Gemotions

The afternoon sun streamed through the window, illuminating dust particles as they danced around the open album. Amelia felt a cold sweat prickle her skin. She had always known her mother as a reserved, quiet woman, a pillar of strength and stability.

She stared, wide-eyed, at a photograph of her mother, clad in a sequined dress, belting out a song into a microphone at a dimly lit nightclub. Her mother's face was animated, filled with a joy Amelia had never witnessed.

Amelia’s throat closed up. She replayed the image in her mind, then looked at the next one. A motorcycle, her mother's arm wrapped around a man who wasn't her father. A sense of unease, a deep unsettling, threatened to overwhelm her.