Jack had stayed with me through everything. He had been there when the restaurant first opened and stood beside Eva when she cut the ribbon. He had been there when my daughter Chloe was born. He had been the rock in my life when everything else fell apart.
And now I realized something.
I owed him.
At the very least, I owed him the chance to try.
Even though I hated the idea of Jiya taking over my wife’s dream, I also realized something else—my suspicion about why she had been fired had been wrong. I had judged her too quickly. Worse, I had judged her unfairly. The realization did not sit well with me.
7
COLE
Adream jolted me awake in the night.
Eva was there.
She stood inside the restaurant, smiling at me the way she used to, lifting her hand and gesturing for me to come inside.
Something about the moment felt peaceful… familiar. Like stepping back into a life I had once known. The ache that usually accompanied thoughts of her was gone in the dream. In its place was warmth. Calm. The kind of calm I had not felt in years.
Eva smiled at me and said softly, “You can’t keep the doors closed forever, Cole.”
When I walked in, the restaurant wasn’t the same.
The décor had changed. The lights were warmer. The tables were full. Conversations and laughter filled the room. Every seat was taken. The place felt alive in a way it had not in a long time. Jack stood near the bar, grinning from ear to ear. And behind the counter, a woman stood with her back turned toward us.
I couldn’t see her face.
She was wiping down the counter, moving comfortably through the space.
Then she turned.
It was Jiya.
The dream shattered.
I woke up abruptly, my chest rising and falling as the darkness of the room closed in.
Something inside me shifted.
It felt like more than just a dream.
It felt like a message.
A sign from Eva.
The thought forced me to confront something I had been avoiding for a long time.
I sat there for several minutes before finally getting up and walking to the kitchen. I pulled a bottle of beer from the fridge and leaned against the counter, taking slow sips while the dream replayed in my mind. The kitchen was silent except for the hum of the refrigerator and the soft clink of glass when I adjusted my grip on the bottle.
By the time the bottle was half empty, I knew I had a decision to make.
Later that afternoon,I asked Jack and my lawyer to come over to my house.
“I don’t want her to know that I am the owner, Jack. You will be the face for me. Call her tomorrow and ask her to come by the restaurant.”
Jack nodded.
