Gemotions

"You seem…distant," his girlfriend, Chloe, observed, her voice hesitant. Ethan simply shrugged, his gaze fixed on the flickering flames in the fireplace. The DNA results had been a heavy blow, leaving him with a sense of displacement he couldn't shake. He watched the fire, mesmerized.

He said nothing, offering only a vague smile. He found himself preoccupied with an unfamiliar emptiness, a void that had opened within him. He kept his silence, afraid that if he spoke, the dam inside him might break. He felt the weight of unspoken words, and the unbearable lightness of being. He simply shook his head, then turned away, needing space to be alone with his turmoil.