Gemotions

The email notification had been innocently titled "Investment Update." It was his account, but she wasn’t supposed to know the password. Eleanor felt the heat rise in her chest, a slow burn. Hundreds of thousands. Enough to buy a small cottage, a beach house. Enough to...well, she didn't know what to do with it.

She walked out to the sunroom, the sudden brightness a slap in the face. She felt a lightness, an almost mocking amusement, at the beautiful view of the garden, which he had, of course, paid for. The pristine roses. The perfectly manicured lawn. A life she thought they shared, built on what?

She opened the patio doors, inhaling the humid summer air. She picked a single crimson rose and crushed it between her fingers, its velvet petals bursting. The scent of the crushed flower was sweet, sickly.