It was 6:15 when the door jingled on Rozzi's Funnel Cake Shop. Even the flies battling for their lives on the roll of fly paper dangling above the deep fat fryer went silent. Rozzi put two extra taps of powdered sugar on a customer's elephant ear and rang up the purchase before turning to them. The men wore suits. No one on the boardwalk wore suits. This wasn't exactly Key Largo, but unless you were Donald Trump or someone looking to make a deal with him, the dress was casual by default.

“Danny Rozzichuso?” the first man in a suit said, “we need to talk to you.”

“Lemme guess. FBI.”

They flashed their badges and took seat at the counter, gingerly mounting stainless steel stools which hadn't seen new naugahyde covers since the 1960's. Like everything in Rozzi's shop the metal was far from stainless.

“Agents Hayes and Owens.

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“Mom! Mom! Can I go to Edward?” 9-year old Marie asked. “Sure, just see you are back before 6.” She told her child. She watched Marie walk away and sighed. Her 9-year old daughter was different from most other girls. She had her hair short and she never, but really never wore dresses and when Lydia tried to get Marie into one it was drama and crying. Marie was convinced she was a boy. She had even told everyone in her class that they had to call her Mario. Most of the kids did because Marie had hit a boy who kept calling her Marie. She was also constantly reminding her mother she wasnt a girl. Lydia didnt know what to do. She tried to stimulate her child since she was four to do girly-stuff but it never worked. She had another daughter Tabitha, four years older, who was totally the opposite of her youngest child. You couldnt tear her away from her nail polish or make-up. She was always dressed in pink or purple.

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Chapter 1

Ana and me walked along the subway, my arm around her neck. I sighed as I soaked in the moment. Out of nowhere I saw a man on the tracks of the subway. He looked content with being there, like he was committing suicide. Ana saw him. Fuck, if she never saw him this wouldnt have happened. But she saw him, and tried to help. She always was a caring girl.

“Grab my hand!” she kept yelling. He turned down her offer, but she didnt give up. After some more of her fighting, he pulled her onto the tracks with him. All I could think was about bashing this bastards head in. I quickly pulled her out of the tracks. She buried her head in my chest, I held her. Then, I released her and worked on this idiot.

“Just grab my hand, you dont have to do this!” I said. The subway was coming, people were shouting.

“Come on!” I yelled. Then he pulled me in with him.

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“Me and my butlerwere the same age!”

Prologue

Im Poinsettia Nuvali, nicknamed Tia, 17 years old, I wont be beating around the bush Im the daughter of one of the richest men in my country. My family is well known for our money and power passed on by generations. Its like a Nuvali tradition unlike any other, the history of our heritage doesn't even include poverty in it, but my blood line is very much aware of this circumstances the reason why we are trained to prepare for the worst. Being the only child, and on top of that a girl, the only way to help my family in case we go bankrupt is to marry a man who's status will be able to help raise the company and my family. This is what my parents thought, so they told me to never love anyone but be kind and gentle to everyone else.

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