“I see.” Leah possessed a single clue regarding the identity of her birth parents: the list of DNA matches YourHeritage had provided. If she did some detective work on the site using the family trees her biological relations had made public, adding logic and a process of elimination . . . she might be able to deduce her parents’ surname.

“I’m very sorry that this happened to you,” Donna said. “I can only imagine how upsetting this has been.”

“Thank you.” She pegged Donna as smart, principled, decent. Whether those qualities would prove true remained to be seen.

What didn’t remain to be seen? Sebastian’s status as a powerful ally. He was more than a match for Donna, or, she’d guess, just about anyone. His hands were laced together in his lap. But no telltale white pressure marks marred his fingertips.

It was dark by the time Sebastian returned home that night. Starving, he stuck the premade dinner his meal service had left for him into the microwave, then stared at the light behind the appliance’s see-through door.

Like a tugboat, his mind pulled him to Leah.

He’d been starstruck, sitting across the table from her this morning. He wasn’t someone who got starstruck. But he couldn’t think of a better word to describe the effect she had on him.

He suspected that she was the smartest person he’d ever met in his life, and he wasn’t exactly an academic slouch. Nor were his medical school classmates and teachers.

He’d found himself wishing he could get a glimpse of what was going on inside her head. In The Matrix, the characters had been able to download knowledge directly into their brains. That’s what he’d like to do with Leah . . . hook a cable from her head to his so he could import even a portion of what she knew.

He sensed she had more intelligence, more integrity, more optimism, and more compassion than he did. However, she was also crazier than he was if she believed that dating and romance weren’t for her.

He’d bet a million dollars that, with the right person, she could experience physical attraction as powerfully as any other woman. Maybe with him, she could—

That is, with Ben. Maybe with Ben she could.

The microwave dinged, and he opened the door to find that it contained nothing. No dinner.

What had he done with his food? It wasn’t sitting on any of the counters. He opened the refrigerator. Not there. Not in the freezer, either. He pulled back the pantry door and spotted it.

Instead of warming his meal as he’d intended, he’d been so distracted by Leah that he’d put it in the pantry.

Great, Sebastian. Really sharp. He sighed irritably and placed it in the microwave.