Gemotions

The realization hit Carol like a physical blow. She’d been helping Mr. Davies with his grocery shopping for years, pushing his rickety old shopping cart. He’d always seemed so frail, so dependent. She found a receipt in the shopping cart, a printout from a private jeweler. A receipt for a ring. A ring worth more than her entire house.

Her pulse hammered in her ears. She remembered his complaints about the price of cat food. Her own hand instinctively went up to her throat, as though checking for her own, much simpler, necklace.

She felt a dizzying sense of confusion, like she'd stumbled into a dream, a bad dream where the world made no sense. She wanted to scream.