Free The Art of Discipline: Dani’s Discovery (The Mockingbird Chronicles) by Alexandra James, Stardawn Cabot

exactly one hour to get this mess cleaned up. I doubt you’re hungry after eating all this junk, but I am. I’m going to get something to eat and calm down. One hour, Danielle,” Emma repeated, before turning and storming out of the apartment and toward her own.
    Dani gave herself a minute or two after Emma left to remind herself to breathe again. She hadn’t been this scared since Uncle Sean caught her smoking when she was fourteen. With a sigh, she looked around the room. It was a pigsty. Shaking her head at her own behavior, she bent to pick up the bag of chips from the floor.
    It took her a good twenty minutes to get the study spic and span again. She’d had to vacuum to get all the potato chips up and found herself vacuuming the rest of the apartment as well. She did the few dishes in the sink, straightened up the cushions on the sofa, and even remade her bed, making it as neat as possible.
    By the time her hour was up, she found herself sitting in the middle of the sofa, twitching nervously every time she heard a creak or a noise that could signal Emma’s arrival. Emma managed to drag out the torture though, making her wait nearly another fifteen minutes. By the time Dani heard the key rattle and saw the door knob turn, she was sure her heart would explode from pure stress.
    Not sure if she should stand or say something or what, Dani decided to go for the safest option and study the ground. She sensed Emma move across the room and felt the sofa sag as Emma sat next to her. Only when she felt Emma’s gentle hand on her knee did she look up.
    “You know, Danielle,” Emma began. “I was really worried about you today. I thought you were getting sick.”
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”
    Emma squeezed her knee. “You lied to me, Danielle. You left your shift under false pretenses. That’s unfair to me and to our employees. This is the second day in a row that you’ve skipped out on work.”
    Dani didn’t know what to say, so instead she let her eyes travel back to the floor.
    “I don’t know if you are testing me or if you really just don’t want to be here. I thought we were getting somewhere, Danielle, but seriously, if you don’t want to be here, let me buy you out so you can get back to your life.”
    Dani felt her eyes suddenly fill with tears. They were hot, angry tears of disappointment. “I don’t want to leave. Please don’t make me leave,” she managed to force out.
    The two women sat in silence for a moment as Emma debated what to say and Dani fought the tears that so stubbornly insisted on coming.
    Emma reached out and wiped a tear off Dani’s face with her thumb. “Oh, Dani,” Emma breathed, encouraging Dani to turn toward her as she wrapped her arms securely around her. “Shhh, now. It’s okay,” Emma continued to coo as she rocked Dani gently.
    “I miss him so much,” Dani blubbered between sobs. “He would have been so disappointed in me.”
    “No, sweetie, no. He loved you. Do you have any idea how often he spoke of you? I felt like I knew you before we ever met.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah, really. He was so damn proud of you, Dani.”
    “He wouldn’t have been proud of the way I acted today,” Dani whispered.
    “No, probably not. He’d probably be paddling your butt right now, giving you a reason to cry,” Emma half joked.
    That got half a smile out of Dani. “Probably,” she agreed, before frowning again. “Is that what you are going to do?”
    Emma considered Dani’s question carefully. “I think there has been enough crying today, so this is what is going to happen. I’m going to keep the laptop until bedtime tomorrow night, which will be at 8:00 p.m., same as tonight.”
    “But—” Dani started to protest.
    Emma held up a finger, silencing her. “Since you were pretending to be sick, you can spend the rest of today and all day tomorrow in bed. No TV, no electronics. You may read or write or draw or sleep, your choice. Since you’ll be