Page 124 of A Home for Harmony

“No,” he said. “Harmony is saying the same thing I would. You know what you did was wrong, Scarlet. You ultimately lied to both your mother and me by skipping school. You’re going to allow her to follow your phone again.”

“But she watches everything,” Scarlet whined.

“So?” he said. “Now you gave her a reason she needs to. That’s on you.”

Scarlet picked up her pizza and took an angry bite out of it. “You can see me. That’s enough.”

“This isn’t a negotiation,” he said. “Your mother follows you or you lose your phone and computer for a week. And that’s not even your punishment for skipping school.”

Scarlet’s jaw dropped. “Then you wouldn’t be able to follow me.”

“Don’t be so sure about that,” he said, lifting an eyebrow.

“Fine. I’ll add Mom. Did you talk to her about my punishment?”

“She’s with Randy tonight, but I’ll call her later and will finalize it.”

“See,” Scarlet said. “She couldn’t even say she’d miss a few hours with him to be here.”

“Did you want her here?” he asked.

“No,” Scarlet said.

“Then why say that?” he asked.

“Because a sixteen-year-old girl says and does things they don’t mean all the time,” Harmony said.

Micah turned to his daughter. “I’m not going to yell at you. There is no reason for it. I don’t want you to do this again. If you want to miss school for a reason or there is something going on that you don’t want to go, I need to know and we’ll talk it out. If you want to be treated like an adult, then you need to show me you can be one.”

“Yes,” Scarlet said, putting her head down. “How long will I be grounded, and what will it contain?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “But you’ll find out later. Until then, hand your phone over. No talking to your friends.”

Scarlet got up and picked her phone up from the other counter and handed it to her father.

Harmony had never done that as a kid. Her mother couldn’t be trusted not to go through her phone, but Scarlet completely trusted her father.

An hour later, Scarlet was in her room doing homework.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Harmony said.

“It could have been worse,” he said. “She was okay before I got here?”

“I’m not going to tell you everything, but I think you would have been fine without me. She trusts you, Micah. That’s why she listens. My mother would have opened my phone up right in front of me and read everything it said.”

He snorted. “I think Trinda does that. I won’t say I’m not tempted, but I can’t be that way unless I’ve got a good reason.”

“She’s acting like a typical teen. That isn’t a big reason.”

“No,” he said, pulling her into her arms. “Did you mean what you said? About learning to ask for help and owning when you make the wrong decision?”

“I mean it,” she said. “I shouldn’t have tried to carry the mental load on my own. I feel almost free now that you know and don’t even dread opening my emails anymore.”

He sighed. “I don’t want you to feel that way. I can’t help you if I don’t know.”

“Micah,” she said. “I appreciate your help, but it’s more important that you’re there for me rather than solving the problem.”

“Just like you were for me tonight,” he said, kissing her on the forehead.