Who needed men when she had the most adorable dog?

She pushed through the front doors and smiled at Tracey, who stood from her desk. “Morning! Any chance you can grab me some breakfast?”

“No problem. Avocado toast, poached egg, cinnamon latte, hold the foam?”

“You’re a goddess. Please also get yourself something. Maybe bagels for everyone. It’s going to be a hard day today. Any messages?”

Tracey followed her into her office.

“Your brother called,” she said. “Twice.”

“Ignore him.”

“Done. You also have messages from most of your executive leadership. They want to meet with you since you sent the internal memo about the buyout.”

Raj had prepared for that. She picked up her phone and texted Tracey the list she’d typed up on her drive in that morning. “I need in-person meetings with that list of people and in that order. Twenty minutes each. We’ll arrange for longer sit-downs later in the week once we go public. Tracey, what’s the mood in the office?”

“It’s Monday morning and we’re the first ones here, but I’d assume it’ll be nervous.” Tracey shrugged. “I am, too. What if we all lose our jobs?”

“You won’t,” Raj said. “Especially you. Wherever I go, I’ll take you with me.”

Her assistant grinned. “Well, of course. What would you do without me?”

“We won’t have to find out.”

Raj had thought about the best way to talk to her company and address the buyout with her employees. They’d been the bones that held her body of work together. They were her most valuable asset, and she wanted to make sure they all knew why she was doing this.

“Hey, Tracey? Before you go, can you connect with Harnette and her team? Ask them to set up a town hall today for three p.m.”

“Today?” Tracey’s eyeballs practically fell out of her head. “You want her team to set up a town hall for the entire company by three?”

Raj nodded. “It’s best to rip it off. Like a bandage. I want to talk about my memo, and then the buyout strategy going forward. We’ll even open up for questions.”

“Absolutely. Anything else you need, boss?”

Yes, she wanted to say. She wanted Ajay, wanted to make sure he was okay. She wanted to stop being so afraid of giving up more of herself, and she wanted to stop being so angry that Ajay knew that about her. More importantly, she wanted to ask Tracey what she was supposed to do to fix things. Those were all her problems, though.

Instead, she smiled up at her assistant and opened her laptop. “If you could get Kia on the line from Gen One. I think I’m ready to accept the nomination.”

“Wow, sure. I’m on it.”