Page 129 of A Home for Harmony

As his eyes scanned them, they were all positive. Some people saying it was happening to them also.

“Show me who the person is,” he said. “Don’t make me ask again.”

She reached forward and started to angrily type into her computer, then pulled up a video screenshot that she’d circled of a shelf with other small random items. “What do you see? The three emoji signature, right?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Close enough.”

“That’s right,” she said. “It’s too much of a coincidence, if you ask me.”

“How did you find that?”

“I’m working with this client.”

“What!? For how long?”

“There you go again, getting pissed. You know, Micah, I expected you to be more in control.”

He ground his teeth. “You don’t get it.”

“Yes,” she said. “I do get it. You’re worried and want to protect me. I don’t need it. The messages haven’t come in a long time; the flowers were the last thing. I realized that whenever I met with Danielle—that’s her name—when we were talking and working together, she was getting attention from me. She was acting differently in person than who I knew her to be. She didn’t need to send messages then because she got what she was hoping for. You made me realize it wasn’t a guy. You had me looking at it logically. From that point on, I was more focused about it.”

“How do you know this woman?” he asked. “Someone you met online? A stranger you opened yourself up to and got close?”

“I hear the condemnation in your voice and I’m over it. I’m tired of justifying my job to people. I’ve taken all the precautions I could and this would have still happened. Do you want to know why? Because I was with Danielle on New Year’s Eve in New York.”

His jaw opened, his face filled with heat. “Tell me you’re joking.”

“No, I’m not. Danielle and I worked together at my last job. She’d hang out with me and my friend Lizzie. She always tagged along. I had no reason to think anything bad or wrong other than she’s quiet and not very confident in herself. But again, as I said, on these one-on-one calls, I’m seeing someone else and should have realized it. Thinking back, when we worked together, I wasn’t getting the messages until toward the end before I left. When I was distancing myself from everyone knowing I was going to leave.”

“You were overly friendly with her,” he said. “You led her on.”

“Is that what you think of me?” she asked. There were tears in her eyes. “That I’m a fake and lead people on?”

Yep, the words slipped without thought. “That isn’t what I meant.”

“But it’s what you said. What I’ve heard my whole life. I am who I am. I’m happy this way. I can’t and won’t pretend to be someone I’m not. Even when I enjoy what I do, I have to tell myself everyone in my life hates it or is worried and I need to figure out a way to move away from it. It skewed the way I approached this too.”

“So you don’t want to stop being an influencer?” This was news to him.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I enjoy influencing people’s livespositively. There isn’t anything wrong with that. I’m not saying I’m doing it for money. That isn’t it. I like just being me and putting that out there and maybe bringing some joy to someone else that might be missing it in their life.”

“Like Danielle, who now is stalking you.”

“I want you to leave,” Harmony said. “You’re not in a good frame of mind to talk about this. You told me to be honest with my mother about how I was feeling and I’m doing the same with you. I love you and love that you want to protect me. But you’re insulting my intelligence like so many others have done. You’re diminishing my self-worth in my career because it’s not somethingyou’ddo or care for rather than opening your mind like you said you were. I’m tired of being shoved into a box and told everything I do is wrong or silly or meaningless and I’ll be damned if I’ll let the man I love make me feel like a failure.”

“I don’t want you to feel that way,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” she said, crying. “Please go for now.”

Micah turned and left because he had no other choice when Erica showed up in the doorway. He should have known Harmony would get that support. Support she always said she didn’t have, but she was wrong.

He went home after that. Scarlet would be there, as school got out about thirty minutes ago.

“Is Harmony okay?” Scarlet asked, rushing to his side.

“She’s fine,” he said.

“But you’re not,” Scarlet said, stepping back. “Did you fight?”