Gemotions

She traced the outline of the photograph with a shaking finger. Her father, the man who had instilled a sense of rigid propriety in her life, was in the picture. He was standing on a beach, a cigarette dangling from his lips, laughing as he clutched a bottle of something she couldn’t identify. The woman with him was not her mother.

A wave of nausea swept over her. She knew she shouldn't have snooped. She should have respected the unspoken boundaries. Every memory, every story she’d held dear seemed to crumble before her.

She closed her eyes, trying to breathe evenly. How would she ever face him again?