Gemotions

He found himself pacing the worn rug in his inherited study. The news had dropped like a lead weight in his stomach. His father, the man he'd thought he knew, had kept a secret his entire life. A secret that now, according to the letter clutched in his sweaty hand, included a half-brother.

The room seemed to shrink. He ran a hand through his hair, the gesture more a reflex of distress than a conscious action. He glanced at the family portraits on the wall, and the faces of his ancestors seemed to mock him. A sense of displacement washed over him, a feeling like he no longer truly belonged in this space, in this lineage.

He went to the liquor cabinet, though he wasn’t usually a drinker. The amber liquid glinted invitingly. He poured a generous amount into a tumbler and gulped it down, the burn doing nothing to quell the rising tide of internal turmoil.