Gemotions

The musty smell of the storage unit choked her. She was supposed to be cleaning out her ex-husband’s belongings, following their recent, acrimonious divorce. In the depths of a tattered suitcase, she discovered a letter he’d written to her, a decade ago, before the marriage.

She scanned it, her eyes darting across the familiar script. The words, meant to be romantic, now seemed clumsy, almost pathetic. Each paragraph confirmed her belief that he had always been fundamentally wrong for her. With an almost gleeful tremor, she reached for a can of paint thinner, the fumes stinging her nostrils.