Ezra appears, saving me from my thoughts. He holds a beer out to me and I take it, happy to wash away the dry earthiness that weed always leaves in my mouth.

“Go on, then,” I encourage, although at this point I’m nervous about hearing the truth.

He clears his throat, and my hand tightens around my beer. “Well, ever since Leslie came to live up here for good, she petitioned to have Avril Island declared abandoned and the cottage torn down.”

“What? Torn down? On what grounds?”

“She claimed the building was derelict. A danger to wildlife and any kids who might trespass here.” He pauses, giving me a chance to speak, but I’m actually speechless. “I fought her on it. Gave proof that I was keeping an eye on the place, maintaining it as best I could, but she just didn’t let up.”

“Funny,” I say, finding my voice. “She didn’t mention a thing about that when I saw her.”

“That’s not all,” Ezra says, with another deep sigh. “A couple of years before your mom passed away, she stopped paying the property tax on this place.”

My stomach drops. It seems every road up here leads back to my mother and her bad behavior.

“So we almost lost the place for real?”

“Leslie tried her hardest. Somehow she found out about the arrears and started to put pressure on the municipality to sell the place. And apparently she wanted first rights to it. I, of course, got involved, begged them to hold off.”

“But why? She has her own goddamn cottage.” My anger is escalating with each bit of the story, along with my disbelief at how she was able to sit there having tea with me as though she hadn’t tried to steal Avril Island. “And how did she even find out about the status of my family’s property taxes?”

“It’s a small community, June. All you need is one guy from the tax office telling his friend over a beer, and the whole town knows.” Ezra sighs deeply. “I saw her out one night at the Bridgeside Tavern. She has a group of friends from around here who enjoy the odd big night out. Anyway, she was pretty wasted and came up to me spitting and hissing about trying to keep Avril Island from her. I asked why the hell she cared so much, and she said she wanted to burn the place to the ground in memory of her dead mother. Said that April Bennett was a menace to society and should pay for what she’d done and a string of other bullshit that didn’t make much sense.”

“She wanted to buy it just to burn it down? That’s absolutely ridiculous.”

“It’s the Swann way, June. That family has always had more money than they know what to do with. Suzanne Swann inherited a trust worth millions, and then so did Leslie.”