Gemotions

The weight in Alice's chest made it hard to breathe. Her hands felt numb as she stared at the screen. The carefully crafted online persona of her daughter, Grace, felt like a slap in the face. She felt betrayed.

She sat rigid, her back ramrod straight, staring at the pictures. She pictured Grace, laughing and smiling, with friends she didn’t know. The feeling that something vital had been taken from her left her reeling.

She ran a hand across her forehead, the gesture a futile attempt to calm the storm raging inside. She felt a desperate need to fix things, to rewind time, to reclaim the connection she thought they had. She knew, though, that nothing would ever be quite the same.