Gemotions

The flickering light from the phone screen illuminated Amelia's face, casting elongated shadows across her daughter Chloe's bedroom. Chloe, asleep and blissfully unaware, snored softly, her face slack. Amelia, however, felt a burning tightness in her chest. She scrolled through the hidden profile, each perfectly curated picture, each carefully crafted comment, a fresh pinprick. She'd found it buried in Chloe's browser history, a digital secret she wasn't supposed to know.

Her fingers trembled as she typed a reply to a particularly gushing comment from a boy Amelia didn't recognize. "She's always been a drama queen," she wrote, hitting send. The words felt like a tiny, satisfying sting.

A wave of nausea washed over her. She knew she shouldn't be doing this. Yet, she couldn't stop.