Gemotions

The old album smelled of mildew and forgotten things. Ethan carefully turned the brittle pages, his fingers tracing the edges of the yellowed photographs. Then he came to the one.

His eyes widened. His great-great-grandfather, a stern and distant figure in all the family histories, was captured in a photograph with a woman he did not recognize. The man was smiling, not that grim line Ethan was used to. He was embracing a woman in a garden, her hand resting on his arm.

He felt a tightness in his chest. His great-great-grandfather, a man who had left them an empire. And that empire seemed to be built on a foundation of… lies.