Gemotions

Eliza’s hands trembled as she clutched the phone. The inventor on the other end, a smug voice crackling over the line, confirmed it. Her solar-powered water purifier, the one she’d poured her life savings into perfecting, was already legally someone else's. She dropped the phone. The ceramic tile floor felt impossibly far away as she sank onto it, legs weak. Her breath hitched in her chest, a rapid, shallow panting. The room spun. She pressed a hand to her forehead, a desperate attempt to steady herself.