The fatal flaw

"Come on, Tabitha" Sebastian chuckled, slowly lowering himself into his worn- out leather chair.

"I don't understand what's so important about some box, daddy". she whined, on the armchair beside him.

"One day, you'll know" he chuckled, drawing a small wooden box from under the coffee table.

"But why can't I know now?"

"Calm down, little miss impatient. You don't need to know now; you'll know when the time is right".

"And that will be?"

"When I'm long gone".

Tabitha took the box and took it back to her bedroom, where it should have laid for over two decades. Instead, she decided to open it there and then.

A few months later, her mother gave her a letter, and told her not to open it until her 16th birthday. Tabitha, however, had other ideas. She ran up to her bedroom and opened it immediately.

A year or so after this, Tabitha received a birthday present from her aunt, and was told not to open it until her birthday, which was a few months away. Again, however, Tabitha opened her gift immediately.

This pattern continued for most of Tabitha's life, except for when Tabitha came out of the shops after completing a survey. She received the results in the mail a few days later, and she put them aside to open later.

Tabitha never found out about the ten thousand pounds she'd won from that survey.