Gemotions

The world felt muted to Clara. The colors seemed less vibrant, the sounds distant. Since the call from the adoption agency, a cold knot had settled in her stomach. Another daughter, they said. Another family. Her birth mother's other life. How could her mother have just… moved on?

She spent hours wandering her apartment, touching the familiar objects: the worn armchair, the chipped mug, the photographs on the mantelpiece. She felt a profound sense of displacement. She kept running her fingers over her face, feeling the familiar contours, as if trying to re-establish her own identity in the face of this upheaval. She wondered if the new sister looked like her.