Gemotions

He'd promised her a fresh start, a clean slate. Mark found the room behind the bookcase in the study, a small, windowless chamber with a single, bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. He felt the familiar weight in his chest, the slow, creeping dread. It pressed down on him with the force of a physical object.

He’d insisted on handling the renovations himself, a project he'd justified as a way to bond with the new home. He needed to be alone. He took a heavy breath. This discovery… it was a new secret.

Inside, a single object rested on a small table: a tarnished silver locket, engraved with a date – the same date as his marriage anniversary, the anniversary he knew he had ruined.