Kicked Out at Nineteen, My Brother and I Found Grandpa’s Hidden Forest Cellar—and the Secret That Saved Us

Chapter One: The Night We Lost Everything

The night my aunt kicked us out, the rain came down so hard it sounded like gravel on the roof.

I remember that because I stood in the front hallway of the only house that had felt halfway like home since our mom died, staring at two black trash bags full of clothes, while my younger brother Cody tried to keep his face blank. He was seventeen, all elbows and stubborn silence, with wet blond hair hanging into his eyes and a jaw clenched so tightly I thought he might crack a tooth.