Gemotions

Liam was building a Lego Millennium Falcon. He always built something when he felt… empty. The silence in the house was a physical weight, pressing down on him. His wife, Sarah, had been gone for six months, a chasm of absence he couldn’t seem to fill. He’d found himself staring at the unfinished painting she'd been working on when she got sick, the brush still resting in the palette. He picked up his teenage son's phone to text him the schedule of his soccer games. The boy had dropped his phone on the table. A notification pinged, and Liam couldn't help himself. He saw an Instagram account, private, full of photos of the boy. Smiling, laughing photos he hadn't seen in months. Photos with friends Liam had never met. The Lego Falcon felt suddenly insignificant, a meaningless distraction.

He felt a sudden, sharp pain in his chest, making him gasp.