Working at a vehicle inspection site in Katy, Texas, was never part of Jaylan Gray’s plan. He’d dreamed of being a park ranger but had to quit college and give up on that dream after his mother died and his little brother, Julian, became his sole priority.

“He’s my reason,” Gray said when he spoke to CBS News last year. “From that day on, I swore – at all costs – I’m protecting him.”

But things soon went from bad to unbearable.

Their mother had left the brothers her house, but when the big freeze hit Texas in 2021, the pipes burst and ruined everything. The contractor Gray hired to fix it took their life savings, leaving the boys to live with their last surviving relative.