Gemotions

The doctor’s words were gentle, but the news was a jagged shard piercing through Leo’s calm exterior. A half-sister, Sophia, had been identified through a DNA database search. His heart hammered in his chest. He clutched his hands tightly to stop them from trembling.

He drove home slowly, the city blurring around him. The usual route felt alien, each building, each tree, suddenly viewed with a distorted perspective. He felt like an actor in a play, suddenly aware the script had been rewritten without his consent.

He walked into his house, a place that always represented safety and order. Today, it felt…wrong. He paced the living room, unable to sit still. He found himself looking at old photos of his parents, searching for something, a clue, a hint of the secret that had been kept. The silence of the house pressed down on him, suffocating.