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that R.J. and Anna were Megan’s oldest children. She’d been surprised to discover that they, like Connor, were nephew and niece. Megan and her late husband had adopted the two after their widowed father, Robert, had disappeared one day. The magnitude of Megan’s heart had impressed Lacy.
    Just as the meanness within Janelle’s took her breath away.
    Janelle’s lips narrowed into two thin lines. “Surprise—he married my mother and then abandoned four more kids before he finally cashed in his chips. You’ll pardon the expression,” she said sarcastically when she saw the confusion on Lacy’s face. “I’m from Vegas. That’s where Robert Maitland met my mother.” For just a fraction of a second, she looked away and her expression softened. If she had ever felt anything at all, it had been for her mother. “My mother was a showgirl. She was really something in her prime.” And then her face clouded over, malevolent again. “But he had no use for her after her looks started to go.”
    Janelle’s gaze shifted back to Lacy. “That’s a Maitland for you—takes the best, leaves the rest.” Anger flashed in her eyes. She wanted revenge on all of them. “They owe me. And when I found that letter from Big Daddy Harland to ‘Uncle’ William in my father’s things after he died, I figured it was time the Maitlands paid up.”
    Lacy wasn’t following this. What Janelle was saying was so disjointed, part of her thought the other woman was deranged or making things up. “What letter?”
    Because it had been such an integral part of her scam for the past year, Janelle had momentarily forgotten it was still a secret.
    â€œYou don’t know, do you? You don’t know who you’ve been drooling over. He’s—” And then she realized that she had another weapon in her hand. Something to hold over Lacy’s head. Her eyes glinted as her thoughts scrambled. “No, never mind. Why should you know? Why should I tell you anything? Unless, of course,” she continued loftily, “you can see your way clear to using your influence with that old bitch and getting the charges against me dropped.”
    It was a trick, a ploy. There was no so-called secret, no letter. It was just Janelle’s way of trying to manipulate her again. But she wasn’t the same person she’d been a year ago, Lacy thought. She was her own person now.
    It was Lacy’s turn to be contemptuous. And to look at Janelle with pity. “I don’t have any influence, and even if I did, I wouldn’t use it. Not to get you off. You’re evil, Janelle.”
    If the words were meant to shame Janelle, they fell far short of their mark. Instead, she laughed, amused. “Damn straight I am—and proud of it.What did being a Goody Two-shoes ever get anyone?”
    Lacy rose to her feet and crossed to the door. There was no anger, no hatred any longer. There was only abject pity in her eyes as she looked at Janelle. Instead of trying to make something of herself, she’d destroyed lives and created a wretched future for herself, all because she’d been consumed with envy.
    â€œPeace of mind,” Lacy answered quietly. She rapped on the door, then stepped back as it was opened. “I’m ready to go now.”
    â€œGo ahead, go,” Janelle scoffed, waving her away. “But you’ll be back. You’ll come crawling back, begging me to tell you. Wait and see if you don’t,” Janelle called after her before the door closed, sealing her in a world she’d never foreseen for herself.
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    A S SHE DROVE away from the jail, her mind in turmoil, Lacy’s first thought was to go to Connor with what she’d just discovered.
    But he’d been so distant since last night. Would he think she was making it all up for some purpose of her own? Not that she could entirely blame him. After