Gemotions

The lawyer’s office felt cavernous and cold, even with the late afternoon sun streaming through the window. Daniel sat rigidly in the plush leather chair, his jaw clenched. His father’s lawyer, a woman with a perpetually stern expression, had just informed him of the existence of a sibling.

The room seemed to shrink, the walls closing in. He felt a desperate urge to bolt, to escape the suffocating weight of this new information. He shifted, the leather creaking under him. He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it standing on end. He wanted to push the world away and retreat into the silence of his own mind.