“You are wrong,” she said. “I have done nothing but work to get this endeavor funded for a decade now. I made progress with it penny by penny, dollar by dollar, long before Jiggy. For ten years I’ve worked with whatever funds I could find within the global philanthropic community.”

She’d worked with Vansh’s aunt to learn grassroots funding. Shobi Gaikwad Raje, Ashna’s mother, ran one of the largest charitable organizations in Asia. She had taught Naina almost everything she knew about fundraising and dissemination. Maybe she should have stuck with that model. Big-ticket philanthropy came with too many caveats. Shobi Auntie had warned her that the bigger the charity dollars, the more pounds of flesh they demanded.

Naina had been naive to think that all Jiggy would want in return for his money was for her to stamp Certified Philanthropist across his forehead. Which she had done already. He’d been interviewed by every major media outlet about his giving. Already he was becoming a household name.

Vansh dropped down in the chair across from her. “Come on, Naina, it is not my fault that people as rich as God get to decide how we do the work we want to do.”

Instead of tossing the Earth-shaped paperweight at his head like she wanted to, she spun a finger around his face. “Please stop with the ‘we’ business.” She pointed—admittedly a little too dramatically—to her door, beyond which a terrified boy-man waited. “You had to find poor Hari and then create a project.”

“Hold on a minute. We’re talking about homelessness in San Francisco. Even you can’t be angry enough to believe that I caused homelessness in a city with such a high Gini coefficient. Or that I caused Hari to end up in the situation he finds himself in.”

“Oh, I’m angry enough for almost anything, but even I don’t believe the great Vansh Raje capable of that.”

“Thank you. That’s a big concession. I feel positively coddled.” His eyes were hurt, his dimples out to play, and the combination was deadly.

She had to have looked pathetic in her frustration, because his honey-brown eyes, so very much like his mother’s, softened again. “I understand why you’re angry. But you know my plan has merit. Let me show you the details. What we take from your funding will be temporary.”

A blood vessel almost popped inside her head. “I am not going to let you touch even a penny of my money. It’s all earmarked. I’ve spread it really thin so I could extend the network of clinics wider. We’ve already bought land and hired construction crews to start building.”

“And none of that has to change. Will you stop being angry for one moment and listen to me? I’m trying to help you.”