Her dog sensed her confusion, her twisted heart, and began licking her cheek. Raj pulled the phone from her ear, buried her face in Khunda’s neck, inhaling the fresh puppy scent, and breathed. This was all so overwhelming for her.

She heard a knock at the front door. “Kia, your support means . . . so much. However, if I am constantly going to be defending myself against the board, I don’t know if Gen One is the place for me.”

“Well, my nomination still stands. What are you going to do about the article today?”

Raj put Khunda down and walked toward the front entrance. “Address it head-on, as I always do,” she said. “Thanks, Kia. I have to go.”

“Good luck, Raj.”

She tucked her cell back in her pocket and opened the door. “Tracey, we don’t have to leave for another hour and a half—”

Her brother stood on the other side of the entry, hands tucked in his jeans pockets. She moved to slam the door. His foot jutted out to stop it.

“Wait. I just wanted to talk to you before I leave for the airport.”

“I don’t care what you have to say,” Raj said. “I know you had a part in that article. Ajay found out a little while ago. You’ve what, come to try and dismantle my life and then leave? Is Mumma even dying? How did you even get up here?”

“It took a lot of convincing,” he said. “Just let me in for a minute. Hear what I have to say, gudiya, and then I’ll go.”

Raj crossed her arms over her chest. “You can tell me what you have to say in the hallway, and then get out.”

He hesitated for a moment, and nodded. “Robert approached me for the article. He said he had an inside man who could provide some additional details on you and your relationship with Bharat. I always hated that scumbag.”

“Then why the hell did you work with him?”

Guru ran a hand over his beard as if contemplating his next answer. “I technically didn’t. I just told him that if a single word was an elaboration or a lie, he’d be floating in the Hudson.”

“Dammit, Guru—”

“You spend so much time trying to hide your truth that you are too afraid to live. Raj, when did you become such a coward? You fear that other people will turn you away now, when you were never that girl before.”

There was that word again. Coward. It was one thing for Ajay to call her a coward, to force her to be better, to face her fears, but it was another when a man was trying to hurt her.

She wasn’t that girl who acted carelessly and recklessly. Nor was she the polished, refined woman who kept people at an arm’s length in fear of judgment.