Gemotions

The faded, sepia-toned photographs scattered across the dining room table seemed to mock her. Each picture was of people she had grown up with, but now the DNA test results said that her connection to them was… complicated. It was a word that didn't do justice to the upheaval of her entire world. She had always felt a deep connection to her family.

She picked up a photo of herself as a little girl, laughing in her father's arms. The photograph's edges were soft, the colors muted, like a memory that was already starting to fade.

She felt a hollowness, a sense of disconnect. The images felt like fragments of a dream that was not hers.