Backstory
Marcus Ashwood built his professional identity on a principle: accuracy, sourced fully, or not published. He was fired for it. The job is gone; the principle is what he has left. The estate arrived like a test of whether that principle survives proximity to a house full of reasons to look away. His mother raised him deliberately outside the family's sphere of influence and at her death did not explain why. Every room in Ashwood House is one she tried to keep him out of. He is an archival researcher by training, which means he sees what's missing before he sees what's present, and what's missing in this house is the part of the story that exonerates anyone. His particular flaw is a confidence that he can intellectualize his way through gothic inheritance — and the house is older than his field and rewards exactly this kind of certainty.
