Mina Auntie hugged her with a “Congratulations, beta,” but there were too many questions in her eyes. Questions that Naina would find reflected in Nisha’s and Ashna’s eyes too, no doubt, if she had the stomach to look at them. Her mother’s hands fluttered at her chest and the rage inside Naina morphed into frustration. The kind of frustration that turned her back into the child she’d been. Powerless. Entirely and impotently powerless.

No, she was not that child anymore. She might not have power, but if they thought she was going down without a fight, they needed to think again. They didn’t know her, and that was her power. She was unbreakable and she wasn’t going to give up her project no matter how hard they made it.

“Excuse me,” she threw at the Rajes surrounding her and at her mother. Then, grabbing another glass of champagne from a passing waiter, she emptied it down her throat and left to find a restroom.

Much as she wanted to, she couldn’t leave yet. Her fifteen million dollars were at stake. The seven hundred thousand lives that would benefit from that money were at stake. The two men who were dangling her life’s work over her head like a dick-shaped carrot were still onstage, surrounded by a worshipping crowd. Vansh did catch her eye for a second. If there was an apology there she couldn’t have cared less about it. Fuck him.

He looked like he wanted to come to her, but he was mobbed. A celebrity no one could get enough of. Good. Finally, a break. A small one, but she’d take it.

On her way to the restroom she picked up two more glasses of champagne from a passing server, and, yes, she gulped them down because that bastard Mehta’s booze was fucking delicious.

Chapter Ten

Vansh had been on that stage less than five minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. A lifetime in which he’d lost Naina. Where was she? Vansh needed her to be present when he had this conversation with Mehta. One moment she’d stood there looking like someone had stabbed her in the back. Fine, not someone, him. Then she’d disappeared without a trace.

He texted her. Talking to Jiggywiggy about funding. You need to be here.

He got that she was angry, but they could make this work for both of them. He hadn’t caused this. He did, however, have an idea to make the situation work out for her as well. If she would only let him explain.

“I think we should give Naina another moment,” Vansh said to Jiggy, who studied him with all the amusement of someone who didn’t give a shit about what anyone thought. “She needs to be here for this conversation. It’s her project.”