Prologue:

Growing up, the only family I knew was Mia, Vince, Leon, Edwin and Hector. As far as I knew, I was a life-long orphan. Vince and Leon had gone legitimate with the garage but they'd sold the grocery store. I was a waitress at El Gato Negro and Mia was in med school; I also worked whenever I could at the garage. I'd graduated high school early but Mia was determined to see that I made something of my self so when I wasn't at Hector's or at the garage, I was in classes at the community college.

As far as I'd known, I'd been orphaned when my mom died after I was born; my dad was supposedly already dead. When I was nine, Mia and Vince got married; they'd been together for as long as I could remember. Then they'd adopted me under Vince's name—Del Amico—six months later. Now, at the age of seventeen, I was the oldest of three children—Whitney, 7, and Xander, 14.