Gemotions

"This can't be right," Emily muttered, tracing the words on the email with her fingertip. Her normally steady hand trembled. The information, a casual sentence at the end of a family update, felt like a punch to the gut. She felt a burning sensation in her throat, a sensation that made her hard to swallow.

Her breath came in shallow, uneven gasps. The walls of her meticulously organized apartment seemed to tilt. She reread the message, the details hitting her again and again. Her father, the man she trusted above all else, had a son.

She walked to the window, the city lights blurred through her tears. The once-familiar landscape felt strange and unknowable. She felt a vast emptiness opening up inside her.