Mortimer glanced at Darius before turning back to James. He started to frown when he saw they were smiling—they were definitely making fun of him! His nostrils flared as his breathing sped up, but he didn’t dare reveal much more of his emotions than that.

Mortimer tried to ignore Darius’ presence as he said to James, “Granduncle James, I’m surprised to have the chance to see you. I…I…” He was confused to see James waiting patiently for him to get the words out, and he continued in a small voice, “I did things that are going to cause plenty of trouble for you. Aren’t you mad at me for that?”

James shrugged nonchalantly. “We haven’t gotten to the bottom of this yet, but we know you’re not completely at fault here. You’ve always been a kind soul.”

This made Mortimer’s jaw drop. He sensed that his wrongdoings had been forgiven, which he hadn’t expected. He turned to look at Darius and noticed that the latter was already seated at his desk, which meant he couldn’t care less about what was