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“I’m sorry to bother you. My son-in-law works in the café here. He left his work keys, and I was dropping them off.”

“Ma’am, what are you talking about? It seems like you’re stalling for some reason. I’d really appreciate it if you’d get to the point.” Myla didn’t know why, but this familiar stranger was making her nervous.

“I’m sorry. You’re right. When I was leaving. I saw you turning in, and knew I had to turn around to speak with you.”

Myla’s eyebrow raised in confusion.

“Talk to me? Why?” she asked.

“I know this may sound creepy, but I can assure you I’m not a creep.” The woman laughed. Myla did not. The woman knew she needed to hurry and speak what was on her mind.

“My name is Tara Sundane, but everyone calls me Sunny. A few months ago, you came into my restaurant. I saw your name on the merchant receipt,” Sunny admitted.

Recognition instantly covered Myla’s face. She had only been to the Sunnyside Up Café once. But she remembered the woman as soon as she heard her name.

“Oh, ok,” was all Myla could say. She was more confused now than she had been before. Because for the life of her, she could not figure out why the owner of a restaurant she’d only visited once needed to speak with her.

“I know you’re wondering why I’ve approached you. I can assure you that this is not a woman-to-woman confrontation. I’m just looking out for you.”

“Looking out for me?” Myla asked slowly.

“After you paid for the meal, and I saw your name on the receipt, I looked you up on social media. Before you ask, no, I don’t normally look my customers up, but you were different.”

“Then why would you look me up?” Myla asked defensively.

“Because you were with Dante.”

Myla nearly stumbled backward. Of all the things Sunny could say, she was not expecting her to mention Dante’s name. She now wondered whether she was truly at the hospital for her son-in-law or for Dante.

“When I discovered who you were, I came to your office every day for a week. But every time I arrived, Dante was parked outside like he was paid security. I took one day off and drove by your office six times; each time, he was there,” Sunny admitted.

Myla was perplexed. She had no idea that Dante had been parked outside of her job. It made no sense. Dante had clients; it was impossible for him to just sit outside her job all day. She knew that Sunny had to be mistaken.

“Sunny, I don’t know what you think you saw, but you must be mistaken.”

“No, I’m not. The first time I saw you with him, it was New Year’s Eve at Château Noir. I am part-owner. If someone calls out last minute, I try to fill in if it’s something simple. I was filling in for the hostess at the restaurant. When security found out he had snuck into the establishment, they said they chased him out of the building.

“He must’ve found another way in because the next thing I knew, he was sitting in a booth with you staring me in the face. My order of protection against him had expired, and he made his presence known that same night,” Sunny said as she handed Myla the documents for the Petition for Injunction for Protection Against Stalking and Harassment.

Myla was so stunned she couldn’t speak. Truthfully, when she and Dante had gone to the restaurant, she hadn’t even seen the hostess. She was so enamored with the atmosphere that nothing else mattered. But she did recall Dante saying he was running out of the club after seeing his ex, Tara. A sinking feeling crept into her stomach as realization sank in. Dante had run into her because he was being chased by security for stalking his ex. Miranda had been right.

“Dante is my ex, and he’s a very dangerous and demonic man. He believes that a person is obligated to be with him. The once mine always mine mantra. He and I dated many years ago. It was horrible. He was selfish then as I’m sure he is now. Boundaries and accountability are two words that he never understood. For many years he tried to use our son—”

“Son?!” Myla repeated the word as if it were foreign. “Dante said he didn’t have any kids.”

Sunny smirked and shook her head. The days of that statement bothering her were long over.

“You’ve already met our son. His name is Chancellor.”

Myla’s jaw hit the floor.

“Even after all these years and a paternity test that showed he was 99.9999% Chancellor’s father, he still denied him. We were young when we got together. Dante told me he never wanted kids; when I suggested we use condoms, he accused me of cheating on him. When we were intimate, he refused to pull out.

“Everything with him was just hard and confusing. Everything I suggested was always wrong or used to start an argument. I found myself going along to get along, and even that was wrong in his eyes. When I got pregnant, he accused me of trying to trap him. He even accused me of getting pregnant with his brother Malachi’s baby. For one, Malachi was bedridden after getting hit by a car when he was walking home from football practice.”

“Did he have more than one brother?” Myla asked.

It was now Sunny’s turn to be confused because she couldn’t understand why that even mattered. But she answered the question anyway.