The Sound of Silence Shattering

De: Darlene Zagata

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

The city never truly sleeps, but at 2:42 AM on a Wednesday in October, it comes close. The streets below are empty save for a taxi sliding through a yellow light, its driver oblivious to the drama unfolding twenty-three stories above.

In the penthouse apartment of the Merriman Tower, Pierce Watterman stands at the edge of his balcony. The October wind cuts through his silk pajamas, raising goosebumps on his arms. He should be cold, but he doesn't notice. His attention is fixed on something—someone—inside the apartment.

"You don't understand," he says, his voice carrying a tremor that's foreign to a man who's spent his life commanding boardrooms. "This changes everything."

The response is too quiet to hear, swallowed by the wind and the ambient hum of the sleeping city.

Pierce takes a step backward. His heel finds the edge of the balcony railing. For a moment, he teeters there, arms windmilling, eyes wide with an expression that could be fear or surprise or both.

Then he falls.

It takes 3.4 seconds for a body to fall twenty-three stories. Pierce Watterman has time to think many things in those seconds. He thinks about his daughter's wedding he'll never attend. He thinks about the offshore account no one knows about. He thinks about Margot's perfume, still lingering in his apartment after all these years apart.

Mostly, though, he thinks about the face he saw in those final moments—and whether he'll carry that image or the regret to whatever comes next.

The sound of his body hitting the pavement is surprisingly quiet. Just a dull thud that doesn't even wake the homeless man sleeping in the doorway across the street. By the time the taxi circles back around the block, its driver having forgotten his phone charger, Pierce Watterman is already gone.

The penthouse balcony stands empty. The glass door slides shut with a whisper.

And in that silence, someone waits.