Gemotions

The flickering fluorescence of the kitchen light did little to dispel the gloom clinging to her. Sarah slumped onto the stool, the cold metal biting into her thighs. Another late night. Another empty fridge. The silence of the house amplified the relentless thrum in her head. Her daughter, Lily, was upstairs, supposedly asleep. But Sarah’s gut churned with a persistent unease she couldn’t shake.

She found it on Lily’s old tablet, discarded beneath a pile of schoolbooks. A profile picture, a different name, a stream of posts that were so unlike her daughter. A secret life, a hidden world of filtered selfies and cryptic messages. The energy drained from her, leaving her feeling hollow.

Sarah scrolled. Each post was a tiny hammer blow against her already fragile composure. She felt the sudden urge to just shut it all down, to crawl into bed and pull the covers over her head, never to resurface. The tablet slipped from her numb fingers, clattering onto the counter.