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where she knew Janelle was being kept until her arraignment. She was determined to get some answers from the woman. Otherwise, the questions would continue to haunt her, creeping in late at night, wrapped up in nightmares.
    â€œWhy?” The single word echoed between them. Janelle looked disinterested. Lacy raised her voice. “Why did you do all this?”
    Janelle laughed shortly, pretending to regard her nails. The polish had chipped off them, leaving dull spots here and there. “If you can’t figure that out, you’re simpler than I thought.”
    Janelle’s contemptuous tone ate at her, but then, she hadn’t come here expecting civility.
    â€œFor the money, I know that. I know all about your husband posing as Connor. I can even understand, when it looked as if it was all going to go up in flames, why you stole Chase.” Lacy leaned across the table, her eyes intent on Janelle. “But why did you try to steal him from me in the first place? I was no threat to you.”
    Janelle’s lips twisted, deepening the sneer. She ached to rake what was left of her nails across the pale, delicate face, scarring it. “A lot you know. You were a threat from the very first second you decided to make a play for Connor.”
    Lacy stood her ground. “I didn’t make a play, that just happened.”
    â€œYeah, right.” Cynicism dripped from every syllable. Innocence and love in their purest sense had never existed in Janelle’s world. They were myths, fairy tales she’d never witnessed firsthand. “I figured the kid would make a good prop—and I was right. The second she saw him, the old lady melted all over the little bastard—and I use the word correctly,” she added with a malicious laugh, seeing Lacy’s inadvertent wince.
    An icy hand passed over her heart. Lacy shivered. She’d never realized how truly evil Janelle was until this moment. “And you were willing to kill me to get him?”
    The shrug was careless, dismissive. Lacy was less than dirt to her. “Hey, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. You’d given birth to the brat, you’d served your purpose.” Janelle’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the younger woman. “That made you expendable.”
    Anger flooded Lacy. This woman had held her baby captive. Who was to say what she would have done to him if she’d suddenly thought of him as expendable? “And what gives you the right to play with people’s lives like that?”
    â€œThe right?” Janelle echoed. A savage hatred came into her eyes. “The right?” She reached across the table and grabbed Lacy’s arm, her fingers digging into her flesh. “I’ll tell you what gives me the right. I’m one of them, damn it.” Incensed, she released her hold as if she were tossing Lacy away from her. “And while they go around getting everything they want, money dripping out of their pockets, I’m supposed to do without? The hell I am.”
    Lacy stared at her. “One of them? What are you talking about? How can you be one of them?”
    Her anger under control, Janelle laughed coldly. She liked having all the answers. Doling them out. It made her feel powerful.
    â€œSurprises you, does it? Well, Connor’s squeaky-clean family has a few skeletons in their closet. My father was the old lady’s brother-in-law. Robert Maitland.” There was no love in her voice as she said her father’s name, just as there had never been any love in her heart for the man who’d given her life, but little else.
    Lacy thought she had her there. “Robert Maitland had two children he abandoned, R.J. and Anna.”
    Megan had filled her in on the family history during lunch today. Taking Chase with them, they’d dined in one of Austin’s better restaurants, and Megan had made a point of clearing things up for her.Until then, Lacy had thought