Her mother, Ekaterina Petrova, came to US as a post order bride from Russia. After a couple of months she ghosted her husband with a tidy sum in her pocket, changed her identity (now Marina Soloyova) and came to Night City, hoping for a better, more free, life. Around then she realised she was pregnant. She had enough money to pay the rent for a tiny apartment H10 a couple of months, and she worked as a waitress daytime and bartending nighttime to save up until her unavoidal dismissal when her pregnancy showed too much.
 
As a small child Natasha spent much time at her neighbors, Mr Wei and mrs Mei-Ling Chang. As they owned a restaurant nearby, and a few older children that could help, they had the means to look after what turned out to be a very expressive and energetic girl.
 
Natasha early found out she had an exhibitionistic streak, and when she was old enough she started dancing at clubs. Her mother (and mrs Chang) was first very much against this, not wanting her daughter sell her body as she basically had done herself. But the complaints got quieter when Natasha started to bring home money, and stopped when Mariana was able to quit her second job.
 
Mr Doug Abernathy, the owner of the club Deep (where Natasha ended up after a couple of years) pressured her into trying to do BD's. This became the turning point. Tasha was a natural and she quickly gathered a group of fans. When she figured she could make enough money on her own she quit the club and started working together with Antoine. Mr Abernathy, in his arrogance, didn't realize Natasha's success was the reason the club had been doing so well the last couple of years, and let her go without question. Later he tried to convince her to come back, meaning she owed him, and that "he made her".
 
Natasha politely declined. And when he persisted, with threats and abuse, she declined less politely. With a fist wrecking his nose.
 
Mr Abernathy continued to be a thorn in her side, using his corp friends to find legal ways to make her owe him money etc. The final straw was when he managed to freeze her funds temporarily. During that time Mariana succumbed to a disease, and even with the help from the Changs and a couple of fans they couldn't pay for healthcare. Mariana might not have survived anyway, but Natasha continues to blame mr Abernathy for her death.