Her Uncle Forbade Her From Entering the Attic—After His Death, What She Finds Changes Everything

At fourteen, she’d tried again, angling it as a joke, “What, do you keep bodies up there?” He’d just stared at her for a long moment, then walked away. That was how most of their arguments went: him retreating into silence, and her sitting in it.

She never asked again. The last two years had been brutal. Her job in the city barely allowed remote work, but she’d pushed to make it happen. Weekends were spent in the guest room of the crumbling house, nursing a man who barely remembered to thank her.