Gemotions

The email sat in Amelia’s inbox, a blinking red notification. Her heart hammered a quick staccato against her ribs. She took a long, slow breath, trying to calm the jittery feeling crawling through her. “Impossible,” she muttered, clicking on the article anyway. The headline screamed it: “Beloved Author Accused of Plagiarism.” A chill, cold as a tomb, washed over her as she scanned the familiar name: Elara Thorne.

Her breath hitched as she scrolled down. The website compared passages from Thorne’s latest novel with… her own unpublished short story. Word for word. The world tilted slightly. Amelia clutched her chair, knuckles white. This had to be a mistake. She searched for any kind of logical explanation, a technical glitch, a bizarre coincidence. Her stomach clenched into a hard knot.

She clicked the link to her own blog, the one she barely kept updated. There it was, posted six months ago. The same phrases, the same metaphors, the same quirky dialogue she'd poured her heart into. A bitter taste coated her tongue. The article’s claims seemed ludicrous, yet the proof… the proof was undeniable.