Chapter 2 - Apologize or Leave
Charles pulled Nora several feet away.
“Just apologize.”
Nora almost laughed.
“For what?”
“For escalating the situation.”
“He stole her phone.”
“Leonard handled it.”
“After I pointed out the camera.”
Charles glanced toward Sebastian.
“Keep your voice down.”
“Why?”
“Because his family spends hundreds of thousands of dollars here every year.”
Nora stared at him.
“So that gives him permission to grab women?”
“That is not what I said.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Charles closed his eyes.
“Nora, you are already on a final warning.”
“I remember.”
Three months earlier, Nora had confronted payroll over missing overtime for the housekeeping staff.
Before that, she had challenged management after employees were ordered to work through an electrical failure in the kitchen.
Charles called it disruptive behavior.
Nora called it noticing things.
Charles lowered his voice.
“Think about your job.”
She did.
Her rent was due.
Her savings were small.
And every extra dollar she had went into an envelope hidden inside her kitchen drawer.
$8,430.
Four years of savings.
Someday, she wanted to reopen the little bookstore-and-coffee shop her grandmother had once owned.
Someday seemed far away now.
Sebastian called across the awning.
“I’m waiting.”
Nora looked at him.
“For what?”
“My apology.”
Vivian turned toward Nora.
“You don’t have to do this.”
Nora shook her head.
“I know.”
Charles stepped closer.
“Nora, say you’re sorry for the misunderstanding.”
“There wasn’t a misunderstanding.”
“Nora.”
Sebastian raised his phone.
His friends did the same.
“Say it for the camera,” Sebastian said.
Nora looked at the phones.
Then at Vivian.
Then back at Charles.
“You want me to apologize because she’s less valuable to this hotel than he is.”
Charles stiffened.
“That’s enough.”
“No. It isn’t.”
Sebastian smiled.
Charles spoke through clenched teeth.
“Apologize now, or I’ll suspend you.”
Nora’s hands began to shake.
Not from fear of Sebastian.
From the truth.
She needed this job.
She needed the paycheck.
She needed another six months of savings before she could even think about changing her life.
Sebastian saw the hesitation.
His smile widened.
“That’s what I thought.”
Nora looked at him.
Then she removed the gold hotel pin from her jacket.
She placed it in Charles’s palm.
“I’m sorry.”
Sebastian straightened.
Nora continued.
“I’m sorry Vivian was treated like garbage while an entire luxury hotel pretended not to notice.”
Sebastian’s smile vanished.
Charles stared at her.
“Nora.”
She untied her apron.
“And I’m sorry I worked this long for people who think customer service means protecting whoever has the biggest credit limit.”
Charles’s face reddened.
“You’re suspended.”
Nora handed him the apron.
“Save yourself the paperwork.”
“What does that mean?”
“I quit.”
Sebastian laughed.
“Good.”
Nora turned toward him.
He stopped laughing.
“You won,” she said.
Sebastian smirked.
Nora continued.
“You got a hotel employee fired because she asked you to give back a woman’s stolen phone.”
She glanced at his camera.
“Post that.”
Several guests nearby looked away.
Sebastian lowered the phone.
Nora turned to Vivian.
“Would you like physical assistance or directions to your car?”
Vivian studied her.
“Directions.”
“Four steps forward. Then slightly left. The curb is about six feet away.”
Nora held the umbrella above them and walked beside her.
She did not touch Vivian.
Outside, a black sedan waited.
Before the driver could get out, Vivian stopped.
“Why did you do that?”
Nora looked back through the hotel windows.
Charles was already speaking quietly with Sebastian.
Leonard disappeared into the lobby.
Nora exhaled.
“Because you didn’t need me to rescue you.”
Vivian was silent.
“You only needed one person to stop pretending nothing was happening.”
The sedan door opened.
A large man in a dark suit stepped out.
He looked at Vivian’s bare feet.
Then her wrist.
Then the broken phone.
His expression changed.
“Ms. Moretti—”
Vivian stopped him.
“Marco.”
He became instantly still.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“No calls until we get home.”
Marco nodded.
Vivian turned back toward Nora.
“What’s your full name?”
“Nora Hayes.”
Vivian repeated it carefully.
“Nora Hayes.”
“Why?”
“My brother is going to ask.”
Nora laughed.
“That sounds ominous.”
Vivian smiled faintly.
“It usually is.”
Marco opened the rear door.
Vivian stepped toward it, then stopped.
“Come back tomorrow.”
“To the hotel?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t work here anymore.”
“I know.”
“Then why would I come back?”
Vivian tilted her head.
“Because I left something upstairs.”
Nora frowned.
“What?”
“My dignity.”
Then she got into the car.
Nora watched the sedan pull into the rain.
May you like
She had no idea who Vivian Moretti was.
And she had absolutely no idea who her brother was.
