I kept walking. She wanted a scene. It’s what she always wanted. A vision of Janet showing up drunk at my middle school one day, screaming about how Harriet had stolen me from her, and that she wanted me back danced in my head. The kids had been viciously cruel about it. Well, they’d been cruel until Bell had punched one of them in the nose. Then, they’d quieted down. Everyone but Lacey. She worked it into conversation all the way through high school.

I pulled my keys out of my bag and beeped my locks. A hand locked on my elbow. I whirled, jerking free. “Don’t touch me.”

Janet’s eyes widened a fraction before she schooled her features and took another drag off her cigarette. “I just want to talk. You don’t have to be a bitch about it.”

“What do you want?”

She tapped the cigarette and let ash fall to my beautiful beach. Just her presence was enough to pollute it, but then she had to add her nasty cancer sticks to the mix. “I told you, I want to talk. To see how you are.”

I eyed her carefully. Janet Morgan never showed up unless there was something in it for her. She’d been an unapologetic opportunist for as long as I could remember. A light dawned. “Who told you?”

Janet pulled on her best mask of innocence. “Told me what?”

“Cut the shit. Who told you that Harriet left me the house?” She must still have ears on the island. I could’ve sworn she’d burned every bridge she’d had on Anchor. It was why she’d left, after all. But, apparently, someone was still willing to feed her information.

Janet grinned, but it had an ugly edge to it. “That handsome boy you used to date called me. What did you do to screw that one up?”

Ice slid through my veins at her words. The Abbot games had begun. It was only their first shot, and already, it felt like a death blow. “You need to leave. You’re not welcome here.”

Her lips thinned into a hard line. “You want me gone, it’s gonna cost. You’ll have to give me some of that money that stuck-up bitch left you.”

“Don’t.” The single word was a warning. I’d put up with a lot, but never this woman calling Harriet ugly names.

“I want twenty grand.”

I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. “You think I have twenty grand lying around? You’re crazy.”

Janet’s gaze narrowed on me. “Sell some of the crap in that monstrosity of a house. I’m sure there’s more than enough baubles in there to get me my money.”