My Guardian
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Lisa Seven
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Juniper’s life fractures the moment she loses her father. Grief pulls her backward while the future rushes in fast, unfamiliar, and full of rules she never agreed to. She is placed under the care of a man tied to her father’s past, steady and watchful, offering structure when everything feels unmoored. As Juniper learns to live in a world shaped by loss, old wounds surface and emotions blur in ways she does not expect. Comfort becomes complicated, closeness feels dangerous, and feelings arrive without permission. She tries to be strong, to be sensible, to behave. But hearts are rarely sensible, especially when longing collides with limits. How do you heal when desire refuses to stay quiet?
Chapter 1
JUNIPER
My father died today.
He’d been sick for months, so I knew this day was coming. I still hoped he would stay alive for my seventeenth birthday, not that it would have mattered much to him anyway.
Jacob Callahan wasn’t the best person, but he was still my father and the only family I had.
The doctor broke the news to me as I stood in the cold hallway of the hospital.
“We tried everything we could,” he said, as if that would give me some sort of comfort.
“Is there anyone we can call for you, Miss Callahan?” he asked.
Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring my vision. I couldn’t think at all. My father was gone.
All of a sudden, the world seemed so big, so empty, and I was all alone.
I could feel my knees weakening. With the newfound emptiness weighing on me, I was ready to give in and fall to the ground.
But then I heard a deep voice coming from behind me.
“It’s okay, doctor, I’ll take care of everything,” the voice said.
The doctor pursed his lips and gave me a slight nod before he walked away. I used the sleeves of my hoodie to wipe away the tears that were falling freely down my face.
Slowly, I turned to search for the source of the voice that promised to take care of everything.
To my surprise, I was met by cold gray eyes with no emotion behind them at all. The man they belonged to was facing me.
He was dressed in an all-black suit, as if he knew he would be greeted by death.
I wondered who he could possibly be as my eyes traveled up his tall physique and landed on his strikingly handsome face.
My eyes carefully watched as he took a few steps forward and stopped right in front of me. He made me feel small as he towered over me.
All I managed to do was stare into his gray eyes as words failed to leave my mouth.
“Juniper?” he said.
There was that voice again, but this time it said my name. I simply raised my eyebrows, waiting for him to say more.
“You look just like her,” he whispered, almost to himself.
I knew exactly who he was referring to—my mother, of course. She died giving birth to me, and my father punished me for inheriting her face for most of my life.
The man was intimidating, so my voice was a bit shaky when I asked, “Who are you?”
“My name is Cade Callahan. Your father was my adoptive brother. He called me about a week ago, informing me of his illness and that he had made me your legal guardian.”
He paused and watched my face for a second. Then he continued speaking when I didn’t offer a response.
“This was the only time I could come, but I guess I was a little too late.”
Every single word that came out of his mouth shattered my reality. My father always told me everyone in his family was dead.
He made it a point to always remind me that my mother was all he had before I took her life.
He lied to me all my life. Not only was I finding out that my father had a brother, but also that he left me in his care.
All I could think about was how he was nothing but a stranger to me.
I looked into his cold gray eyes once more, no longer afraid of their lack of emotion. “My father has never told me about you or any other family for that matter. I do not need you. I can take care of myself.”
He sighed and responded very calmly, “I don’t want to be your pretend father either. I have too many responsibilities. I wouldn’t have agreed to do this if it wasn’t for your mother. She is the only reason I’m here.”
He straightened his face and asked, “Did you say your goodbyes?”
His tone was flat and uncaring. I could tell that I had just moved from one heartless man to another.
The only difference was that my father was capable of showing some sort of emotion, even if it was anger or disgust.
At least it was proof that he was capable of feeling something.
I did not want to see my father’s lifeless body. I decided then that my last memory of him would be when I paid him a visit the previous day after school and read him The Stranger by Albert Camus.
He claimed that it was my mother’s favorite book, and we both cherished it for that particular reason.
I chose to lie to the stranger in front of me and told him that I had already said goodbye to my father. It was obvious that was untrue, but because of his indifference, he did not bother to question me any further.
He motioned with his hand to the side, and a man, also dressed in a suit, appeared from down the hallway and made his way toward us.
“Take her to the car while I take care of this,” my new guardian ordered.
My heart began to race. Everything was happening so fast.
I wasn’t used to change, and I don’t think I have ever liked it.
I looked at the man who was meant to take care of me with teary eyes, but he didn’t seem to care at all. He walked past me and left a stranger to take me to his car.
I didn’t mean to make things difficult for him. I just needed things to stay the same for a little bit longer.
***
I sat in the car for what felt like hours, all by myself in the back. I was blocked from seeing the man in the front by a partition.
I cried, thinking about my father. I loved him, and I believed that deep down he loved me too.
I took away the love of his life, so I couldn’t blame him for being cruel to me.
My hope was always that one day he would eventually forgive me and love me just as much as he loved my mother. But now that he was gone, I knew that day would never come.
The sound of the car door opening and the sudden feeling of cold air seeping through my clothes startled me, abruptly pulling me out of my thoughts.
My new guardian got in, and the smell of his cologne filled the whole car within seconds. He clenched his jaw and stared straight ahead.
The car began to move.
I looked at him, afraid of what the next year of my life would be like under his care.
He was distant, and he offered me no support for my father’s passing. He claimed to be his brother, yet he seemed to feel nothing about his death.
I was starting to wonder if he was capable of feeling anything at all.
Without even looking at me, he broke the silence. “You will stay with me until you turn eighteen. I expect you to leave after that. You don’t have to worry about money. I will give you all the money you need to take care of yourself when you’re on your own.”
It’s funny—as he spoke, I could only think about how I always fell subject to being unloved. The man only needed a few minutes around me to know that he wanted nothing to do with me.
A few minutes was all he needed to know that he couldn’t even try to be nice to me.
I turned to look at him as I noticed that we were leaving Ernestine Valley.
“I thought we were going back to my house,” I said.
He barely glanced at me.
“We won’t be staying there. We will stay in the hotel until the funeral is over, then we will fly back to my place.”
Why? I wondered.
That was my home, and it was completely fine. There was nothing wrong with the home my father raised me in.
It wasn’t fancy or anything, but it’s all I’ve ever known. His tone made it seem like it wasn’t good enough for him.
My eyes drifted to the window, watching as the world outside moved as fast as the car. I was beginning to look forward to the day I turned eighteen so I would be free from him.
