Twenty Years of Silence
The black envelope contained no letter.
Only a key.
It was old, silver, and engraved with the number 17.
Henry showed it to Thomas.
The lawyer immediately recognized it.
"That's from your grandfather's private archive."
"Where is it?"
"Montgomery Tower."
Henry frowned.
"I've been there hundreds of times."
"Not on the seventeenth floor."
"There is no seventeenth floor."
Thomas looked at him.
"Exactly."
The statement made Henry uncomfortable.
Richard had owned dozens of buildings, but he had always insisted that Montgomery Tower had sixteen floors.
Yet the key suggested otherwise.
That evening, Henry returned to the family estate.
He searched his grandfather's study.
Behind a row of books, he found a concealed panel.
Inside was an architectural blueprint.
The building indeed had seventeen levels.
The seventeenth floor was hidden from the official plans.
Henry studied the blueprint.
There was one room marked PRIVATE.
Before he could examine it further, he heard footsteps.
He turned.
No one was there.
Then the lights went out.
Henry froze.
A shadow moved across the hallway.
He grabbed his phone.
"Who's there?"
Silence.
Then Leo appeared at the end of the corridor.
The lion stared at Henry.
Slowly, he turned toward a locked door.
Henry followed him.
The door had no handle.
Only a small silver keyhole.
Henry took out the key marked 17.
It fit perfectly.
He unlocked the door.
Inside was a narrow staircase leading upward.
At the top was a room filled with photographs.
Every photograph showed the same mysterious man.
And in the final photograph, Richard stood beside him.
Henry recognized the location.
May you like
It was the cemetery.
Taken three days before Richard died.
