Chapter 2 - The Second Cut
“What are you photographing?”
Jenna lowered her phone.
“Damage before repair. Hotel procedure.”
“Since when?”
“Since guests started disagreeing about what was already torn.”
Dominic entered the room.
His camel coat brushed the edge of her table.
“Delete it.”
Jenna felt her pulse in her fingertips.
“The image belongs in the work order.”
“Then delete the work order.”
He reached for the jacket.
She let him take it.
There was no version of this moment in which wrestling a powerful man over a suit improved her daughter’s life.
Dominic folded it over his arm.
“You have a child, Jenna.”
She looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Then you understand why people should avoid unnecessary problems.”
He left before she could answer.
For several seconds, Jenna heard only the hiss of the steam press.
Then she sat down.
Her hands shook so badly that she could not unlock her phone on the first attempt.
The photographs were still there.
She sent them to her personal email, attached them to the repair record, and wrote down exactly what he had said.
Afterward, she called Mrs. Alvarez.
“Can Lily stay with you tonight?”
“Of course. What happened?”
“Something at work. I’ll explain when I can.”
By Friday morning, Jenna had decided to speak directly to Vincent.
She did not trust a message passed through anyone who answered to Dominic.
She did not trust herself to explain the mechanism properly without showing him.
At nine forty, she saw Vincent enter the hotel.
He wore a different black jacket.
Dominic walked beside him.
Three guards followed.
Jenna stood near the service corridor holding a garment bag she no longer remembered needing.
Vincent stopped beneath the chandelier.
One hand rose toward his neck.
Then his entire body folded.
The sound he made silenced the lobby.
A guard reached him first.
Dominic bent close, already removing a small medication case from his pocket.
Jenna saw his other hand press the back of Vincent’s collar.
She moved before fear could finish its argument.
“Don’t touch the collar.”
Dominic looked up.
“Get away.”
Vincent gripped the edge of a marble planter.
Jenna crouched in front of him.
“Mr. Marino. There’s something inside your jacket. I need to open the lining.”
He could barely focus.
“What?”
“It’s pulling against your neck.”
Dominic grabbed her wrist.
A guard stepped forward.
Jenna looked at Vincent.
“Ask him why he told me not to look inside.”
For one moment, even the fountain seemed quiet.
Vincent lifted his eyes toward his brother.
Dominic released her.
“She’s confused. It’s reinforcement. The tailor added it years ago.”
“Then let me see it,” Vincent said.
His voice was low.
Nobody mistook it for weakness.
Jenna took the small fabric scissors from her work apron.
“Keep still.”
The first cut opened the lining below the collar.
The second severed a strip of black webbing under visible tension.
Something snapped loose inside the jacket.
Vincent drew a sharp breath.
Not relief exactly.
Surprise.
His shoulders dropped.
Jenna carefully pulled the collar away from his neck.
A narrow metal support emerged, curved and padded where it should have rested harmlessly against the garment.
Instead, its adjustment straps had drawn it inward.
There were marks beneath Vincent’s hairline.
Small, angry pressure lines.
His head still hurt.
But the crushing pull had changed.
He looked at the object in Jenna’s hand.
Then at Dominic.
“What is that?”
Dominic took a step back.
“An orthopedic support. You remember the accident.”
Vincent stared.
He had injured his shoulder in a car crash ten years earlier.
He remembered physical therapy.
He remembered his brother taking charge.
He did not remember authorizing hidden equipment in every jacket he owned.
“Call an ambulance,” Jenna told the guard.
Dominic laughed once.
“An ambulance? For a headache?”
Vincent looked up.
“For me.”
The nearest guard took out his phone.
Dominic’s face hardened.
“You’re letting a seamstress diagnose you in a hotel lobby.”
“No,” Vincent said.
He looked at Jenna’s trembling hands.
“I’m letting someone show me what you kept hidden.”
May you like
Then he turned to his security chief.
“Marco. My brother stays here.”
