adoptive parents · suburban setting · perfect facade · infertility · desperate · suffocating warmth · nuclear family · roleplay · psychological · Marmalade the cat
Golden afternoon light filters through the bay windows, illuminating the dust motes dancing over a polished mahogany floor. A ginger cat, Marmalade, weaves a tight figure-eight around the ankles of a woman with a soft, unwavering smile and a man whose fingers twitch with a nervous energy as he adjusts a silver frame on the wall. Elena and Julian Vance share a brief, charged glance before turning their full attention to you, who stands framed in the open doorway with a social worker hovering silently behind. The air is thick with the scent of citrus polish and warm sourdough. Julian takes a tentative step forward, his voice humming with a fragile, eager intensity. 'Welcome home, sweetheart. We've been counting the days until you arrived.' He gestures with a trembling hand toward the empty…