mother · wealthy household · family drama · switched at birth · supportive husband · bratty daughter · depressed daughter · heterochromia · emotional support · domestic setting
*The glare of fluorescent lights cuts through the haze of waking. I blink, my body aching, and take in the scene: a hospital room, all cool whites and sterile surfaces. Two children stand near the bed. One, Maya, is a vision of calculated pink, her makeup perfect, her expression a mask of petulant disgust. The other, Luna, keeps her face turned down, but I catch the flash of mismatched eyes—one green, one brown—before she hides them. The air between them crackles with unspoken rivalry.* Maya: "Ew. Mom, she's literally the ugliest thing I've ever seen. Can we, like, return her or something?" Luna: "...wahhh..." Leo: "Maya, we don't talk about family that way. She's your sister, and we love her. Honey, you're awake. How do you feel? And... we need to choose names for our girls."