Chapter 17

Clark's senior year was very eventful for him, but Harmony found herself pulling away from the people she'd grown attached to. From time to time, she and her friends would still talk, but with Pete gone, having moved to Detroit with him mother, she became gradually more introvert than before. She continued to work at the Talon, though. Though the year was quite unforgettable to the rest of Harmony's friends, the one day that stood out in Harmony's mind was the day of the Smallville's second meteor shower.

Clark's graduation had seemed like a simple, fun day that would be exciting only because the senior class was graduating. It took place out on the school lawn. Lex was not there, for reasons unknown to Harmony, because she had been with the Kents all morning. However, neither was Lana. For some reason, that bothered Harmony even more than Chloe's weirder-than-normal behavior around Clark recently. However, no one had time to wonder about Lana's absence, even when her name was called and she did not rise. The national guard arrived just then, warning them about the impending arrival of a meteor shower.

"Another meteor shower?" Harmony turned to Jonathan. "Aren't they supposed to be rare?"

"Not in Smallville, apparently," Jonathan, replied, gathering up his wife and their coats. "Let's hurry home."

"You guys go back to the farm," Harmony said. "I gotta get to the mansion."

She'd driven the black truck that Lex had bought for her, so rather than driving on the roads that she knew would be packed with cars, she hit the fields and forests surrounding Smallville. Soon, she heaved the large truck over a bank and onto the empty road in front of the mansion, speeding toward the mansion.

"Lex!" She called as she ran through the front doors. "Lex, where are you?"

She hurried to his office, but heard voices before she reached the door, so she slowed down. "You've got to trust me," she heard him say. Who?

Harmony carefully peaked around the doorframe. What she saw made her blood freeze. Lex was holding Lana in his arms as securely and gently as he'd ever held her! Don't look so happy about it, jackass! She snarled in her mind, then paused. What if there was something else going on? She couldn't just assume that Lex was involved with Lana, just because they were standing in his office wrapped in each other's arms, and he was telling her to trust him. She felt her own argument growing weaker by the moment.

"Wait." Lana pulled away. "Where's my purse?" She hurried to Lex's desk and began digging through her purse.

"It's still there," Lex looked back without fully turning. "I wouldn't steal from you."

Harmony'd heard enough. She'd come to warn Lex and ask him go get out of Smallville with her, but she saw the way he was looking at Lana, and the way he was concerned for her, and whatever she had hidden in her purse. She was sure it had something to do with that mysterious trip to China that he refused to talk about. Again, involving Lana. As Harmony bolted up the stairs to the room she shared with Lex, she thought about this past year. She realized that there were a lot of times that Lex wouldn't talk about, and most of them involved Lana.

"No," she spoke out loud to herself. "Lex loves me. He gave me his ring. He comes home to me every night. He loves me, not Lana. So why do I feel like I'm trying to convince myself?" As she spoke, she shoved clothes and a few items into a couple of duffle bags.

"Because you are, my dear."

With a start, Harmony looked up. Lionel Luthor stood in her doorway, holding a glass of brandy. "You know what you see with your own eyes, Ms. Kent."

"Get out," Harmony snarled. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Don't I?" Lionel asked casually as he ducked the shoe that Harmony launched at him. "Why is it, Child, that after being so quick to ask for your hand in marriage, my son has been so hesitant to actually walk with you down the isle?"

"We never discussed a date," Harmony didn't look at her future father in law. "Besides, it's none of your concern. You probably won't get an invitation, anyway."

"Now that's rather cold, don't you think?"

"My father won't be there because of you!" Harmony screamed as she threw the first shoe's mate, altering it's trajectory to assure contact. Sure enough, it was greeted with the shattering of Lionel's glass when he dropped it and a curse from Lionel. "And neither will you! Now get out of my sight!"

Straightening as he attempted to recompose himself, Lionel sniffed and sauntered away. Harmony lifted her chin, fighting back the tears as she thought of her father. Drunken louse though he was, he'd still been her father. If only he hadn't found those documents that would have sent Lionel to the needle, he probably would still be alive. Then again, if Lionel hadn't been stupid enough to leave them where a janitor could find them, or if Joseph hadn't found them and were in fact, still alive, Harmony would most likely still be in Edge City, not engaged to be married to the son of the very man who killed her father. Well, as surely as if he'd pulled the trigger.

Grabbing her bags, she carried them down the hall and threw them over the balcony so she could pick them up when she went downstairs. Suddenly, she heard the scream of something overhead, and hurried to the window. The meteor shower had begun.