“I wish you’d stop calling it stealing. That’s seriously offensive. I’ve never stolen a thing in my life.” He grinned, and the lighting combined with his unshaven jaw multiplied his dimples manifold. Good thing she knew exactly how much he weaponized those dimples. She remembered his unleashing them on all the aunties and melting them into puddles to get away with everything from getting extra cake at parties to getting them to double their donations to his school fundraisers. “Although, it is true that I have been accused of stealing many a heart.”

She made a growling sound, and it made her feel like she was in a theatrical farce—one populated entirely by bitter old ladies. Why was it that every interaction with him these days felt like an off-Broadway production? Up until now he had been the Raje she’d had the easiest camaraderie with. “What’s offensive is that you didn’t say to Mehta: ‘I appreciate your social-ladder-climbing, name-dropping need to work with me, but Naina actually does important, life-changing work and I would rather die than take even a penny away from it.’”

For the first time, his lazy demeanor slipped, and he sat up a little bit straighter. “You think the only reason Mehta wants to work with me is because of my last name?”

For the first time, she was glad this was a video call, because she didn’t have to answer. She just had to raise a brow.

He looked wounded, but she didn’t buy it, not for a second. “If that’s true, then what does that say about why you got the funding last year, Knightlina, and not the year before that?”

How dare he? “Don’t even think about saying what you’re about to say next,” she warned.

He ignored her warning. “So you’re allowed to dismiss me and insult me, but I’m supposed to let you be an ostrich at my expense?”

“I’m not being an ostrich. I hear you loud and clear. You just suggested that I only got the funding because Yash was leading in the polls and I was with him.” Did he have any idea how long and hard she had worked on this? Her entire adult life had revolved around her work.

“Only to disprove your theory that Jiggy-wiggy is offering me the funding because Yash is my brother.” He sounded placating, and for some reason that made Naina even angrier. Must be nice to be this clueless.

“Do you genuinely believe that those two things have any sort of equivalency?”

“Of course they do. I’m not saying it’s fair. But if you want to claim that one is true, then the other has to be.” He had the gall to look like it hurt him to say it.