins
Focusing on the forced marriage between the established Underboss, Cassio, and the much younger Giulia. The story explores the complexities of their arrangement, driven by Cassio's need for a new wife and mother for his two young children following his first wife's death, and Giulia's struggle to adjust to her new life, including the challenges of motherhood and Cassio's dominant nature and emotional distance stemming from his past. Interspersed with the fictional narrative are copyright details and an extensive author's acknowledgment section, which lists other books in the "Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles" and "Camorra Chronicles" series and expresses gratitude to various publishing professionals, beta readers, and fans, while also providing a brief author bio. Ultimately, the book follows their journey as they navigate a relationship born of duty, gradually building trust, intimacy, and a genuine family bond despite the dangerous world they inhabit.
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Produced by:
https://www.podcaistudio.com/
You can listen and download our episodes for free on more than 10 different platforms:
https://linktr.ee/book_shelter
Get the Book now from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/-/en/Sweet-Temptation/dp/B085KT8B98?&linkCode=ll1&tag=cvthunderx-20&linkId=eb99ebdececb5fa3cc7278f539a71d78&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
Produced by:
https://www.podcaistudio.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the deep dive. Today, we are immersing
ourselves in a really specific and pretty dramatic narrative. The
story laid out in the book Sweet Temptation. Yeah, and
this isn't just a romance story. It's a really deep
look at duty, tradition, sudden tragedy, and I mean the
incredibly high prices stability inside a powerful crime family exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And the source material just throws us right into.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
The deep end.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
It starts with this huge crisis. We meet cassium Retti,
who's the underbossso second in command of this Philadelphia syndicate, right,
and his whole world is just violently shattered. He finds
his wife, Gaya dead. He's suddenly alone with two very
young children, Danielle and Simona, and his first thought isn't mourning,
It's about securing his position.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
The pressure is just immense, which is where this arranged
marriage comes in. But it's a mess right from the start.
The woman they choose is Julia Rizzo, and she's still
a girl. Really. Cassio's thirty one and she's seventeen, almost.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Eighteen, and that age gap, I mean, that's almost fourteen.
That's a huge source of conflict for Cassio right away,
he feels forced into this, and Julia, for her part,
she knows exactly who she's marrying. Her own father actually
describes Cassio to her as irrevocably cruel.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Wow. So she's going in with her eyes wide.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Open, as open as the seventeen year olds can be
in this world.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
So our mission today is to walk you through the
full story of how this forced arrangement transforms into a
real partnership. It's a journey through trauma, a hidden murder,
and just massive family secrets. We're going to start right
at the worst moment.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
The book pulls no punches at all. We see Cassio
discovering his wife Gaya. She's dead by suicide on their
eighth wedding anniversary. The imagery is just brutal. Red rose
is to match the blood that stained the sheets and
her white dress, and Cassio's reaction tells you everything you
need to know about him. It's not sorrow, it's just
immediate clinical control. He calls his father and says, clean
(01:55):
this up before the kids see it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
That one act just sets the tone for everything, doesn't it.
Truth about her death the suicide is immediately hidden.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It's covered up, yep, presented to the world as just
a tragedy. And because that family structure cannot look weak,
Cassio has to find a replacement wife.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Immediately, which brings us to Julia.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Why her, Well, she's suitable, she's almost of age. They
just have to wait a little while until she turns
eighteen in November, and she happens to be available. Her
last engagement was broken by a Bratva.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Attack, so it's just pure convenience, pure convenience.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And you can tell Cassio's frustrated by it. He's annoyed.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
He has to wait, and the book mentions him grimacing
over the almost fourteen years between us.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, so she's available, he's desperate. But their first meeting
is explosive.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Oh it is.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Julia gets caught eavesdropping on Cassio and is consilier Pharaoh.
She's so nervous she calls him sir, and Cassio just
immediately goes on the offensive. He's judging everything her appearance right, everything,
her ugly denim dress, a flowery atrocity of a top,
even her sunflower earrings. He doesn't see a potential partner.
He sees a problem, a liability. He tells her flat
(03:06):
out that he needs a woman, not a girl.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
The control is just absolute from second one. He orders
a complete wardrobe overhaul based on her measurements, and then
the most isolating demand of all.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
They won't see each other again until the wedding day,
and she is absolutely forbidden from meeting his traumatized children beforehand.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
So this is not a marriage. It's a business deal.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It is one hundred percent of transaction, which leads us
straight into the wedding itself, and it's less a celebration
and more like a ritual they have to get through.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Especially with that tradition of the bloody sheets to prove
the marriage was consummated.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Right, and Julia is terrified.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
She's trembling so badly during their first dance that Cassio
has to basically order her to stop. He's clearly disappointed,
thinking he's marrying the shaking girl.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I have to ask, though, an underboss, couldn't he find
someone older, more experienced.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
You'd think so, but it says a lot about their system.
He needed someone compliant, available and from the right family
Like yesterday. A younger girl is easier to mold you know,
easier to control than a woman who already has her
own power. So he chose compliance over connection absolutely, and
their wedding night reflects that perfectly. It is all about duty.
The scene is so awkward. Cassio is so focused on
(04:19):
just getting it over with that he actually cuts her
expensive dress off her with a knife, And.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
In the middle of all that tension, there's this weirdly
human moment where she giggles because she's ticklish.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It's this tiny flash of innocence that breaks through his
control for a second. But the duty gets done, the
tradition is honored, the marriage is sealed. But the real
chaos that starts the next morning when they get to.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
His house right because his home life is a total wreck.
This is where the story shifts from you know, mafia
tradition to just pure domestic warfare.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The whole place is dysfunctional, right down to the family dog, Lulu,
This little sluffball of a dog, is so traumatized she
snaps at people and messes in the house, and Cassio
just links the dog to his dead wife's memory and
wants her locked in a storage room.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And the kids are even worse off.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Much worse Danielle, who's almost three, is totally withdrawn. He
doesn't speak, he won't let his father touch him. The baby,
Simona cries constantly unless Cassio or another family member is
holding her. Cassio's just he is emotionally paralyzed.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
This is where Julia, the terrified child bride, finally finds
her footing.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
She does.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
She completely rejects the role he gave her. She is
not going to be a nanny and clueless childbride, and
her first act of rebellion.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Is over the dog.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Loulu.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
What does she do when Cassio orders the dog locked up?
She throws his own words back at him. She says,
it seems I'm as badly trained as your dog.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
WHOA. That is a brave thing to say to an underboss.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It's incredibly brave, and it's strategic. She insists the dog
be cared for, and she just starts trying to connect
with the children, even when Cassio clearly disapproves. She realizes
her only power here is to heal the family that he's.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Failed, and that defiance it quickly moves beyond house rules right,
It gets into the core of their marriage.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It does Cassio's trust issues, which all come from Guya's betrayal,
They just explode during a fight. He admits he ordered
her own bodyguard, a guy named Iliyah.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
To flirt with her. Wait, just to test, just to
test her loyalty. Yeah, and Julia is furious.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
But she uses it. She tells him that his lack
of trust is what will destroy them, and that confrontation,
that's the moment that forces the biggest revelation in the
whole story.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
He has to choose control or chance at a real partnership,
and he chooses honesty.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
But the truth is so much more horrific than anyone,
especially Julia, could have imagined.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
He tells her everything about Guya, everything.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
He admits.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Guya was having an eight year affair with a man
named Andrea, who was not only Cassio's trusted soldier but
also Guya's own half brother.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
No.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, and when Cassio confronted them, Guya threatened their unborn baby, Simona,
with a razor.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And that's what pushed him over the edge.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
That and Andrea twisting the knife by claiming that both kids,
Danielle and Simona, were biologically his, and in this blind rage,
Cassio beat Andrea to death with his bare hands.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
So the murder wasn't about treason. He was about passion
and betrayal.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Exactly, and they covered it up. They framed Andrea as
a rat. Guya couldn't handle the death and the lies,
and that's why she took her own life. Cassio kept
it all a secret to protect the kids, but also
to protect his own power from the Capo Luca.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
That is just an unbelievable weight to carry. What's so
interesting is how Julia reacts. Yeah, she doesn't run.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
She leans in.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
She's incredibly mature about it. She tells him he was
protecting his children, and that confession it changes everything between them.
She starts pushing for real.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Intimacy, like teaching in pool right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Insisting they spend time together.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And then there's this huge symbolic moment he agrees to
stop smoking his cigars because she doesn't.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Like the smell. He's actually putting her comfort first for.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
The first time maybe ever. And with that emotional wall
down really starts and it's almost all driven by Julia.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
She starts to fix the chaos in the house.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
She does, she cuts all of Lulu's matted fur, and
the dog becomes this loving, obedient companion.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
And she uses the dog to get to Danielle.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
She uses Lulu as an emotional bridge exactly, and she
soothes Simona with a baby sling. But the real breakthrough
that comes on Daniel's third birthday. She bakes this huge
funfetti rainbow cake and Danielle sees it and he speaks
his first word in months. He just says, wow, it's
this massive victory. And later he actually asks Julia if
(08:36):
he can call her mom.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
She did it. She healed the family.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
She really did, and their relationship deepens so much after that,
he starts showing her real affection. He even takes her
to his beach house, which was his sacred place for
solitude after Guya died. He admits she breathed new life
into him.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
But that ticking time bomb, the paternity secret is still there.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It is and Cassio's father, Mansueto, is desperate for a
true blood air so he does a secret paternity test
and the results confirm it. Andrea was the biological father
of both children.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Oh Man. So Mansueto confronts Julia with this.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
He pressures her hard.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
He tells her to forget these kids, conceive Cassio's real air,
and secure the title for that child. He's asking her
to betray the very family she just saved, but she refuses.
She flat out refuses. She chooses the children she's raised
and the man she loves over politics and bloodlines.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Okay, so then the story jumps ahead nine years.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
It does.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Cassio and Julia are a stable, solid couple. They've even
decided to have a child at their own, Gabriel. But Mansueto,
on his deathbed, makes one last.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Play, a malicious one. I'm guessing the worst.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
He tells Julia's father Felix, the paternity secret, knowing Felix
will spread it around to boost his own status.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And if the Capo Luca finds out Cassio has been
raising another man's kids and lied about a murder.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Cassio is dead, his title is gone. Everything they built
for nine years is about to be destroyed.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So Julia realizes the only person who can stop it
is Luca.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Himself, and she doesn't hesitate. She takes this massive damble,
goes straight to the Coppo and confesses everything, the affair,
the murder, the real motive, the paternity results, she lays
the family's deepest secret bear to save her husband.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
What a moment.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It's the peak of her transformation, and Luca he listens. Luckily,
Julia's brother warned Cassio, so he was prepared for the confrontation,
but Lucas spares him, not just because of the warning,
but because he respects Cassio's commitment to the family, and
he's impressed by how fiercely Julia.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Fought for them.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
But there's a catch always.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Luca's final words to Cassio are chilling. He says, this
was your last omission. The lie can stand, but Cassio
is now on a very, very short loose.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
And when Cassio gets home, he finally admits to Julia
that he knows the truth about the kid's paternity.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yes, but because of what she did, because of their love,
it doesn't matter anymore. He tells her they are their
children and Danielle will still be his heir. He chooses
his family over blood.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
The epilog wraps it all up. Nine years later, they're
a happy family with their third child, Gabriel, and Cassio.
The control freak says he loves all three kids equally
and is found inner peace in the chaos Julia brought
into his life sunflowers and all.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's an incredible arc.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It goes from this brutal transactional arrangement to a genuine
partnership built on surviving just devastating trauma. Julia found her
power not by fighting the system, but by healing the
family at its heart.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
It's a powerful story. Yeah, but that happiness is built
on a foundation of lies. Isn't it a hidden murder,
a secret paternity, all sanctioned by the CAPO.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
That's the core tension for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So here's the thought we want to leave you with.
What is the future cost of that lie? When Danielle
grows up to take over his underboss, his whole life,
his entire claim to power rests on a secret that
the CAPO allowed to stand. How long can something like
that possibly stay buried? And what happens when it finally
comes out?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
A provocative question to hang on. Thank you for joining
us for this incredibly detailed deep dive into this complex narrative.
Welcome back to the deep dive. Today, we are immersing
ourselves in a really specific and pretty dramatic narrative. The
story laid out in the book Sweet Temptation. Yeah, and
this isn't just a romance story. It's a really deep
look at duty, tradition, sudden tragedy, and I mean the
incredibly high prices stability inside a powerful crime family exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And the source material just throws us right into.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
The deep end.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
It starts with this huge crisis. We meet cassium Retti,
who's the underbossso second in command of this Philadelphia syndicate, right,
and his whole world is just violently shattered. He finds
his wife, Gaya dead. He's suddenly alone with two very
young children, Danielle and Simona, and his first thought isn't mourning,
It's about securing his position.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
The pressure is just immense, which is where this arranged
marriage comes in. But it's a mess right from the start.
The woman they choose is Julia Rizzo, and she's still
a girl. Really. Cassio's thirty one and she's seventeen, almost.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Eighteen, and that age gap, I mean, that's almost fourteen.
That's a huge source of conflict for Cassio right away,
he feels forced into this, and Julia, for her part,
she knows exactly who she's marrying. Her own father actually
describes Cassio to her as irrevocably cruel.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Wow. So she's going in with her eyes wide.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Open, as open as the seventeen year olds can be
in this world.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
So our mission today is to walk you through the
full story of how this forced arrangement transforms into a
real partnership. It's a journey through trauma, a hidden murder,
and just massive family secrets. We're going to start right
at the worst moment.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
The book pulls no punches at all. We see Cassio
discovering his wife Gaya. She's dead by suicide on their
eighth wedding anniversary. The imagery is just brutal. Red rose
is to match the blood that stained the sheets and
her white dress, and Cassio's reaction tells you everything you
need to know about him. It's not sorrow, it's just
immediate clinical control. He calls his father and says, clean
(01:55):
this up before the kids see it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
That one act just sets the tone for everything, doesn't it.
Truth about her death the suicide is immediately hidden.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It's covered up, yep, presented to the world as just
a tragedy. And because that family structure cannot look weak,
Cassio has to find a replacement wife.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Immediately, which brings us to Julia.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Why her, Well, she's suitable, she's almost of age. They
just have to wait a little while until she turns
eighteen in November, and she happens to be available. Her
last engagement was broken by a Bratva.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Attack, so it's just pure convenience, pure convenience.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And you can tell Cassio's frustrated by it. He's annoyed.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
He has to wait, and the book mentions him grimacing
over the almost fourteen years between us.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, so she's available, he's desperate. But their first meeting
is explosive.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Oh it is.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Julia gets caught eavesdropping on Cassio and is consilier Pharaoh.
She's so nervous she calls him sir, and Cassio just
immediately goes on the offensive. He's judging everything her appearance right, everything,
her ugly denim dress, a flowery atrocity of a top,
even her sunflower earrings. He doesn't see a potential partner.
He sees a problem, a liability. He tells her flat
(03:06):
out that he needs a woman, not a girl.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
The control is just absolute from second one. He orders
a complete wardrobe overhaul based on her measurements, and then
the most isolating demand of all.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
They won't see each other again until the wedding day,
and she is absolutely forbidden from meeting his traumatized children beforehand.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
So this is not a marriage. It's a business deal.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It is one hundred percent of transaction, which leads us
straight into the wedding itself, and it's less a celebration
and more like a ritual they have to get through.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Especially with that tradition of the bloody sheets to prove
the marriage was consummated.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Right, and Julia is terrified.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
She's trembling so badly during their first dance that Cassio
has to basically order her to stop. He's clearly disappointed,
thinking he's marrying the shaking girl.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I have to ask, though, an underboss, couldn't he find
someone older, more experienced.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
You'd think so, but it says a lot about their system.
He needed someone compliant, available and from the right family
Like yesterday. A younger girl is easier to mold you know,
easier to control than a woman who already has her
own power. So he chose compliance over connection absolutely, and
their wedding night reflects that perfectly. It is all about duty.
The scene is so awkward. Cassio is so focused on
(04:19):
just getting it over with that he actually cuts her
expensive dress off her with a knife, And.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
In the middle of all that tension, there's this weirdly
human moment where she giggles because she's ticklish.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It's this tiny flash of innocence that breaks through his
control for a second. But the duty gets done, the
tradition is honored, the marriage is sealed. But the real
chaos that starts the next morning when they get to.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
His house right because his home life is a total wreck.
This is where the story shifts from you know, mafia
tradition to just pure domestic warfare.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The whole place is dysfunctional, right down to the family dog, Lulu,
This little sluffball of a dog, is so traumatized she
snaps at people and messes in the house, and Cassio
just links the dog to his dead wife's memory and
wants her locked in a storage room.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And the kids are even worse off.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Much worse Danielle, who's almost three, is totally withdrawn. He
doesn't speak, he won't let his father touch him. The baby,
Simona cries constantly unless Cassio or another family member is
holding her. Cassio's just he is emotionally paralyzed.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
This is where Julia, the terrified child bride, finally finds
her footing.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
She does.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
She completely rejects the role he gave her. She is
not going to be a nanny and clueless childbride, and
her first act of rebellion.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Is over the dog.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Loulu.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
What does she do when Cassio orders the dog locked up?
She throws his own words back at him. She says,
it seems I'm as badly trained as your dog.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
WHOA. That is a brave thing to say to an underboss.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It's incredibly brave, and it's strategic. She insists the dog
be cared for, and she just starts trying to connect
with the children, even when Cassio clearly disapproves. She realizes
her only power here is to heal the family that he's.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Failed, and that defiance it quickly moves beyond house rules right,
It gets into the core of their marriage.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It does Cassio's trust issues, which all come from Guya's betrayal,
They just explode during a fight. He admits he ordered
her own bodyguard, a guy named Iliyah.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
To flirt with her. Wait, just to test, just to
test her loyalty. Yeah, and Julia is furious.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
But she uses it. She tells him that his lack
of trust is what will destroy them, and that confrontation,
that's the moment that forces the biggest revelation in the
whole story.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
He has to choose control or chance at a real partnership,
and he chooses honesty.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
But the truth is so much more horrific than anyone,
especially Julia, could have imagined.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
He tells her everything about Guya, everything.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
He admits.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Guya was having an eight year affair with a man
named Andrea, who was not only Cassio's trusted soldier but
also Guya's own half brother.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
No.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, and when Cassio confronted them, Guya threatened their unborn baby, Simona,
with a razor.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And that's what pushed him over the edge.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
That and Andrea twisting the knife by claiming that both kids,
Danielle and Simona, were biologically his, and in this blind rage,
Cassio beat Andrea to death with his bare hands.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
So the murder wasn't about treason. He was about passion
and betrayal.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Exactly, and they covered it up. They framed Andrea as
a rat. Guya couldn't handle the death and the lies,
and that's why she took her own life. Cassio kept
it all a secret to protect the kids, but also
to protect his own power from the Capo Luca.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
That is just an unbelievable weight to carry. What's so
interesting is how Julia reacts. Yeah, she doesn't run.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
She leans in.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
She's incredibly mature about it. She tells him he was
protecting his children, and that confession it changes everything between them.
She starts pushing for real.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Intimacy, like teaching in pool right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Insisting they spend time together.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And then there's this huge symbolic moment he agrees to
stop smoking his cigars because she doesn't.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Like the smell. He's actually putting her comfort first for.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
The first time maybe ever. And with that emotional wall
down really starts and it's almost all driven by Julia.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
She starts to fix the chaos in the house.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
She does, she cuts all of Lulu's matted fur, and
the dog becomes this loving, obedient companion.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
And she uses the dog to get to Danielle.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
She uses Lulu as an emotional bridge exactly, and she
soothes Simona with a baby sling. But the real breakthrough
that comes on Daniel's third birthday. She bakes this huge
funfetti rainbow cake and Danielle sees it and he speaks
his first word in months. He just says, wow, it's
this massive victory. And later he actually asks Julia if
(08:36):
he can call her mom.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
She did it. She healed the family.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
She really did, and their relationship deepens so much after that,
he starts showing her real affection. He even takes her
to his beach house, which was his sacred place for
solitude after Guya died. He admits she breathed new life
into him.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
But that ticking time bomb, the paternity secret is still there.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It is and Cassio's father, Mansueto, is desperate for a
true blood air so he does a secret paternity test
and the results confirm it. Andrea was the biological father
of both children.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Oh Man. So Mansueto confronts Julia with this.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
He pressures her hard.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
He tells her to forget these kids, conceive Cassio's real air,
and secure the title for that child. He's asking her
to betray the very family she just saved, but she refuses.
She flat out refuses. She chooses the children she's raised
and the man she loves over politics and bloodlines.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Okay, so then the story jumps ahead nine years.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
It does.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Cassio and Julia are a stable, solid couple. They've even
decided to have a child at their own, Gabriel. But Mansueto,
on his deathbed, makes one last.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Play, a malicious one. I'm guessing the worst.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
He tells Julia's father Felix, the paternity secret, knowing Felix
will spread it around to boost his own status.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And if the Capo Luca finds out Cassio has been
raising another man's kids and lied about a murder.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Cassio is dead, his title is gone. Everything they built
for nine years is about to be destroyed.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So Julia realizes the only person who can stop it
is Luca.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Himself, and she doesn't hesitate. She takes this massive damble,
goes straight to the Coppo and confesses everything, the affair,
the murder, the real motive, the paternity results, she lays
the family's deepest secret bear to save her husband.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
What a moment.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It's the peak of her transformation, and Luca he listens. Luckily,
Julia's brother warned Cassio, so he was prepared for the confrontation,
but Lucas spares him, not just because of the warning,
but because he respects Cassio's commitment to the family, and
he's impressed by how fiercely Julia.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Fought for them.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
But there's a catch always.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Luca's final words to Cassio are chilling. He says, this
was your last omission. The lie can stand, but Cassio
is now on a very, very short loose.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
And when Cassio gets home, he finally admits to Julia
that he knows the truth about the kid's paternity.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yes, but because of what she did, because of their love,
it doesn't matter anymore. He tells her they are their
children and Danielle will still be his heir. He chooses
his family over blood.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
The epilog wraps it all up. Nine years later, they're
a happy family with their third child, Gabriel, and Cassio.
The control freak says he loves all three kids equally
and is found inner peace in the chaos Julia brought
into his life sunflowers and all.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's an incredible arc.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It goes from this brutal transactional arrangement to a genuine
partnership built on surviving just devastating trauma. Julia found her
power not by fighting the system, but by healing the
family at its heart.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
It's a powerful story. Yeah, but that happiness is built
on a foundation of lies. Isn't it a hidden murder,
a secret paternity, all sanctioned by the CAPO.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
That's the core tension for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So here's the thought we want to leave you with.
What is the future cost of that lie? When Danielle
grows up to take over his underboss, his whole life,
his entire claim to power rests on a secret that
the CAPO allowed to stand. How long can something like
that possibly stay buried? And what happens when it finally
comes out?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
A provocative question to hang on. Thank you for joining
us for this incredibly detailed deep dive into this complex narrative.
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