Gemotions

The musty smell of the secondhand bookstore clung to Amelia's fingers as she carefully unfolded the brittle letter. It had fallen from between the pages of a well-worn copy of *Wuthering Heights*. She read the elegant script, each word a cold accusation. Her breath hitched. The words, addressed to her grandmother from a man she'd never heard of, detailed an affair and a secret child, a child Amelia's own mother had never known about. Her stomach lurched, and she nearly dropped the letter. The air around her suddenly felt thin, as though someone had stolen the oxygen.