I splash water on her and throw a towel onto her lap. “Get out of the pool. Let’s go spend Papa’s money.”

I dump all of our shopping bags onto my bed, tossing my sunglasses down with them. Thankfully, Poppy is easy to shop with. She takes what she likes and doesn’t mess around.

She sighs, falling onto the chair near my patio door. “It doesn’t make sense why your dad would take us in.” She isn’t wrong. I know more than anyone just how unforgiving my father is. The fact that he brought both of them home that night? It isn’t from his kindness. That much I know.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know anything.”

“What’s it like?” she asks, unzipping the gown cover and running her hand over the blue silk. “To be the daughter of the Sicilian mafia?”

“Honestly…” I make my way into my closet to bury my face. “I’ve not known any other way.” There’s a knock on the door before it’s being swung open and one of my father’s foot soldiers is standing on the other side.

“We’re leaving in four hours.”

I stare back at him until he closes my bedroom door again. Grabbing my phone, I dial glam so they can start on both Poppy and me. Fifteen minutes later, Giana and Ria are walking through my door, makeup trolleys in tow with hairdryers and straighteners.

I tell them to start on Poppy first so I can quickly wash up and slip into a silk gown. Poppy is telling them a story about her brother, with both Giana and Ria fully immersed, when I glide my hand over the blank wall beside my bed. Poppy stops talking every now and then to see what I’m doing, but Giana and Ria urge her to continue.

“Come on, girl. We need more juice! So this brother. He’s a bit of a player?” I knock on the wall, until I find the hard sound.

“No, he’s not really. But he did sleep around with girls older than him.”

I push my palm down on the wall and it pops open, revealing the discreet door.

“Wow!” Poppy jumps up from the bed, coming up behind me. “What—” I flick the light on and my collection lights up like the Fourth of July.

“Papa had been collecting them for me until I was old enough to start my own.” My fingers wrap around the Beretta. Hitting the light back off, I shut the door and hike my leg up on my bedside drawers, strapping it to the holster around my thigh.

Poppy’s eyes widen. “Why would you need that at a charity gala?”