Merritt Clarke
Name: Merritt Victoria Clarke
Age: 41
Height: 5'10"
Profession: Divorce attorney (currently a partner at Haven and Wexler LLP)
Hometown: Silver Reach, Cascadia, Norland
Parents: Bernard Clarke & Naya Swiftwater
Marital status: Widowed
Current residence: Arbourleigh, Norland
Favourite colour: Rich green 🌿
Personality: Quiet strength. Fiercely loyal. Deeply empathetic. Guarded but hopeful.
Defining trait: Learning to live again after unimaginable loss.
Merritt is the quiet centre of On the Edge of After — a woman standing in the fragile space between grief and what comes next. Born and raised in Silver Reach, Cascadia, Norland’s westernmost province, nestled on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, Merritt carries both her parents’ worlds within her: the rich, grounding heritage of her mother, Naya Swiftwater, and the sharp British pragmatism of her father, Bernard Clarke. At 41 years old and 5'10", she has built a life defined by careful control: a respected career as a divorce attorney, a marriage filled with love, and a future she once thought was certain.
That certainty was shattered by her husband Everett’s sudden death. In the wake of loss, Merritt retreats — into her work, from her friends, from hope, from nearly everything. But life, as it always does, keeps moving. And in that movement comes unexpected change. A quiet pull toward something more, someone more. A chance encounter that might not be chance at all. The steady unfolding of a new chapter she never planned for.
Merritt is fiercely loyal, deeply empathetic, and guarded in ways even she doesn’t fully recognize. But beneath the grief lives a heart still capable of hope, even when she doesn’t believe it herself. Her favourite colour is rich green — the colour of forests, of growth, of the steady, determined way life finds a way forward.
Her story begins again on the edge of after. But that’s only where it begins.
