Gemotions

The small, handwritten note felt heavy in her palm. Her mother's neat script, so familiar, now seemed to taunt her with its secrets. "Your brother…" it read, followed by a name, a location. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic drumbeat against the sudden, suffocating silence of the room. She felt a burning in her eyes, a strange, unwelcome moisture. She didn’t know what to do, how to process this revelation. She just stood there, rooted to the spot, the letter a burden in her hand.