All Is Fair
When they had seen the apartment with its bare walls and freshly cleaned carpets smelling of baking soda, they had run to the living room to find it completely empty except for a worthless coffee table on which sat three envelopes and a small black notebook. Katerina had taken hers to the staircase, Oliver had leaned against the wall by the window, the sun poking through the letter he held tight in his hand, while Izzy had sat right there on the carpet, in the middle of the room. She hadn’t started reading yet. She was eyeing the notebook. Her siblings. And herself. All three of them were acting like their envelope contained something the other two didn’t. Was it true? Did all three envelopes contain the same cheque for the same amount of money? Or were they supposed to keep it a secret from the other two? One could see the mental math on their faces: how much is twenty thousand dollars, split three ways? Not enough to keep the peace.
