Holt’s expression didn’t change, but June saw the tension in his jaw.
“What is it you want, Victoria?” Holt’s voice was flat, and his eyes narrowed.
“I would prefer privacy to talk to you,” Victoria said, and her gaze flicked pointedly toward June; the look made her skin prickle.
June turned slightly toward Holt. She gave him a tight smile that she hoped looked professional and composed.
“I need to go and see if there is anything I have to do at the veterinary office,” June told him. “I’ll be back in a little while to help with what we discussed.”
Victoria’s lips curved, and the smile was almost pleasant with her eyes brimming with victory.
“Please take your time,” Victoria drawled. “Holt won’t be needing your help for a while.”
June felt heat flare behind her eyes, but she refused to give Victoria the satisfaction of seeing it. She nodded once, stiff-backed, and walked away.
Behind her, she could still feel Victoria’s gaze like a hand pressing between her shoulder blades.
And as June crossed the road to walk to the vet clinic, one thought beat against her ribs harder than all the others.
If Victoria had paid to crush Clive’s car, then Victoria was not just a jealous ex-wife with a sharp tongue.
Victoria was someone who erased problems.
And June had the sinking feeling that Victoria had just decided June might be a problem too.
3
JUNE
June stood inside the veterinary clinic for a moment longer than she needed to, staring at the handwritten sign taped neatly to the glass.
For Emergency Animal Care, Please Contact Dr. Lucy Tanner at Sandpiper Shores Medical Clinic.
She ran her fingertips lightly over the edge of the paper, checking the tape, checking the corners, checking that it was still straight. It was. It was perfectly fine. It was also the only thing that felt perfectly fine.
June stepped back and scanned the parking lot, the quiet street, the sleepy rhythm of the morning in Sandpiper Shores. Everything looked normal, like the town had decided that yesterday’s chaos belonged in the past.
June could not bring herself to follow that logic as the everyday person in the street was blissfully unaware of what lurked just below the surface of their beautiful seaside town.
June’s stomach tightened as she slid her keys into her bag. She told herself for the tenth time that she needed facts, notassumptions. She needed proof, not theories. Anger flushed through her when she thought of Victoria standing at the police station with her polished smile, smooth voice, and shrewd vulture eye. June didn’t like Victoria very much and never had. The woman had always moved through life as if other people were furniture. There when it was useful to her and inconvenient when not.
But even with all that, June still struggled to believe Victoria would be vindictive enough to deliberately run Lacey off the road.
June exhaled and rubbed her forehead.
“Goodness,” she whispered to herself. “This is dark.”
June kept replaying yesterday’s scene at the clinic, where Victoria came storming in like a queen arriving late to court, then speaking to Lucy as if Lucy were Lacey, delivering that warning meant for Lucy without realizing she had the wrong twin.
How could anyone mix them up?June’s brow crinkled once again.
The twins were identical in many ways, but they had a few defining differences. Their eye color was different, and Lacey’s hair was a shade lighter, especially in sunlight, a touch more honey. Lacey was also taller than Lucy, although not by much, but enough that once you saw it, you could not unsee it.
June shook her head again and sighed. “I guess some people are just so self-absorbed they hardly notice anyone else.”
She locked the clinic door and turned down the sidewalk. Deciding to go visit Lacey and see how she was doing, Junewalked to the flower shop on the corner, a small place with a bell above the door and a display of cheerful bouquets that felt almost ridiculous in the face of what June was thinking about. The bell chimed as she stepped inside.
A woman behind the counter looked up and smiled.
