Gemotions

"I just… I don't understand it," Leo stammered, his voice tight. He was on the phone with his literary agent, trying to make sense of the accusations swirling around his favorite author, Iris Thorne. Thorne had built her career on originality. The news that she’d borrowed entire passages from an obscure anthology of short stories was a gut punch.

Leo felt a sharp pain in his chest, like a fist had clenched around his heart. He’d followed Thorne’s career religiously, meticulously annotating her books. Now, he wondered if those annotations were worthless. He ended the call abruptly.

He stared at the signed first edition of Thorne’s most famous novel on his bookshelf, the gold lettering of the title now seeming to glare at him. He ripped the book from its place and threw it, hard, into a corner.