Chapter 1 - The Seam That Did Not Belong
“Mommy?”
Jenna looked up so quickly that the jacket slipped from her hands.
Lily stood in the doorway beside Mrs. Alvarez, wearing her school backpack and an expression of considerable injustice.
“They closed school early. Something happened to the water.”
Mrs. Alvarez lifted both hands apologetically.
“My sister has her appointment. I couldn’t take her with me.”
“It’s okay,” Jenna said immediately.
It was not okay. Children were not allowed in the alterations room during working hours, and her supervisor had already reminded her that employees were easier to replace than hotel equipment.
Still, Lily needed somewhere to be.
Jenna pulled a stool behind the cutting table.
“Homework first. Then coloring.”
“Can I draw the fancy people?”
“Make them anonymous.”
“What’s anonymous?”
“Give everybody a mustache.”
Lily considered that excellent advice.
While her daughter unpacked her crayons, Jenna lifted the jacket again.
The strange weight pulled toward the back of the collar. She ran her fingers beneath the lining and felt a narrow, unyielding ridge.
Not a shoulder pad.
Not ordinary canvas.
Something mechanical.
For a moment, curiosity overcame caution. She reached toward her seam ripper.
Then Dominic appeared in the doorway.
He had returned without footsteps.
Jenna set the tool down.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“The button’s finished.”
His eyes moved from the jacket to her hand.
“Good.”
Then he noticed Lily.
His smile changed.
Not enough for most people to recognize.
Jenna recognized it.
“And who is this?”
“My daughter. Her school closed unexpectedly.”
Dominic crouched slightly.
“Pretty name?”
Lily looked at her mother before answering.
“Lily.”
“What school do you go to, Lily?”
Jenna folded the jacket over her arm.
“We’re handling a family emergency. Is there anything else you need repaired?”
Dominic straightened.
For a second, the pleasant expression disappeared completely.
Then it returned.
“No. Thank you.”
He took the jacket, checked the button, and left.
Jenna waited until his footsteps reached the elevator.
Then she locked the alterations-room door.
Lily looked up.
“Did I do something?”
“No, sweetheart.”
“Was he mad?”
Jenna crouched beside her.
“You never have to tell a stranger where you go to school.”
“But he knows you.”
“That doesn’t mean he knows us.”
That evening, Jenna could not stop thinking about the collar.
She had worked in tailoring since seventeen. Her mother had taught her how to recognize a cheap repair by touch, how to identify tension in a seam, how fabric changed when someone forced it into a shape it did not want to hold.
That jacket had been forced.
The following morning, she saw Vincent in the service elevator.
He stood alone, one hand braced against the wall.
His face was gray.
Jenna almost stepped back out.
Then the doors closed.
“Are you all right?”
His eyes opened.
“That depends on who’s asking.”
“The person standing next to you in a very small elevator.”
For an instant, something like amusement crossed his face.
Then pain erased it.
His fingers went to the back of his neck.
The same place where the strange ridge had pressed against Jenna’s hand.
“Does it hurt there?” she asked.
Vincent lowered his hand.
“Sometimes.”
“Does the collar feel tight?”
His expression changed.
“Why?”
“I repaired your jacket yesterday.”
“Dominic took it down?”
“Yes.”
Vincent looked toward the floor indicator.
“My brother handles the tailor.”
The elevator stopped.
Before stepping out, Jenna said, “A jacket shouldn’t hurt you.”
He turned.
For a moment, she thought he would be angry.
Instead, he looked tired.
“Neither should most things.”
That night, Jenna searched her memory rather than the internet.
Vincent in the restaurant, rubbing his neck.
Vincent crossing the lobby after removing his overcoat, already pale.
Vincent at a charity breakfast in shirtsleeves, laughing once, apparently comfortable.
Different days.
Different jackets.
Always the same high, rigid collar.
On Thursday, another black suit arrived downstairs.
This time, a young assistant carried it.
“Mr. Marino caught the lining on something.”
Jenna examined the tear.
The inner seam had opened near the collar.
Through the gap, she saw dark webbing, a thin metal strip, and a small adjustment buckle concealed beneath the lining.
Someone had built a tightening structure into the jacket.
Jenna took a photograph.
Then another.
When she turned toward the doorway, Dominic stood there.
May you like
He looked at her phone.
And for the first time since she had met him, he forgot to smile.
