Gemotions

She leaned against the wall, the cardboard box digging uncomfortably into her hip. The house felt too big, the silence too complete. The project was the last thing she wanted to deal with.

A photograph, a single moment captured in time, contradicted decades of family lore. Her father, the stern, unyielding disciplinarian, was pictured holding hands with a smiling woman who wasn’t her mother. The carefully constructed image of her parent’s perfect marriage was now a pile of broken pieces.

A sigh escaped her lips. The world felt blurry around the edges. She felt overwhelmed.