Whoever this is, she's not my half sister--I know that for sure now. My mom, who is very much a believing Catholic, swore on her life and the Bible that she had never had another child, and kind of laughed at me afterwards for not believing her. My mom thinks the whole 23andMe website is a sham. Another reason: This girl's dad is Egyptian, and I hate to say it, but my mom is a bit racist (she born in the '50s into a slightly undereducated family and never quite escaped her prejudices). She's not the type to have casual relationships without marriage, either. There's no marriage record, no adoption record--nothing.

Unfortunately, after accepting my request to share DNA, my relative didn't respond to my messages. It's starting to seem a bit fishy...why would she send a message to me, without any information about herself, and then not respond when I've clearly shown that I'm interested in chatting with her?

Can 23andMe mess up this badly? If not, I have a feeling that the problem is rooted more deeply in my mom's side of the family. Maybe she is a long-lost aunt, but the ethnicities she reported make no sense. My mother does not look Egyptian in the least.