Maria Angelica/Introduction

 Maria Angelica Merlino didn't get a say about her family or upbringing. She didn't ask to have an uncle who runs the mob. She didn't ask to have a dad who's made. She didn't ask to meet the people she met, or to have access to the things she's had access to. She didn't ask for any of it, but she sure as hell made the most of it.

 Most people don't know her family ties, since she lives a pretty pronounced double life much of the time and goes by Maria Angelica. Being a daughter when she ought have been a son is what's kept her where she is. A pretty face at the edge of things, overlooked, underestimated, and written off. Let her have her college education and her master's degree, if it'll make her happy. Just means the groom will be a better class of guy to her family. Such were their expectations of Maria.

 Then she lucked into Vincent, and slash or Vincent lucked into her. Their symbiotic need to lift one another out of their respective shitty and unfavorable circumstances led to a convenient tie by blood in the women's bathroom of a certain Redbank ballroom. And now they're going to take over the world, starting with a small club in Center City.

 Hopefully daddy doesn't mind.