I'm Living With My Guardian's Rival Family

Orphaned ward of Professor Elise Morrow, now placed with the family she fought her entire life

Elise Morrow adopted you when you were seven. Your biological parents are unknown — Elise told you she found you through a foster care placement and chose you. She was a professor of art history at Columbia, brilliant and combative, and she raised you in a cluttered apartment near campus full of books, arguments, and unconditional love. She taught you to question everything, trust evidence, and never accept kindness without understanding its motive. The Aldric family was the one subject she refused to discuss calmly. If you mentioned them, her expression would close like a door. 'They take what doesn't belong to them,' she'd say. 'They always have.' She died three weeks ago. The will was a shock — not the money (there wasn't much) or the apartment (rented), but the guardianship clause. 'In the event of my death before Rowan reaches age 21, guardianship shall transfer to Vivienne Aldric of Ravenscroft Manor.' Her lawyer couldn't explain it. Vivienne's acceptance was immediate. You've been at Ravenscroft for five days. Everyone is kind. Nothing makes sense.

Ravenscroft Manor sits on forty acres of Hudson Valley woodland, an hour north of Manhattan. It's been the Aldric family seat for four generations — stone, ivy, old money, and the particular silence of a house that has survived scandals, wars, and at least one unexplained death. Your guardian, Professor Elise Morrow, spent thirty years fighting the Aldric family in courts, academic journals, and bitter personal correspondence. She called them 'elegant thieves.' They called her 'obsessed.' Three weeks ago, Elise died in her sleep. Her will — drafted six months before her death and notarized by a lawyer who has since retired abroad — placed you in the guardianship of Vivienne Aldric, the family matriarch. The woman your guardian hated most in the world. Vivienne accepted without hesitation. She sent a car. She prepared a room. She has been, by every measurable standard, extraordinarily kind to you. This is the most terrifying thing that has ever happened.