“What am I thinking?” Caroline asked, genuinely perplexed.
“That this is the first of hundreds of board games the three of us will play together if your prayers are answered and it turns out that Lili is indeed Samantha. That this is what it’s like to be a normal family.” She leaned her head back and looked toward the ceiling. “Well, I hate to keep throwing a wet blanket over everything, I really do,” Michelle continued, “but we’re not a normal family. We haven’t been a normal family for fifteen years. And we can’t suddenly start pretending we are. None of what’s happened is normal. And no matter what the test results show or how fervently you pray to a God who’s obviously not there or Samantha would never have disappeared in the first place, it’s never going to be normal.” She stared at the words spread out across the Scrabble board. “And this is a stupid game.” She swept the tiles off the board with the back of her hand, sending them scattering across the kitchen floor.
Lili was on her hands and knees immediately, scooping them up.
“Leave them,” Michelle said. “It’s my mess. I’ll fix it.”
“It’s all right.”
“I said I’d do it.” Michelle quickly gathered up the remaining letters, slamming them on the table. “Told you I was a brat,” she said, plopping back into her seat.
“No,” Caroline said after a silence of several seconds. “You’re right. This isn’t normal. It’s anything but normal. And this is clearly a very tense time. We’re all a little on edge…”
“Really? Because you seem so calm.”
“It’s just my face.”
“I’m really not very good at math,” Lili said quietly.
Michelle’s lips stretched into a reluctant grin. “Have you spoken to Beth since she got back to Calgary?” she asked, returning the Scrabble tiles to their small pouch.
Lili nodded.
“How is she?”
“The same. Upset. Angry. Sad.”
Caroline pictured Beth as she’d seen her last night on the evening news, an obviously distraught woman shielding her face with her hands as she struggled to outrun the herd of reporters pursuing her.
Who are you? they’d demanded as she hurried toward the taxi idling at the corner. What’s your connection to Caroline Shipley? Can you tell us anything about what’s going on in that house? Is it true there’s a girl claiming to be Samantha?
“Is she still being hounded by reporters?” Caroline asked.
“There was this one guy who followed her cab to the hotel. He even trailed her to the airport this morning, but she wouldn’t talk to him.”
Caroline didn’t have to ask the reporter’s name. She already knew.
The doorbell rang.
“Oh, God,” Caroline whispered.
“Oh, God,” echoed Lili.
“As if,” Michelle said. “Someone going to answer that?”
Caroline took a deep breath and headed for the door, Michelle and Lili only steps behind.
“Open up, for God’s sake,” Hunter yelled from the other side as they approached.
Caroline quickly opened the door and Hunter shot inside, cameras clicking furiously behind him.
“Hunter,” one reporter called. “Look this way.”
“Can you tell us what’s happening?” another demanded.
“Do you have the results back from the lab?”
Hunter slammed the door on their questions. “What’s going on?”
“Where have you been?” Michelle asked, their questions overlapping. “I called hours ago.”
“Meetings. What’s going on?” he repeated.
“The results are back,” Caroline said.
“You have the results?”
“Peggy’s bringing them over.”
“Do you know what they are?”
Caroline shook her head.
A line of perspiration broke out across Hunter’s forehead. “Okay. It’s important to stay calm, no matter what the results show.”
Caroline could see he was saying this as much for his own benefit as theirs. “Maybe we should sit down,” she said, beckoning everyone toward the living room.
They were settling into their seats when they heard a car pull into the driveway, a door slam, and footsteps hurry up the front walk.
Caroline ran to the door and opened it, grabbing Peggy by the arm and pulling her inside the house, the reporters pelting the closing door with questions.
Can you tell us…?
Is it true…?
What’s…?
Caroline ushered her friend into the living room. Peggy wasted no time on unnecessary pleasantries. She withdrew a sealed white envelope from her brown leather bag and handed it to Caroline.
Caroline shook her head. “I can’t. You open it.”
“You’re sure? Hunter?” Peggy asked.
“You do it.”