Gemotions

The world tilted. Mark felt a sudden, violent lurch in his stomach, as if he were on a ship caught in a storm. The email’s subject line, *Your AncestryDNA Results Are Here,* felt like a physical blow. He didn't want to open it. He didn't want to know.

He'd spent his life trying to understand his family's quirks, the things he didn't share. Now, it made sense: he didn't share those traits because he didn't *belong*. The revelation flooded him with a sense of displacement.

He pushed his chair back from his desk, the sound jarring in the sudden silence of his office. He began to gather his things, the movement mechanical and detached. He didn't know where he was going, but he needed to move, to escape the suffocating confines of his reality.