Page 40 of A Home for Harmony (Blossoms #16)

HAD IT UNDER CONTROL

“ W hat do you mean you’ve got a cyber-stalker?” Erica screeched two weeks later.

Harmony was all but jumping in place after what she’d just discovered. She needed to talk to someone and Erica was available.

“I’ll explain, but I’ve got to show you something.”

“No,” Erica said. “I want an explanation first. You know we’ve always worried about this and now you’re saying it’s happening.”

Her sister had frantically jumped up and came toward her to embrace, then ran her hands up and down as if she was looking for some imaginary injury that a computer screen could have caused.

Her arms were swinging as if she’d just stolen the batteries out of the energy bunny and slammed them into her back. “Erica,” she said. “I need to show you something first. Just tell me what you see.”

She grabbed her sister’s arm and tugged her up the stairs to her office and shoved her into her chair. “What am I looking at?” Erica asked. “Then I want an explanation. Promise me.”

“I promise.” She zoomed in on the screen. “What do you see right there?”

“I see a lot of tiny paper figures,” Erica said.

“I know,” she said. “But these three, tell me what they are.”

She was circling them on the screen with her mouse.

“It’s a smiley face emoji, I’m not sure what that next one is, but it’s an emoji too, and then a heart.”

“It’s a hug emoji, right? Look at it,” she said. “Right? Tell me I’m right!”

“Geez, Harmony,” Erica said. “Yeah, I guess so. What is going on?”

She sat on the floor and put her head between her knees. “I need to take a few deep breaths.”

“You’re scaring me,” Erica said, rushing over to sit next to her on the floor and pull her into a hug.

“I’m sorry.” She breathed in and out. How could she have been so stupid? Or worked herself up over this for so long when it was right in front of her face. “When we were living in New York.”

“New York! Don’t tell me it’s been going on that long,” Erica yelled.

“Are you going to let me talk or not?”

“Yes,” Erica said. “Go on.”

“I got some comments and messages, even emails. I thought they were just fans and brushed them off. I don’t comment or reply to everyone.”

“No,” her sister said. “You wouldn’t have the time to.”

“That’s right. These certain messages all had the same tone. I can’t explain it, but it was there. Then they had the same signature. A smiley face, a hug, and a heart.”

“Oh,” Erica said. “Like you just showed me?”

“Yes. I noticed I was getting more messages from different accounts with the same signature. It was getting creepy so I’d block them.”

“Smart,” Erica said. “How frequently were you getting them?”

“Not enough for me to pick up on it right away. But when I blocked them, they’d pop back up as a different user weeks or months later. Maybe because I never replied to them, they didn’t know they were blocked. I don’t know.”

“I need to process this. Is this why you pushed to move here?” Erica asked. “Because you were scared and wanted to leave? Did this person know where you lived and you had to get away?”

She snorted. “Yes. I didn’t think they knew where I lived exactly, but I knew they were aware I worked in New York City so that I had to be in the area. I’d get comments on them seeing me out and it bothered me.”

“As it should,” Erica said, swatting her arm. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this.”

“I’m sorry. You had your own issues going on and then we moved and things took off. The messages and comments seemed to have stopped for months. I thought, phew, they are done.”

“But they aren’t?”

“In November, I got one saying they figured out I moved. That scared me.”

“But not enough for you to tell me!”

“I had it under control,” she argued.

“It doesn’t sound it to me,” Erica said. “Does Micah know?”

“He found out on my birthday. That small bouquet of flowers that came with no name on them. I realized that the person might have figured out I was in this area. I wasn’t positive how they got my address, but then I realized they might have assumed I lived close in this area and could have searched properties. ”

“Do you know how many properties in Connecticut or this area could be under the name James?” Erica said. “No. I don’t buy it.”

“I didn’t either. I told Micah. He was mad I didn’t let him know before.”

“As he should be,” Erica said. “What does he think of this?”

“Understand, none of the messages are threatening. They were just...creepy. Disturbing rather than flattering, but the frequency gave me the ick factor. I thought they might be a teenage boy at some point, but then realized a boy wouldn’t send those emojis.”

“No,” Erica said.

“Micah’s comments like that got me thinking even more. That women use emojis like that.”

“Your stalker is a woman?”

“I’m not going to call her a stalker now. I think I figured it out.”

“Who is it?”

“It’s Danielle. I used to work with her. And that makes me think she could have gotten my address there if she wanted. She could have seen I’d changed it for my W2 to be forwarded here. It’s not impossible for her to have access. I don’t know. That’s her vlog I just showed you with the signature. ”

“That makes no sense,” Erica said. “She’s your friend. You went out with her on New Year’s Eve with Lizzie, right?”

“She wasn’t really my friend. We worked together and she’s nice and all, but we didn’t hang out unless she tagged along. I treated her the same as everyone else.”

“Okay,” Erica said. “So she wanted to be your friend and looked up to you and got your attention this way? Harmony, that doesn’t add up to me.”

“I won’t pretend to figure out what was going through her mind.”

“If you worked together and you were out with her on New Year’s Eve, she had to know you moved.”

“No,” she said. “No one knows I moved but Lizzie. My coworkers know I opened my own business, but they could have assumed I was still living in New Rochelle. I never said otherwise. She’d have to dig to know and she could have had access there.”

Erica’s head went back and forth. “I can see that. You’ve always been very careful about what you’ve posted and about who. Danielle knew nothing about me or your family? She could have tracked us.”

“Nope,” she said. “Lizzie is the only one you’ve ever met and I’ve talked about. Everyone else knows about the same information when it comes to me. Danielle even made a comment about that the last time we talked. That even though we hung out she didn’t know much about me.”

Harmony felt like a fool now looking back and this adding up.

“I did like how you kept that private,” Erica said.

“Because I’m smarter than anyone gives me credit for.”

“We’ve always known you were smart,” Erica said.

“It’s not the time. I know you think it, but everyone else always worried. Even Micah hasn’t been a fan of my career and that is why I didn’t want to tell him this. I was waiting for him to tell me he told me so.”

“Did he?” Erica asked, frowning. “I’m going to be mad if he did.”

“He didn’t,” she said. “But he wanted to. I know it. He looked at it all like I was going to the police. There wasn’t anything that could be done. There is no threat. I didn’t know who they were. They’ve never come in contact with me that I knew of.”

No reason to say that Micah had yelled and then looked as if it was taking a Herculean effort to stop himself from doing it again.

“Are you sure it’s Danielle?” Erica said.

“It has to be. It’s all making sense. I started working with her one-on-one recently and the messages all but stopped. It’s as if she needed to talk to me or have my attention and once she got that she was good.”

“You’re making those assumptions,” Erica said.

“I know. But what I showed you is a fact. It can’t be a coincidence. They’re even lined up in the same order.”

“I’m not sure. Not unless you ask her. Are you going to?”

“I’m going to do something better. I feel it in my gut that it’s not a threat. I worked myself up because it was always in the back of my head that someone would comment how worried they were. I’m going to put a video out there and I need you to record it.”

“You’re joking,” Erica said. “You’re going to call her out in front of everyone? You never do anything like that.”

“I’m not going to do that,” she said, shaking her head.

“But I’m not going to hide. This is a real thing.

You and the rest of our family have been worried about it for years.

Maybe it was innocent in Danielle’s eyes, but she has to see how it affects people.

Others need to see it. I’ve got a platform to put these messages out there. It’s not the first time I’ve done it.”

“Not like this,” Erica said. “Are you sure it’s wise?”

“Trust me, please. I know what I’m doing. If Danielle is the person, in my heart, I know she’ll reach out and admit it and apologize. If she doesn’t, it’s still probably her, but I’ll have to call her out on it and then report it. I don’t want to go there and scare her.”

“You could be completely off base and it’s not her at all,” Erica said.

“I don’t think so. I need to do this. If you don’t want to help, that’s fine, but I want to do it outside sitting on the dock. The sun is shining and it always makes me feel good. I want the energy and vibe to be positive and not scary.”

Erica stood up and put her hand out to help her. “I want to see it before you post it, but I’m going to trust you.”