Hello Reddit, I’m currently writing this from a very cold, very bright room, where everyone keeps looking at me like I’m a monster.

Years ago, my sister and her partner died in a tragic boating accident. Only one of their children survived. It was… chaotic. So much blood, so much screaming, and then, silence. I did what any good person would do—I took the child in. Raised them as my own.

Now, here’s where people seem to take issue: the child who survived was originally registered as male. But after everything that happened, I felt it would be healthier—cleaner, really—to raise her as a girl. I already had one boy at home. Why not a girl this time? I thought it would be lovely. Gentle. Balanced. I never told her the full truth. I didn’t want to confuse her with labels and questions. I gave her a new name, new clothes, new rules. I made everything neat.

She grew up quiet, sweet, a little odd, yes, but nothing too alarming. Until last summer.

She went to a camp. A few weeks in, I got a call. One death. Then another. Then several more. By the time they pieced things together, there were six… maybe seven victims. All children. The media had a field day. Reporters, helicopters, crying parents. The whole thing spun out of control.

They arrested her, of course. But here’s what I don’t understand—why am I also being treated like a criminal?

The families of the deceased children glare at me in court. They whisper things about “monstrosity” and “delusion.” They say I molded her into what she became. That I built a lie so deep she drowned in it. But I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t tell her to do anything. All I did was give her a better life. A softer one.

Is that really so awful?

Reddit, AITA for raising my niece the way I did? Or are people just looking for someone to blame?

—M