The truth was that she felt safe when she told him her secrets, and it infuriated her that Zail would hurt him the way he did. Ajay took care of her needs, her wants, and given time, he would’ve most likely supported her dreams, too.

From all the things she’d seen and heard in the media, in articles, and from girlfriends, relationships were supposed to be reciprocal. All he’d wanted was the same thing in return and she’d failed miserably.

She just didn’t know how to be there for him in the ways he wanted. So maybe it was a good thing that he’d told her that he wasn’t going to call. If she was destined to fail, then there was no use starting in the first place.

Her phone blinked with a new message and she scrambled for it. Her heart sank when she saw that it was another work email. Brushing a tear from her cheek, she leaned forward so that she could speak to the driver. “Excuse me, sir? Can I send you another address? We need to make a quick stop.”

“Sure,” he said. “Do you know where in Manhattan it is? I was going to take the George Washington into the city.”

“You still can,” she replied. “But you’ll have to take the West Side Highway from there. We’re going to Midtown. I need to stop at an animal shelter to see my dog.”

By Monday morning, she’d gone through the seven stages of grief. True to his word, all questions were forwarded through Legal. He hadn’t even had the decency to send her the formal offer letter as interim CEO. He’d had his chief financial officer and Tushar do the honors.

That was okay. She was a boss bitch, and even though he’d made her happier than she’d been since she started RKH Collective, she didn’t need him to survive.

At eight a.m. on the dot, she was walking into her building, freshly showered and dressed in her favorite black dress with a creamy white pinstripe blazer draped over her shoulders. The outfit made her feel powerful, confident, and in control. It was the power suit she needed to forget about the fact that she hadn’t heard from Ajay.

Honestly, it probably wouldn’t have been enough on its own, but she’d managed to squeeze in a few minutes of cuddling with her sleepy puppy the day before on her way home from Ajay’s bungalow. Khunda had been so drowsy, warm, and soft against Raj, and that implicit trust had calmed her erratic thoughts, setting the tone for the rest of her day. Being armed with that feeling, as well as the news that she’d be able to take Khunda home as early as the next weekend, did more for her than she could’ve imagined.