She's Not There by Joy Fielding

saying? That she’s coming to San Diego?”
    “No.” Caroline replayed the conversation with Lili in her mind and then relayed it in its entirety to Michelle.
    “Tell me you’re not seriously considering going to Calgary.”
    “I’ve been thinking about it.”
    “No, you haven’t.”
    “You asked what I’ve been doing all day. That’s what I’ve been doing—thinking about it.”
    “You’re not going to Calgary, Mother.”
    “Why not?”
    “Why not?
Why not?
”
    “What would be so terrible?”
    “I don’t believe this. I just don’t believe it.”
    “Think about it for a minute, Michelle. What harm could it do? I go to Calgary, I meet this girl, we do the test, we find out one way or the other.”
    “
You
think about it. You go to Calgary, you meet this girl, who’s probably a raving lunatic with her own agenda, maybe even a butcher knife—you ever think about
that
?—and you take the test and it turns out negative, which it will, you know it will, and then you come home all upset…for what? Why would you do that to yourself? To us?
Again,
” she added for emphasis.
    “Because that way we’d know for sure.”
    “I
already
know for sure.”
    “That’s because you didn’t talk to her. You didn’t hear her. There was something about her voice…”
    “Samantha was barely two years old when she disappeared. She could say ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ and maybe a few dozen other words, most of which nobody could understand—”
    “I understood,” Caroline interrupted, the threat of tears causing her voice to wobble.
    “My point is,” Michelle continued, “that there’s no way you could recognize Samantha’s voice if you heard it today. You’re fooling yourself if you think otherwise. The odds against her being Samantha are astronomical. This girl, whoever she is, be it con artist, psychopath, or just poor deluded soul, is definitely not my sister. And you’re not going anywhere near her.”
    “Sweetheart, I understand your concern and I love you for it, but…”
    “But nothing.” Michelle pushed her long brown hair away from her forehead and stared at her mother. “You’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you?”
    “It just makes sense to me, the more I think about it.”
    Michelle moved toward the phone. “That’s it. I’m calling Dad.”
    “What? No! I don’t want you to call him.”
    “Why not? You don’t think he has the right to know?”
    “We don’t know anything yet.”
    “We know you’re going to Calgary. Maybe he’ll want to go with you.”
    “He won’t.”
    “Of course he won’t. And do you want to know why? Because he’s not a crazy person, that’s why.” She lifted the phone into her shaking hand.
    “Please don’t call your father.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I’m asking you not to. Please, Michelle…Micki…”
    Michelle lowered the phone. “What did you just say?”
    “I…”
    “You called me Micki. You never call me Micki.”
    “I know.”
    “You hate that name.”
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    “What—you think that if you call me Micki, I’m suddenly going to come around, that I’m that easy to manipulate?”
    “No, of course I don’t think that.”
    “You don’t think, period. Shit.” Michelle tossed the phone onto the bed. She shook her head, opened her mouth to speak, then shook her head again. “All right. Fine. I won’t call him.”
    “Thank you.”
    “When are you thinking of going?”
    “Tomorrow.”
    “Tomorrow,” Michelle repeated.
    “Apparently there’s a flight in the morning that gets into Calgary around noon.”
    “I see. Have you already booked your ticket?”
    “No.”
    “But you’re going to.”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you have a passport?”
    “A passport?”
    “It’s Canada, Mother. You need a passport.”
    “I have one.”
    “And winter boots?”
    “Boots?”
    “It’s Canada in November. You need boots.”
    “I’ll be all right.”
    “How long are you planning to stay?”
    “Probably