Alessandra Valente was just a normal girl from Brooklyn whoinadvertently lands a job at the newest and hottest designer store on the Upper East Side, Lux. Growing up without neither a mother nor a father did not prove a challenge for Ali, who lives with her uncle. However, some things in Ali's life just didn't add up, like how she'd have constant dreams at night about a woman she'd never met but seems to know, or how her uncle returns from business trips with bruises up and down. Things go from bad to worse when Ali was brutally attacked and nearly killed at work. As Ali's life takes stranger and stranger turns, she discovers dark family secrets and eventually, finds out her true identity.

Because after all, secrets can't remain secrets forever.

1988

"You have to come with me." He said, full of urgency, despite the lack of emotion on his face, Diana could tell that Philip wasn't lying, nor was he joking. But still, Diana hesitated.

"You're the last person he wants to see, Philip, what good would it do if his exile daughter came with you?" Diana asked, praying that Philip had a good answer, because that would be enough to persuade her. From the look of hesitation on Philip's face, she could tell he didn't have an answer.

"Look," Philip said, looking at her straight in the eye. "I know that my brother and I haven't always gotten along, but he's still my brother, and your daughter's my niece. Plus I still have a bone to pick with Michael, for what happened 13 years ago. He broke my family apart, he forced to the state of my relationship with my brother."

"But what could I do? My father hasn't tried to contact me in 12 years, I think me going would just make things worse." Diana said, tears welling up in her eyes. Talking about her father was always a bittersweet subject.

"Diana, you might not be able to believe this, but he does love you, you are his daughter after all. After Francisco died, he hadn't been the same. Look, you know as well as I do that he was forced to banish you." Diana didn't say anything, Philip couldn't think of anything more to say, he knew that he needed Diana in on this, she was basically his lifeline. Without her, Michael Guizzo really had no reason to not kill him.

Diana looked away, into the distant behind Philip. It was a chill fall night, the wind lingered traces of the winter that was coming. Diana suddenly felt so tiny in the darkness, a fragile character, but Philip knew that Diana was anything but fragile. Anyone who's been through what she's been through and lived, is bound to be something extraoridinary.

"Ok, I'll come." Diana replied, the look of determination could also be heard in her voice. Philip smiled, but only for a bit, as he knew that this was the beginning of the most dangerous journey he was going to make. The fall wind picked up, Philip felt that his overcoat wasn't enough. He wrapped his scarf around himself a few more times, and took out his leather gloves and slipped them on. He had his arm around Diana to guide her to the parking lot.

Suddenly, Philip sensed it, as if it was just a natural instinct kicking in. Something was wrong, he was sure of it.

There was only a few pedestrians on the road, not unusual for this time of the night, but something was off. There was no cars coming, and while this wasn't a busy street, there was certainly bound to be traffic. Philip had guessed that he was being followed but knew that long as he was with Diana, the followers wouldn't attempt anything.

He had been dead wrong.

Next morning at 3:03am, the New York police were called over to investigate the murder of two people. An old lady had reported it when she was out searching for her cat, she said that her cat had ran to the way of the park, and when she went after her cat she stumbled upon two dead bodies: a man and a woman.

The police was surprised that no one had reported it earlier, since the time of death on the body was almost 2 hours ago. There was no identification on the male but he was carrying a gun on him, the woman had only her wallet with her driver's license. It identified her as Diana Guizzo.

The police, Taylor McAden, was a seasoned police, shootings in Upper West Side was not uncommon, however this one strike him as odd because the man did not look like he belonged on this side of the city, the woman he could believe. But what were they doing together? Had the man kidnapped her? He highly doubted it. Being on the force for almost 15 years taught Taylor to trust his instinct above all else.

There was also that name, Guizzo, Taylor could almost be sure that he had heard it somewhere, a name like that doesn't just pop up every day.

As the bodies were taken by the crime scene investigators, Taylor took the statement of the old lady. Still, Guizzo, that name had definitely rung a bell for Taylor. He went back to the police station and opened up his computer. At first he debated going through the police database but he figured that it wouldn't be there; if it was the name of a local criminal then Taylor would've definitely recognized it. Instead, Taylor entered the name Guizzo into Google database. At first nothing came up, just websites saying it's an Italian last name. But then Taylor decided to google "Guizzo Italy", in the first few pages there were nothing, but on the 4th page Taylor found something.

It was an article, published in Italian but translated, published in Sicily 12 years ago about the Guizzo family involved with the notorious Machado gang, there was an assassination attempt but the Machado gang only managed to take down Francisco Guizzo, missing their main target: Michael Guizzo.

As Taylor read more on the article, he suddenly realizes why Guizzo sounds familiar. A chilling realization sank in on Taylor as he sat back on his chair. He knew that this case would never be solved, Taylor also knew what the CSIs would find after they check the bodies: just the generic stuff, a gun bullet that matches the common kind of gun—impossible to trace to specially one person, or even a person of particular interest. No sign of struggle, but most importantly, no evidence whatsoever of the shooter.

This case is a dead end from the beginning. Taylor knew this case would be impossible to solve, because they were messing with something bigger than any city police here.

They would be meddling in the business of an international notorious gang.