Gemotions

The weight of the secret, the hidden profile, settled on him like a lead blanket. Robert felt a suffocating pressure in his chest. It wasn't the content of the posts that bothered him the most; it was the fact that his daughter, Chloe, had felt the need to hide something from him. He felt like his own breath had been taken from him.

He ran a hand over his face, as if trying to wipe away the shock and the hurt. The silence in the house was deafening, each creak of the floorboards, each tick of the clock amplifying his feeling of loneliness. He felt a profound sense of isolation, of being an outsider in his own home. He began to pace.

He felt the sting of tears, the unfamiliar burn behind his eyes. He went to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of whiskey, the amber liquid doing nothing to soothe the ache in his heart. He felt utterly, completely, adrift.