“Besides the fact that I would’ve been forced to be a good stay-at-home, barefoot-and-pregnant type, and you’d never have taken me seriously?”

He hunched his shoulders. “There is nothing wrong with that.”

“As long as the woman has a choice. That wasn’t my choice. RKH is a success without you. I started in workforce solutions and worked my way up to high-end cybersecurity services with zero help from the family.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” he said with a snort. “You were always good at snooping. By thirteen, everyone knew that you were the person to go to for the latest information on everyone in Punjab.”

Raj held back a smile. “I’ve channeled my strengths toward profitable opportunities.”

“How did you get the capital to start?”

“Robert came into the first leg of his trust and provided the capital. I paid back his loan within eighteen months of opening my doors.”

Guru stroked a hand down the length of his beard. “Talk about a roaring success. I assumed you kept him on payroll as a formality since he was funding your little business.”

“Absolutely not,” she said. Stupid man with your sexist binary gender role assumptions.

“Robert went to law school, worked for a top-ten firm for a few years, and then came to lead my legal team.”

“And he’s the only one who knows about your past. About where you come from.”

Raj moved to the side of the sidewalk and looked up at Guru’s handsome face, his gray pagadi that matched his shoes.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Can’t a brother get to know his sister after she’s all grown-up?”

She wasn’t falling for it. Raj had been alone too long to easily trust the words that came out of people’s mouths. “I have a lot of important projects I’m currently involved with, Guru. When I have time for you, for the family that made it so very clear that I was no longer family, then I’ll let you know.”

Guru nodded, then reached down and scratched a finger over Khunda’s head. “We’re all proud of you, you know.”

She raised a brow.

“Papa is the least vocal about it because he’s always been as stubborn as you. About a year after my last visit to the States to see you, Mumma started asking me to keep tabs on you. To make sure you were safe. I thought that we knew everything we needed to about your life, but it looks like we were wrong. I was wrong. You’re so accomplished, Raj, but you haven’t changed.”

She tilted her chin up and squared her shoulders. “You don’t know me at all, Guru.”