Wilde Like Us

Client: A.K. Ritchie

PORTFOLIO

5/23/20251 min read

Harper Wilde finally has the life she always dreamt of. Her mornings as a tattoo artist pay for her late nights in dive bars. Her tight-knit group of friends has become her chosen family. She even has a boyfriend who sees past her walls from her childhood trauma and understands the real her.

But on her twenty-fifth birthday, her world is turned upside down. A call from her estranged mother reveals that her father—the man who abandoned her—is dead. The bigger shock is that he left behind two children Harper never knew existed: a brooding teenage daughter, Frances, and a bright-eyed son, Eddie. With her mother’s custody petition tied up in red tape, Harper becomes their reluctant guardian.

Overnight, Harper’s carefree life is replaced with teenage hormones, bed-wetting, and the daunting realization that her father’s neglect didn’t extend to his other children. And now, Harper must navigate a guardianship alongside a mother who was never there for her.

For a woman who’s only ever had herself to look out for, becoming someone else’s lifeline is a shock to her system. But as her old life clashes with her new responsibilities, Harper begins to question whether the independence she fought so hard to obtain is really the life she wants.