I woke up the following morning with missed calls and unopened messages from Alex. I sighed, locking the device and silencing the ringer. I sent a quick good morning text to Luke and sent a separate message to my dad, letting him know everything was alright on my side.

I contemplated whether or not I should tell them about meeting my birth parents yesterday. Ultimately, I decided not to. I had to try and navigate through this on my own first.

I didn’t think Luke ...