The winter came hard that year.
Snow piled up against the doors of the bar, trapping them inside for days at a time. The wind howled through the cracks in the walls, and the temperature dropped so low that even the pipes froze. But inside, the family was warm, huddled together against the cold. Maya had never seen snow like this—not in the city, where the streets were plowed and salted within hours. Here, the snow was a force of nature, wild and untamed, a reminder that they were small in the face of something much bigger. The first storm hit without warning, a wall of white that descended from the mountains and swallowed the town whole. One moment the sky was clear, the next it was a swirling mass of snow and wind that made it impossible to see more than a few feet in front of you. The p
