Chapter 6 - The Story They Tried to Sell
By Monday, the story had become entertainment.
A local gossip site described Jenna as a “hotel seamstress with unusual access to a powerful businessman.”
Another suggested she had engineered a dramatic rescue to secure money.
Someone posted a photograph of Lily leaving school.
That was when Jenna stopped reading.
She called the school.
Then the police.
Then her attorney.
Each conversation took a piece of the morning.
By noon, she had done everything necessary and still felt as if she had accomplished nothing.
Vincent arrived at her building that afternoon, alone except for a driver who remained downstairs.
Jenna met him in the hallway.
“You can’t come here unexpectedly.”
He stopped.
“I thought—”
“I know.”
He looked past her toward the apartment.
Lily was singing to herself inside.
Vincent stepped back.
“You’re right.”
Jenna folded her arms.
“I’m afraid all the time now.”
His face changed.
“Because of Dominic?”
“Because somebody photographed my child. Because my job disappeared. Because strangers think my life is a puzzle they’re entitled to solve.”
He said nothing.
“And because you keep arriving like the next thing that happens is yours to decide.”
The words landed.
He looked at the stairwell.
Then back at her.
“What would help?”
She exhaled.
“An appointment. A phone call. Asking.”
“All right.”
“And I need accurate information. If there’s a risk I should know about, tell me.”
“There is.”
Her stomach tightened.
“The message you received came from a phone connected to one of Dominic’s former assistants. Detectives are investigating. My counsel gave them the records this morning.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“They should have. I’ll ask that your lawyer receives updates directly where permitted.”
Jenna nodded.
“Thank you.”
He remained by the stairs.
“I’ll leave.”
She studied him.
Then opened the door wider.
“Ten minutes. Lily wants to know if your neck still hurts.”
Lily appeared immediately.
“Does it?”
“Less than before.”
“Mommy says medicine isn’t magic.”
“Your mother says useful things.”
“She also says shoes go by the door, but she leaves hers in the kitchen.”
“Lily.”
“What? It’s true.”
Vincent smiled.
Jenna saw it happen without effort.
Not the polished smile of a powerful man reassuring a room.
Something smaller.
Something that belonged in a hallway.
Later that week, the hotel formally withdrew the suspension.
Jenna received back pay and a written apology.
She could return immediately.
She stood outside the alterations room on her first morning back, staring at the familiar door.
Her supervisor avoided her eyes.
Two housekeepers hugged her.
The banquet captain handed her a paper cup of coffee and whispered, “You were right.”
Jenna thanked him.
She did not ask why he had stayed quiet when management suspended her.
She knew fear had many uniforms.
At lunch, Vincent sent a message.
May I call this evening?
She answered yes.
The conversation lasted forty minutes.
He told her about physical therapy.
She told him about the first dress she had ruined as an apprentice.
He admitted he had once believed every problem could be solved by paying the right person.
“Only once?” she asked.
“Recently, I’ve learned it may have been a recurring belief.”
She laughed.
Then grew quiet.
“My daughter can’t become part of something dangerous.”
“I understand.”
“No. I need you to understand that liking you doesn’t make that negotiable.”
Vincent sat very still.
She had said liking.
He did not let that distract him from the rest.
“Then I need to make my life something you can examine honestly.”
The following day, he authorized a wider review of his companies.
Not only Dominic’s transactions.
His own.
Elena warned him there could be consequences.
May you like
He looked at the soft jacket hanging behind his office door.
“There already have been,” he said.
