Crystal Anton was born into royalty. Mob royalty, that is, and it took a lot for her to realize that her upbringing was essentially a really long episode of The Sopranos minus the cutting to black halfway through the episode. Not that Crystal really thought that could happen, because cutting to black usually meant death in real life -- especially when she started to learn what her father Tony really did for a living. Being born into the infamous Anton mob family meant a lot of different things, but it mostly mean that through New York, she was treated differently. She was treated like she was a princess, a queen, and while some people might actually like that type of treatment, Crystal hated it.

While her mother would placate herself with wine and a collection of 'designer drugs', Crystal played the role of the perfect daughter. She did everything that she could to learn what her father was doing, but also careful to not actually get herself involved in any of his dealings, so not to implicate herself. The more of a role she played, the closer to her father that she got, and it made things complicated -- especially when he proved to be a pretty decent man and father outside of the mob ties that he had. It made Crystal conflicted on what she knew was right, and what she knew was wrong. Could she really betray her family, her father, when this was the life she knew?

That decision was made clear to her when she was told she was arranged to be married into another mob family, a way to connect the two families and call a truce. At first, she tried to go along with it, but she was only 16 and she shouldn't have to be married to a man that she didn't know or love. Especially when said man was 19 years old, and what they were doing was against the law. She protested to her father, but he turned on her quickly, telling her that she had to go along with this, or she'd be dead to him. That he had big explosive plans for her wedding reception, and that was when it clicked. She was being used as a pawn in his awful game for power, and she didn't want any part of it.

She had figured out years before that there was an FBI informant that was placed in the family, working his way up the ranks. She had confronted this man two weeks before the wedding, and when he protested, she showed him that she had hacked into his communications and proved that she knew who he was. As he protested that he could have her arrested for a federal crime, she told him she didn't want him to blow his cover, she wanted him to help her get out, and she would help him in return. Even though she was only 16, she knew enough of watching her father and others how to negotiate her own terms, and the FBI agent found himself rather impressed; they agreed on terms, and they agreed on a plan to stop the explosions at the wedding and get everyone arrested, while getting Crystal out.

Somehow she had expected something to go wrong in the plan, but it didn't. Everything went well, or well enough when you're getting the only family you've ever known arrested. She played her part well, that she didn't know what was going on, that she was outraged, and how fucking dare they do this. Her father believed her, promised that he'd get out of jail and come protect her, and she dutifully called out 'daddy!' as she was pulled in one direction by the agents and he was thrown into an armored car. As soon as the car left, and she was in a safe distance from everyone, she pushed out of the agent's grip and promptly threw up in the bushes. She knew she had done the right thing, she knew she had helped take down a mob family, but it was her family. And now...she had nowhere else to go.

Instead, she was surprised to learn that she could stay with the FBI agent who had been in the family with her. The man, about 56, had two teenaged daughters of his own, and he knew that being around girls her age in a normal upbringing could help her. Crystal agreed, and she went to live with him for a while, as they worked out the issues of her identity and schooling. She finished out high school in New York, and the FBI helped to place her in witness protection, giving her a new name.

Her new name was Samara Brighton, and she was off to study criminal justice at Harvard University. She was going to start a new life.

As she got used to be called by her new name, Samara, as she now identified, found that settling into a live without riches and power was rather strange. She had to change the way she viewed the world, and while it wasn't difficult, it was just interesting. She kept her head down and studied hard, and decided that she wanted to live her life on the right side of the law. She ended up graduating with a bachelor's degree, and immediately went into researching the type of job that she wanted.

But given her history, she couldn't be a cop. Any background check would show that she was the daughter of a major league mobster in jail, and most police stations wouldn't take her. Even her FBI contacts told her that maybe that wasn't such a good idea. She didn't want to get into the FBI either, because that was just too many rules to hold her back. She wanted to be able to help, but she wanted to be able to do it on her own terms. So, she became a private investigator, operating out of Boston. It was easier for her to help people if she was able to hide in the shadows while investigating people; she still had contacts with the police and FBI that she could use, and she knew how to hide from the mobsters (to a fault). It's not to say that Samara hasn't had a lot of close calls, she has, especially when she gets a little reckless. But she still likes to think she's smart enough to keep her head above water. For now.

Her little PI business caught the attention of someone else, who had once been the head of security for a major company within Boston, and after some chatting, Samara has now joined forces with this other private investigator, deciding that it's sometimes good to have some backup and someone to stand by her as she makes what could possibly be reckless decisions. Samara is happy with her decisions in life, but sometimes, she wonders what it would have been like had she stayed in the crime family she had been brought up in. But she doesn't linger on that thought for long, she always quickly moves on, she knows her life is exactly where it is supposed to be.