Gemotions

The sunlight sliced through the dusty attic window, illuminating the forgotten treasures. Amelia held a photograph, the paper thin and yellowed. Her great-aunt, a woman she’d been told was a recluse, a victim of heartbreak, was there, smiling radiantly, arm in arm with a handsome man.

The man’s face was familiar, so familiar. It was her grandfather. He never spoke of this woman. He had always been defined by his love for her grandmother, the woman who raised Amelia. A knot twisted in Amelia’s gut, a feeling of unease settling into her bones.

She backed away from the photographs, as if they were poisonous. The story she had known, the one that formed the bedrock of her family history, was shattered. She gripped her hands into fists, each muscle rigid with a rising emotion she couldn’t name.