The past

should be left where it was, she raged at him. He chose not to reply, looking at the crack in the window pane instead. His cigarette lay unattended, in between his fingers.

He looked up at her. She was beautiful, if her kind of beauty appealed, he thought. Glorious red head, tamed into a chignon, hazel eyes and a strong dominating chin. The diamonds at her ears sparkled with life. He had given those to her for their 10th anniversary.

His decision to open that envelope would cost him their marriage.

All it takes is a crack

he thought standing at the window. The morning cold hit his face viciously, the wind blowing, as he sucked the cigarette into his mouth. His wife lay under the warm blankets, huddled as if in a cave. Occasionally she would make her morning sounds - a murmur, a sigh, in his mind, something intimate, meant only for him.

The wind she slapped at his face again. He heard the rustle and then the start of a child's wail from the other room. His morning had begun.