Gemotions

The email arrived as she was getting ready to present her research findings to the university board. A shiver ran down Clara's spine as she saw the name in the sender field: Brad Thompson. The boy who’d made her life a misery in high school. She'd spent years deliberately avoiding him, moving across the country to get away from him.

Her hands started to tremble, and she had to sit down. Her carefully crafted presentation seemed to blur before her eyes. The thought of him, of his judging gaze, of reliving the sting of his cruel words, threatened to unravel all the work she had done. She closed her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath, fighting the urge to simply delete the email and disappear.