Gemotions

A cold sweat slicked my palms as I stared at the screen. The carefully crafted image of normalcy – the happy family dinners, the carefully curated school photos – shattered into a million digital shards. "ShadowSwan77," the name mocked me. It was my son, yet the pictures he posted – late-night parties, questionable friends, beer bottles – were from a world I didn’t recognize.

My legs felt like lead. I needed to sit. I sank onto the edge of my bed. The air in the room seemed to thicken, making it difficult to breathe. This was a nightmare.

I thought back to the times he had been distant, the closed doors, the hushed phone calls. Now it all made sense. A knot tightened in my stomach. What had I missed?