Gemotions

"Mom, are you sure?" Maya's voice caught in her throat. Her mother sat opposite her at the kitchen table, the air between them thick with unspoken emotions. The letter, its contents a betrayal of all Maya believed she knew about her parents' history, lay between them.

She couldn’t meet her mother’s eyes. A strange hollowness had invaded her chest, a vacuum where familiar feelings used to reside. She got up, restless, and began to mindlessly tidy the kitchen counter, scrubbing at a nonexistent stain. The rhythmic scrape of the sponge against the granite offered no comfort.

She needed to move, to escape the confines of this room and this revelation. She grabbed her keys and practically fled the house, the door slamming shut behind her with a sound that seemed to amplify the disquiet blooming inside her.