“I know that you switched me with another baby the day of my birth.”
Sadness lit inside Tess’s eyes. Otherwise, she remained dignified and still. “I see.”
Rustling sounded from the hallway just before Rudy appeared, beaming. “Leah!”
“Leah and I need to speak about something privately,” Tess said to her husband. “I’ll let you know when we’re done.”
“That’ll be fine, but . . . are those oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I smell?”
Tess fetched two cookies and handed them to him.
“How ’bout one more?” he asked.
“No,” Tess answered crisply. “I wouldn’t want to spoil your appetite for dinner. Now head back and watch TV for a bit.”
He winked at Leah. “Good to see you, hon.”
“Good to see you, too.”
He trundled down the hallway.
Tess motioned to the breakfast nook. “Shall we?”
Leah hesitated. Cookies were cozy, and she wasn’t feeling cozy.
“I expect that you have questions for me,” Tess said. “We’ll be more comfortable sitting down. Shall we?”
Stiffly, Leah took her usual seat at the round table.
Tess poured milk into two glasses. A dusky blue plate supported the cookies .. . a testament to the dozens of batches of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that Tess had made for Leah and Dylan through the years.
Tess sat, then took a slow sip of milk.
Leah didn’t reach for either the milk or the cookies.
Tess was a controlled person, not given to fissures of emotion. Even so, given the magnitude of Leah’s bombshell, Tess’s response seemed tremendously understated.
The older woman carefully positioned her glass on the table, her knobby fingers loosely encircling its base. “I’ve thought for some time that you might find out.”
“Why did you do it?”
“If you know what I did, then I’m guessing you know something of my motive.”
“I think it has to do with your son Ian.”
“Yes. My son Ian.” Her sigh spoke of pain. “I wish I could explain to you what a joy he was to me. He had such a sweet nature. Quiet and kind. Full of fairness. Every year his teachers would give him citizenship awards. Best Listener. Best Helper and the like.”
Tess’s focus drifted toward the living room, but Leah guessedthat it had actually drifted back decades. “He grew and became a little more serious, a little more subdued. But he was stillgood, through and through. There wasn’t a mean or malicious bone in his body. He cooked dinner for the family when I wasn’t up to it. If I asked him to take out the trash, he’d do so immediately. If I told him to come home at ten, he’d come home at nine fifty.”
Leah waited.
“He went off to college and earned a degree in business, then started work for an electronics company. It was during those years that he had an idea for a web browser that could display images. He did all the research, worked out all the logistics. He told a few of his closest friends about his idea.”
“Was one of those friends Jonathan Brookside?”
Her lips thinned. “Yes. They were the same age and had started at the company the very same day. Jonathan stole Ian’s idea. He went behind Ian’s back and assembled a team. He was from a wealthy family, and his father lent him the capital to start a company of his own.”
“Gridwork Communications Corporation?”
