Gemotions

The small, cramped apartment felt smaller than usual. Emily, hunched over the kitchen table, ripped open the envelope. The paper felt thin and cheap in her hands. The photograph within was even worse – a grainy, faded image of a teenage boy, a boy who was her half-brother.

She shoved the photograph away, her chest tightening. A boy, a child, the product of her father’s careless behavior. All the emotions she’d suppressed for years – the feelings of abandonment, the feeling of not being enough – surged to the surface. She hated the boy for existing, for being a symbol of her father’s betrayal.

She grabbed the bottle of wine, the one she usually reserved for special occasions, and poured herself a large glass. She drank it down in one gulp, the alcohol burning a path down her throat.