Gemotions

"No, no, no," Maria muttered under her breath, staring at the email. She reread the words, as if they would change on the second or third attempt. "We regret to inform..." The phrase repeated in her head like a broken record.

She clutched her chest, feeling a crushing weight. Her parents, immigrants who had sacrificed everything for her education, would be devastated. She couldn't tell them yet. She couldn’t look into their eyes and see the disappointment. She couldn't fail.

She paced the cramped apartment, her footsteps echoing in the silence. The posters on her walls – images of scientists and researchers – mocked her. Her carefully constructed future, the culmination of years of hard work, seemed to evaporate before her very eyes.