Proof of Origin

What happens when your country decides you no longer belong?

In a near-future United States driven by fear and purity politics, President Bradford signs Executive Order 14990, stripping citizenship from anyone who fails to meet the government’s new standard of “historical American lineage.” Branded a security measure, the order unleashes mass displacement, fracturing families and reshaping the meaning of belonging overnight.

Jenny Nguyen thought her American identity was secure. A second-generation Vietnamese American and mother of two, she’s forced to flee to Vietnam, a place her own parents once escaped. Now neither fully American nor truly Vietnamese, Jenny must navigate exile, identity, and impossible choices as she becomes a quiet force in a growing community of the displaced.

Charlotte Whitmore has always played by the rules of power. Married to California’s governor and aligned with the new regime, she views the order as a chance to rise. But as the cost of compliance grows, and her own family becomes collateral, Charlotte faces a devastating reckoning with the world she helped build.

Huy Tran believed in merit, loyalty, and the promise of America. As a senior advisor in the administration, he helped craft the very policy that would later erase him. Now detained and deported, Huy must confront the truth: the system he served was never meant to serve him.

Told through the interwoven lives of the exiled, the complicit, and the betrayed, Point of Origin is a haunting, timely novel about what remains when nationhood is stripped away and how legacy is forged in exile, resistance, and the stories we choose to preserve.