When he finally held the keys, they felt heavy and cold. The first time he stepped inside, the air was thick with the scent of damp wood and long-settled dust. Sunlight filtered through cracked shutters, illuminating thousands of dancing motes. It was a graveyard of someone else's life—a single velvet slipper under a radiator, a stack of newspapers from 1984, and a piano with keys that clicked but didn't sing.
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"The Millers used to host the best Christmas parties in that parlor," she said softly. "I thought the house had forgotten how to hold a light." When he finally held the keys, they felt heavy and cold