Page 43 of Scarlett and the Fake Boyfriend (Scarlett #2)

He lowered one of his hands and jabbed at the phone. “Does this look familiar to you?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “Nope.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yeah, my screen was shattered. That’s not mine.”

He laughed. “Oh, it’s yours all right. Your pictures are all over it.”

Ah! No! I couldn’t believe my uncle had seen those! “Did you hack my phone?!”

“I’m the one asking questions here,” he said. “What were you thinking, Scarlett?”

“I...I...”

“Dad,” Sophie said. “Surely you did worse when you were in high school.”

“Worse than...this?” He jabbed his finger at the phone again. “I’ve seen things I can never unsee.”

Ah!

He slowly shook his head. “When your father showed me...”

“My dad saw too?!” No. Noooooo!

“Every picture,” he said. “Every text. He knows everything , Scarlett.”

“So my dad wanted me to come here because he’s disowning me or something?”

“This is so much bigger than you,” Uncle Rob said. “People are going to be arrested. And sued.”

Why was someone going to be sued?! “Uncle Rob...you have to stop my dad from doing all that. None of this is anyone else’s fault.”

“He’s beating up your teacher right now,” he said.

Oh my God.

“What?!” Sophie said. “No, stop him. Don’t let him hurt Mr. Halifax!”

“It’s too late for that,” Uncle Rob said and looked down at his watch. “Mr. Halifax is no longer with us as of two minutes ago. There’s been a terrible accident .”

Sophie gasped.

“Did my dad just murder someone?!” I yelled. “Uncle Rob! Do something! Stop him!” I burst out crying.

“There’s nothing I can do. And of course I had to tell him about the hole in the floor...”

Ah! Damn it!

“Dad, you promised!” Sophie said.

“And you promised to take those cameras down before the police started circling.”

Ah! No!

“All of you are facing criminal charges. You can kiss the idea of college goodbye. I hope you know how to keister.”

Sophie gasped again. And then she burst out laughing for some reason.

And so did Uncle Rob .

“What is happening?” I asked as tears streamed down my cheeks.

They both just kept laughing.

“You should see your face,” Uncle Rob said.

Sophie kept laughing. “I’m so sorry, we didn’t mean to make you cry.”

Huh? “I...we...what’s going on? Is my dad not hurting Mr. Halifax?”

“I have no idea who Mr. Halifax is,” Uncle Rob said and slid my phone across the counter to me. He kept laughing.

“The teacher I have a crush on,” Sophie said.

He shrugged. “Naturally.”

“I’m so confused,” I said. “Did my dad not hack my phone?”

“Nah, he was trying to. But I stopped him. You’re welcome by the way.”

I just gaped at him.

“And I texted Sophie so she knew I was about to play an epic prank on you. Good job, by the way,” he said to her.

Sophie looked very pleased with herself.

“This isn’t a prank!” I said. “This is my life!”

Uncle Rob laughed again. “Your face is priceless right now.” He lifted his hand for a high five and Sophie high fived him.

“Don’t high five him,” I said.

She shrugged and giggled.

“Wait. But you said you saw my pictures, Uncle Rob.”

“Everyone has pictures on their phones,” he said. “You must have some saucy ones because you were real upset.” He kept laughing.

“And my texts?” I asked.

“I guess you’ve been texting saucy things too?” he asked instead of answering. “You should probably cool down on that just in case your dad does hack your phone.” He snapped his fingers. “Were you wearing glasses when you did the facial recognition scan?”

“Yes?”

“Smart girl. Your dad didn’t have any recent pictures of you with your glasses. When I found him at the office he was doing a deep dive into your social media trying to find the perfect picture to scan. He was really spiraling.”

“So he really was trying to hack it?” I asked.

“Absolutely. And I stopped him. Oh, but just a heads up, he definitely thinks you’re sleeping with one of your teachers. He asked if I knew anything about it. I told him I didn’t. But is there something I should know?”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Kind of hypocritical for him to be upset about that,” Sophie said.

“Right?” Uncle Rob said. “He should have seen it coming. Scarlett is a spitting image of her mother.”

“Can we please stop talking about this?” I said and grabbed my phone.

Uncle Rob chuckled. “Well, I’ll leave you girls to it.”

“Oh, Dad?” Sophie said.

“Yeah?”

“You don’t have to worry about those cameras. RJ and Liam took them down.”

“Good girl.”

Sophie looked very pleased with herself as her dad walked out of the kitchen .

I glared at her.

“What? The prank wasn’t my idea.” She laughed.

“I hate you.”

“You love me. And at least there was no pudding involved.”

True.

“And you have your phone back. Yay!”

“I can’t believe my dad actually tried to hack it.” I slid my phone safely into Jacob’s varsity jacket pocket.

“He’s completely out of control,” Sophie said.

“Yeah. And so is my life.” I’d done so many crazy things the past several weeks that this prank had been very easy for Uncle Rob to pull. “How has our senior year become such a mess?”

“Everything will sort itself out at homecoming,” she said.

I nodded. As soon as I unmasked my kiss thief at homecoming, hopefully everything would sort itself out.