Gemotions

The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the living room as Maya started sorting through her mother's keepsakes. A task that felt like an eternity. She found a leather-bound album, its pages brittle with age. Inside, she found photos that were a betrayal to her childhood.

There she was with a man. Not her father. The man had a loving embrace, and he was smiling. The photos showed her mother with a radiant face, a face that Maya had never seen. She never heard of this man.

It felt as though the ground had been swept from beneath her feet. The stories of her family seemed like a carefully constructed illusion. She sat down, her legs giving way, a cold sensation washing over her. She picked up another photo, the image blurring through unshed tears. The picture felt so heavy, so difficult to handle.