Even the woman who was with him treated Michael with a little coolness. The servants who brought the food were unfailingly polite, but they had no jok...s to tell him. The gentry above the salt jested with each other and sometimes called things to the servants they recognized. No one ever had a jest for Michael.It had been this way for a long time. When he and his friends grew old enough to leave the middle court, they had still run together.He went to festivals with them instead of with his. When they were done he said it was time for him to go Toni said no please but he had to leave he said but we will sure do this again she was the hottest white girl he had ever met. Then he dressed and left the way he came in. Toni could not believe what had set up to happen she started asking me all kinds of questions, who was he? Where did I find him? How do I know him? How long have I been cooking this up? So I started to tell her about leaving my phone at the gas station and that he found it. " That night, I told Debbie about seeing Pete and that he had suggested we meet up for a drink near his house and that he had invited us to stay over. She was very keen, as she had always liked Pete so getting her agreement for stage one was not a problem. For the next couple of days, Debbie kept bringing up the subject of meeting up with Pete and asking when I was going to arrange it. The following week I emailed Pete and we set a date for a weekend in early June. The agreed weekend eventually. It was the first time he'd ever said anything about his position in the family."You don't know that." Mokuba said quietly. "He wasn't like -" He told Mother." Noah talked over my brother. "He didn't know I was awake. He told her I was too soft to be his son. That he'd rather adopt an outsider than adopt me as his heir."There was a moment of silence before Mokuba spoke again. "He wasn't good at telling people how he felt, but he wouldn't have included you in his will if he didn't love you, Noah..