"Can't fall asleep?" Howard asked.
Isabel sat up in the bed and squinted into the dark room. She'd been tossing and turning for hours, but she thought she was alone.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you," he said.
"It's fine," she replied, settling back into the bed.
She heard him cross the room and felt him sit down at the edge of the bed.
"What's keeping you awake?" he asked, his voice gentle.
"I just don't know why people become so greedy," she sighed. "It makes them so cruel."
He sighed, "They're empty inside. They want to fill the huge hole, so they grab at anything—money, status, power, jewels—but it all just makes them emptier."
"But how can they be so empty when they have other things in their lives?" she asked. "They give up family love, friendship, their self-respect—
