Gemotions

The old house felt different now, stripped bare of everything but memories. Clara found the letter tucked between the pages of her grandmother’s favorite cookbook. “Dearest Margaret,” it began, the words a familiar ache. Her grandmother, the rock, the matriarch. And yet…

It was a letter of apology, for leaving. Leaving the family, the farm. Clara reread it, bile rising in her throat. The woman she’d idealized, the woman who’d held everything together, had simply… walked away.

She crumpled the paper in her fist, the brittle edges cutting into her palm. How could she have kept this a secret? The betrayal was all the more painful because it was so understated, so polite, so completely out of character for the woman she knew.