Gemotions

He sat hunched over the kitchen table, the lamp casting long shadows across the room. He’d barely eaten since the news. The world had gone gray, muted. He should have known. He should have suspected something. He’d been going through his aunt's belongings, cleaning out her apartment after the hospice care. In a drawer stuffed with old letters, he found a stack of pictures.

One photograph had his aunt, young and beautiful, on a beach with a man he didn't recognize. The man had his arm around her, kissing her. He remembered his aunt's tales of enduring a life of loneliness. Was the story a lie? He didn't know how to handle this. He stared at the picture, his vision blurring with unshed tears.