While researching a freelance article, I stumbled upon archived stories about my father’s gangland-style murder twenty years before. This inspired me to dig deeper into the story, and in doing so, look critically and emotionally into my childhood. I chronicled my coming-of-age story through the eyes of a fictional character, Anna Matteo, who also discovers articles about her father’s Mafia murder. Both Anna and my story is one of a stolen childhood, a family torn apart by the violence of a Mafia life, and one young girl’s resilient spirit that allows her to rise above the hardships and seek solace in most unusual ways.