Then came the Annual General Meeting.

Nigel had added one item to the agenda. Constitution change.

He explained it in a calm, reasonable voice.

“The Residents' Association should be run by people with a long-term stake in Kingsmere,” he said. “Homeowners. People who've invested their own money. Renters come and go. It's nothing personal.”

Doris stood up, very slowly, leaning on her stick.

“I've lived here longer than you, Nigel,” she said.

“You rent, Doris,” said Nigel kindly. “It's not the same.”

The vote was thirty-one to six.

That was when Nigel smiled at me and said, “You're just a renter, Kate.”

Penny Lockwood crossed my name off with her red pen.

I moved to the back of the room. Doris came and sat next to me. Then Liam.

“Well,” said Doris, folding her arms. “That's us told.”

I looked at my phone. There was an email from my lawyer, sent at 9:14 that morning. Exchange of contracts complete. Completion confirmed for Friday. Congratulations, Kate. On Friday, Hearthstone Homes would own Larkspur Estates.

Which meant that on Friday, I would own the green. The roads. The play area. The clubhouse we were all sitting in.

And fifty of the houses.

Including my own.