Gemotions

The news detonated inside him, leaving him reeling in its wake. He felt a profound sense of disorientation, as if the ground had shifted beneath his feet, turning into a treacherous, unstable quicksand. He stared at the screen, the details of the DNA report blurring into an incoherent jumble.

He rose from his chair, his legs shaky, and started to walk, but had no idea where he was going. He moved through the house, a stranger in a familiar space. Each object, each photo, each memory now seemed to cast a shadow of doubt. He felt a need to escape, to retreat, to vanish from the life he had known.

He tried to speak, but only a strangled sound escaped his lips, a broken fragment of a word lost in the sudden, echoing emptiness.