Now that she was on the verge of a divorce and looking into pursuing a philanthropy career, Guru could come back into her life and do so much more harm to her reputation. She’d have to figure out his motive, his angle, and effectively cut him off. He’d bested her the last time he visited by giving her ultimatums, and when she wouldn’t agree, destroyed all ties between Raj and the rest of the family, including her mother.

The driver had pulled to a stop in front of a charming building with arched windows.

“Here we are,” he said.

“So soon?” she mused.

He gave her a startled look over his shoulder. “Ma’am, it took us twenty minutes to get to Midtown.”

“Ah. Okay, well, I’ll text you when I’m done. It shouldn’t be more than an hour or so.” She slid out of the car, and a few steps later, stepped into a dimly lit restaurant. The seating area was filled with deep violet loveseats clustered in groups of two and four. Long white marble tables matched the crystal and white chandeliers. Most of the lunch crowd had left, but a few suits were lingering over empty dishes.

Mina sat against the left wall, her nose practically pressed to the screen of her phone.

This was family, Raj thought. She realized that she’d been strong enough to survive the loss of her brother, her mother, and the rest of her blood relatives, but Mina was the one person who could devastate her by ending the relationship.

“Don’t be an asshole, Raj,” she murmured to herself as she walked to the table.

Mina looked up as Raj approached. Her icy expression behind the black square frames of her glasses could lower the temperature in the room.

Hell. So much for understanding, Raj thought.

“Fashionably late, as always, right?”

Silence.

“Mina, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Robert’s new position,” she said, as she slid onto the couch facing Mina.

Her best friend set her phone aside and crossed her arms over her fitted maroon dress. One perfectly threaded eyebrow winged up.

Great. Raj wasn’t the best at apologies, but because her relationship with Mina meant more to her than her pride, she had no other choice than to be honest and open . . . even if it felt like jabbing needles in her eyeballs.

“It happened quickly,” Raj started. The words felt uncomfortable coming out of her mouth. “Robert and I worked together, we lived in the same house, but we had completely different schedules, different lives. You know that. He comes and goes when he needs to and so do I. A little over a month ago, he came to me and said that we were now in our thirties and it was time to think about having kids.”

Mina’s mouth fell open. “But you don’t want kids.”