Page 42 of A Home for Harmony (Blossoms #16)

TO HELP PEOPLE

D eep breath in, deep breath out.

Harmony sat at her computer the next morning and opened her email. Last night she’d seen on her phone that her inbox was climbing. She didn’t want to look.

She wanted to have a pity party with her sister that the man she loved thought so little of her. His true opinion came out and she had to decide her next step.

After scanning all the names, she found the one she was looking for.

From Danielle.

It was sent at eleven last night. She knew she’d get an email from her within twenty-four hours and that was less than twelve.

She opened it, her eyes landing on the first words.

I’m so sorry. I never meant for you to feel that way.

It was me who sent the flowers and me that’s been sending all the messages.

You’ve always been so kind to me and I’ve looked up to you, but I knew we’d never be friends like I’d hoped.

I just thought if I sent you those comments anonymously, they’d get your attention more than putting my name on them.

It would hurt too much if you were purposely ignoring me and that’s why I did it.

I was praising and complimenting the way you made me feel, but I went about it wrong.

She read the rest of the email. Her heart sank at the loneliness that Danielle exhibited. It didn’t excuse what had been done, but she was happy that Danielle had owned up to it.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Erica asked, moving forward and putting a cup of coffee on the desk.

Harmony picked it up and took a long, slow drink. “Better now that I got this. I didn’t sleep well last night. I couldn’t get Micah out of my mind. Was I so wrong about him?”

“I don’t think so,” Erica said. “Sometimes we are blind when we are in love. You know what Tucker did.”

Tucker had asked Erica to be his fake fiancée and then, when the reason for the ruse was no longer needed, he didn’t tell Erica and let her find out from someone else.

“I thought of that too. I thought of everything. He’s not one to lose his temper.”

“He did yesterday.”

“Scarlet texted me last night that she’s not talking to her father until he makes it right.”

“He told his daughter what happened?” Erica asked. “That’s personal.”

“No. I did ask if Scarlet knew what was going on and she only said her father was upset and avoiding talking about it so she knew he messed up. Those are his telltale signs. Scarlet assumed Micah came here and lectured.”

“He did,” Erica said, grinning.

“Which is why Scarlet is mad. She told me she loves me and hopes I’ll forgive her father. That he means well.”

“You don’t need that pressure on you.”

“I don’t. I can’t let it sway me, but I will not walk away without trying. I need to know his true feelings and not what he felt in the heat of the moment.”

“Do you really want to continue to do this work online?” Erica asked.

“You heard that?”

“I wasn’t going to leave you alone. It was wrong of me, I’ll admit.”

She reached her hand for her sister’s. “I would have done the same thing. It’s fine. I love you and appreciate you being in my corner so much. I’m not sure where I’d be without you.”

“You’d be just fine,” Erica said. “I know it. I think you’re believing it. I’m angry that Micah made you doubt that.”

“I’m mad he did too. I let it get in my head. I don’t need or want to make money off of what I post and do online. I’ve never done it for those reasons.”

“It’s a nice benefit,” Erica said.

She smiled. “It is. And it’s allowed me to funnel it into my business. But I don’t want to cut back my messages. Yesterday was proof. The messages and support I got were astounding.”

“Someone needs to be a spokesperson,” Erica said. “It can be you.”

“I don’t know how much I want on my shoulders for that, but I want to help people even if it’s five minutes to take their mind off of something. Read this, it’s from Danielle.”

She turned her laptop toward Erica. “I was coming to see if you heard from her.” Erica read the long email. “Wow. She sounds really upset.”

“I believe she is. I have to figure out how to reply, but I will. I know she didn’t mean it, but my words made her realize that what she did wasn’t right. I can’t be her friend after this.”

“Were you ever?” Erica asked.

“We were friendly. Looking back on my life, I don’t know how many close friends I ever had.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that,” Erica said. “You never had a lot. Everyone wanted to be your friend and you rarely let someone in close. Why?”

She shrugged. “I think many didn’t understand me. Or they wanted to get close for selfish reasons.”

She wasn’t trying to be cocky, but she knew she was attractive. She was funny and got along with everyone.

All the reasons that make someone popular, but not close to anyone.

The same way influencers got so large.

Most couldn’t say they had a lot of close friends to rely on and Harmony knew she wouldn’t want that.

“It’s funny for me to say this, but you’ve always been guarded. I don’t want to blame Mom and Dad for it, but I think you didn’t get what you needed from them.”

“None of us did. And you and Theo turned out fine.”

“But none of us have close friends,” Erica said. “Think about it. You’re my sister and my best friend. Daisy too. But we’ve never had a relationship with someone outside of family like Daisy has with Heather. Neither has Theo.”

“I didn’t think of that,” she said. “I guess I’m glad I’ve got you.”

“You’ll always have me. No matter where you or I live, we’ll always be there for the other.”

Harmony nodded. “I know that.”

“And now you need to decide if you can forgive Micah like I did Tucker. I took that step and you should too. You’ll feel better taking control rather than waiting for him.”

“I thought of that too,” she said. “But he’s working and I don’t want to have that conversation there.”

Erica picked her phone up and handed it over. “Text him you want to talk later. Make him sweat it out.”

She was just about to when her computer started to ding. “Who is that?”

“It’s Danielle,” she said. “I’m going to talk to her.”

“Are you sure that’s smart?”

“I have to.”

“I’m going to sit over here out of the way,” Erica said.

“Danielle,” Harmony said when she hit the button. She wasn’t going to smile or be happy. But she had to admit her heart knocked in her chest a bit at the sight of Danielle.

It looked as if a hurricane of emotions had swept through the room and left her battered, broken, and crying on the floor.

Danielle’s eyes and cheeks were swollen and red, her hair was a stringy mess sticking up in places and there were tears running down her face.

The fact Danielle was talking to her face to face showed enough strength that convinced Harmony to take the call.

“I’m so sorry,” Danielle said. “I never meant for you to feel any of that. I swear to it.”

“Why did you do it?”

“I wanted you to be my friend. You were so nice to me when no one else was and I thought you wanted the same. I know you’re busy or you were in New York too. I had so much fun when we hung out together, but you never wanted to with just the two of us.”

“Danielle, I have always tried hard to separate work and my personal life. It’s been important for me to do that. Lizzie was a mentor to me and that is why we stayed friends, but it wasn’t anything personal against you. I treated you the same as I did everyone else.”

Danielle sniffled. “I didn’t see it that way. When I was with you and Lizzie, others would come to me to find out what we did or talked about. I never told them anything. I swear. I kept it all a secret like you do.”

But she’d never shared anything either. “Why did you do it anonymously? Can you answer me that?”

Danielle picked up a tissue and blew her nose. “You never replied or responded to me when I made comments. It hurt because I thought we were friends. I created other accounts to see if you’d reply to them. But you didn’t.”

“Why couldn’t you just tell me these things?”

Danielle shrugged. “You’d think I was a loser like everyone else does. I just wanted to be your friend. I started to think maybe you moved when no one had seen you around lately. I accessed your forwarding address and was caught.”

Her jaw dropped. “Did you get fired?”

Danielle nodded. “I was forced to resign. I didn’t tell anyone your address or that you moved, I swear. I only used it to send the flowers for your birthday. To thank you for everything. Since we’ve been communicating, it’s been the highlight of my days.”

Her shoulders dropped. She heard Erica moving around and wanted to turn her head to look at her sister, but didn’t.

“I’m sorry, Danielle. What you did was wrong. It was upsetting and it frightened me at times. Think about what you did to me and how you’d feel if it was done to you.”

“But I don’t have any friends like you. I would have loved it and replied to everyone.”

She sighed. There was no getting through to Danielle. “I’m sorry. I am. I appreciate you being so upfront and apologizing so that I’m not concerned it’s another person. We can’t be friends after this.”

“Do you mean we would have been if I didn’t do it and got to know you by being your client?”

There were fresh tears cascading down Danielle’s face.

“I’m not going to answer that,” she said.

It wouldn’t benefit either of them. “I believe in second chances and I know you didn’t mean any harm.

If you want me to continue to work with you on your business, we can, but that’s it.

If you’d rather move on, I’ll understand that also. Take a few days and think about it.”

Danielle nodded, some snot coming out of her nose that she wiped quickly. “I’m sorry, Harmony. I never meant any of this. I don’t know what else I can say.”

“Actions have consequences,” she said. “I’m sorry this happened too.”

“Wow,” Erica said, moving over when the call was discontinued. “That’s sad.”

“I feel sorry for her, but it was wrong.”

“Oh, no doubt,” Erica said. “I’m surprised you’re still going to work with her. Why?”