Chapter 2 - THE SECRET BURIED INSIDE THE SUIT
“Mommy?”
Jenna nearly dropped the jacket.
Lily stood in the doorway of the alterations room, holding a half-eaten granola bar and wearing the pink backpack she had decorated with little silver stars.
“Sweetheart, what are you doing here?”
“Mrs. Alvarez had to go to the doctor. She said I could wait with you.” Lily looked at the black jacket. “Is that the scary man's coat?”
Jenna smiled faintly. “He's not scary to everyone.”
“He looks angry.”
Before Jenna could answer, Lily approached the table. Her small fingers touched the jacket's shoulder.
“Mommy, why is this part so hard?”
Jenna froze.
Children noticed things adults overlooked.
She turned the jacket beneath the workroom light and carefully examined the suspicious seam again.
Whatever was hidden inside was not a loose piece of fabric. It had a rectangular shape, approximately the length of her palm, with a thin wire running toward the collar.
Her stomach tightened.
This wasn't ordinary tailoring.
She took a seam ripper and gently opened two stitches.
A tiny black electronic device appeared beneath the lining.
Jenna stared.
It was connected to a narrow receiver and something resembling a miniature pressure sensor. She had no idea exactly what the device did, but she recognized one thing immediately.
Someone had deliberately concealed it inside Vincent Marino's jacket.
Her first instinct was to put everything back.
Her second was to call hotel security.
Then she remembered Dominic's expression.
Only repair the button.
Nothing else.
The warning suddenly sounded less like a request and more like an order.
“Mommy?” Lily whispered.
“Go sit in the office, baby.”
“Are you in trouble?”
Jenna looked at her daughter's frightened face.
“No. But I need you to stay where I can see you.”
She photographed the device with her phone, then carefully closed the lining without removing anything else.
At 3:42 p.m., Dominic returned.
He entered without knocking.
“Finished?”
Jenna placed the jacket on the table.
“The button is fixed.”
Dominic picked it up and examined the shoulder.
For one brief second, his eyes moved toward the seam.
Jenna saw it.
He knew.
“You opened it,” he said.
“No.”
“Don't lie to me.”
His pleasant expression disappeared.
Jenna's heart hammered, but she kept her voice steady.
“Your brother's jacket has unusual stitching. I noticed it while repairing the button.”
Dominic placed the jacket down.
“What exactly did you notice?”
“Nothing that concerns me.”
He stepped closer.
“People who work in this hotel sometimes confuse curiosity with intelligence. That's a dangerous mistake.”
Jenna swallowed.
“I just sew clothes.”
“Then keep sewing.”
He took the jacket and left.
At 4:15, a hotel security officer came downstairs.
“Ms. Cole? Mr. Marino wants to see you.”
Jenna's fingers went cold.
“Which Mr. Marino?”
The officer hesitated.
“Vincent.”
Upstairs, the private elevator opened onto the penthouse level.
Jenna had never been there.
The marble floors were spotless. Massive windows overlooked Chicago's skyline, and expensive paintings hung between dark wooden doors.
Vincent stood beside a desk, his black jacket draped over a chair.
His face looked pale.
Dominic was standing near the window.
“Tell my brother what you found,” Dominic said.
Vincent's eyes moved toward Jenna.
“What did you find?”
Jenna glanced at Dominic.
“I noticed something unusual inside the lining of your jacket.”
“Show me.”
She handed Vincent her phone.
The photograph appeared.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Vincent enlarged the image.
Then he looked at his brother.
“Explain.”
Dominic laughed nervously.
“It's probably a tracking device. Security equipment. Somebody must have installed it during the last repair.”
“Whose equipment?”
“I don't know.”
Vincent's jaw tightened.
“Interesting. Because that jacket has never left this building.”
Dominic's expression changed.
Jenna noticed Vincent pressing his fingers against his temple.
His breathing became uneven.
“Sir, are you okay?”
“I'm fine.”
But he wasn't.
His hand shook violently.
A glass fell from the desk and shattered.
Vincent staggered backward.
Dominic immediately reached toward the emergency medication cabinet.
“It's happening again. Get the doctor!”
“Wait,” Jenna said.
Dominic turned sharply.
“Don't interfere.”
Jenna watched Vincent's right hand move toward the side of his neck.
The same place she had noticed him touching in the elevator.
“Mr. Marino, does the pain always start here?”
Vincent stared at her.
“Yes.”
“Does it travel behind your right ear?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
“Does it get worse when you're wearing your suit?”
Dominic stepped between them.
“Enough.”
But Vincent raised one hand.
“Let her speak.”
Jenna looked at the photograph again.
“The device was positioned directly beneath the left shoulder seam. There was another stiff section near the collar. I didn't open it, but something was pressing against the fabric.”
Vincent slowly removed his tie.
“Get my medical records.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Why?”
“Because I'm asking you.”
A few minutes later, Dr. Samuel Reed arrived.
He examined the photograph, then looked at Vincent's neck.
“Mr. Marino, I need to ask you something. Have you experienced electrical sensations, unusual pressure, or temporary weakness?”
“Every day.”
The doctor looked at the photograph again.
“Whoever installed this device may have been interfering with a medical implant.”
Vincent went completely still.
Jenna looked confused.
“An implant?”
Dr. Reed lowered his voice.
“Ten years ago, Mr. Marino underwent emergency surgery following a shooting. A small nerve-stimulation component was placed near his cervical nerves to manage damage from the injury. It was supposed to reduce his symptoms.”
Vincent stared at him.
“Are you telling me someone put something near it?”
“I'm telling you we need imaging immediately.”
Dominic suddenly grabbed the photograph.
“This is ridiculous. The woman probably damaged the jacket herself.”
Vincent's eyes lifted.
“Give it back.”
“Vincent, listen—”
“Give. It. Back.”
Dominic obeyed.
The doctor ordered a full medical evaluation and instructed the security team to preserve the jacket as evidence.
Jenna thought she would be dismissed.
Instead, Vincent looked at her.
“You noticed something that trained professionals missed.”
“I noticed bad stitching.”
A faint, almost unfamiliar expression crossed his face.
“What's your name?”
“Jenna Cole.”
“And the little girl downstairs?”
“My daughter. Lily.”
Vincent nodded.
“Make sure they both get home safely.”
Dominic laughed.
“Are we seriously discussing babysitting now?”
Vincent turned.
“No. We're discussing the fact that somebody has been trying to hurt me inside my own house.”
His younger brother said nothing.
That evening, Jenna returned home with Lily and found an envelope tucked beneath her apartment door.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed Jenna leaving the Grand Aldridge that afternoon.
On the back, someone had written six words.
STOP ASKING QUESTIONS OR YOUR DAUGHTER PAYS.
Jenna's hands began shaking.
Then her phone rang.
The caller ID displayed an unknown number.
She answered.
A man's distorted voice spoke quietly.
“Mrs. Cole, you have something that belongs to the Marino family.”
Jenna looked toward Lily, who was sitting on the living-room floor.
“What do you want?”
The man chuckled.
“Not what I want. What your employer has been hiding.”
A pause.
“Ask Vincent Marino what happened to his first wife.”
The line went dead.
Jenna looked at the photograph again.
May you like
And suddenly understood that the device inside the jacket might have been only the smallest part of a much bigger conspiracy.
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