The Inheritance Games

Avery finds Jameson in the Black Wood, punching a tree. He reveals that he skipped school that day because he’s searching the trees in the Black Wood for a clue: “Four middle names. Four location. Four clues—carvings, most likely. Symbols, if the clue on the bridge was infinity; numbers, if it was an eight” (213). Over the next few days, Avery helps him inspect the trunks of the trees in the woods to look for the next clue. They find a tree with “TOBIAS HAWTHORNE II” carved in the side. Shortly after, they are shot at. Bark from the tree splinters and hits Avery in the face and just below he collarbone. Oren, who is always trailing her, immediately steps in to protect Avery.

While Avery is in shock from her wounds, Oren takes control of the situation. He calls a security team to sweep the woods to look for the shooter and brings Avery and Jameson to Wayback Cottage—it’s closer than Hawthorne House. Avery also suspects that Oren doesn’t trust the people at Hawthorne House. However, given the Laughlins’ cool behavior toward her thus far, Avery is not sure she’s safe at Wayback Cottage. When Mrs. Laughlin makes Avery a tea, she’s afraid to drink it. Oren sips from the cup first, silently telling her it’s safe. Oren removes the bark from Avery’s wound and stitches her up. Mr. Laughlin arrives after they’ve finished. It’s revealed that Rebecca is visiting her grandparents, though she’s nowhere to be found in that moment. Avery wonders where she is.

Avery goes to the bathroom to clean herself up. She calls Max, who doesn’t pick up. Avery is in shock and struggles to clean the blood and dirt off herself. Jameson comes to help her, and she’s surprised by how gentle he is. Avery initiates a kiss with Jameson: “I closed my eyes. He’d been there with me in the forest. I could feel his body over mine. Protecting me. I needed this. I needed something” (224). Following their kiss, Jameson immediately refers back to the puzzle they’re working on: “We’re so close now. I can feel it. Someone obviously didn’t want us looking at that tree” (225). Putting together the two carvings—the infinity symbol and Toby’s name carved in the tree—he suggests the puzzle is trying to tell them that Toby, Jameson’s uncle, isn’t dead. Jameson’s singular focus on the puzzle hurts Avery, who remembers Nash’s warning: “You’re not a player, kid. You’re the glass ballerina—or the knife” (225).

Jameson leaves Avery alone in the bathroom. She tries to call Max again with no luck. Leaving the bathroom, Avery meets Rebecca. Rebecca tells Avery, “I feel like I should warn you” (228). However, Rebecca doesn’t reveal what she should warn Avery about. Instead, she reveals that Emily dated Jameson and Grayson, saying “[Emily] didn’t want to choose, and neither one of them wanted to let her go. She turned it into a competition. A little game” (230). Avery asks Rebecca how Emily died, to which the girl responds, “Grayson told me it was her heart (230).

Oren takes Avery back to Hawthorne House. He reveals that everyone in the house has an alibi. Avery asks Oren about Rebecca and Mellie, and he assures her he will look into every possible person. At the house, Avery has a discussion with Alisa and Oren. Alisa admits that there are some loopholes in the will. First, the will stipulates that Avery must live in Hawthorne House for a year if she’s to inherit. If Avery dies before the year is up, she technically can’t fulfill this requirement. Second, if Avery is unable to fulfill her conservatorship role for the Hawthorne Foundation, the foundation goes to the Hawthorne boys.

Zara, Constantine, and Grayson would all be aware of these loopholes. Avery can theoretically protect herself by writing her own will and naming Libby as her beneficiary and conservator of the Foundation. However, since Avery isn’t yet 18, she can’t technically sign a will. Plus, since she legally won’t assume full control of the Foundation since she’s 21, she may not be able to designate a conservator until then. Given these legal details, it becomes clear that the Hawthornes still have means of getting Tobias’s fortune. It would require Avery’s death. Avery realizes that until her 21st birthday, “[she] had a target on [her] forehead” (235).

Oren reveals that he checked the security footage of Hawthorne House’s armory, where the guns are kept. Jameson and Grayson (who both have alibis and aren’t suspected of shooting Avery) each visited the armory individually in the last days to look at rifles. Avery realizes that the boys were on to the next clue: Jameson’s middle name, one of the words highlighted in the Red Will, is “Winchester,” and a Winchester is a type of rifle.

Avery makes Oren take her to the armory, telling him: “I’m looking for something. A message from Tobias Hawthorne—a clue. A carving, most likely of a number or symbol” (238). She finds what she’s looking for on a Winchester rifle, which has “O. N. E.” carved into it (239). Avery assumes it means “One” and that the infinity symbol carves into the bridge was the number eight. She now has two clues to piece together: O. N. E. and 8.

Back in her bedroom, Avery hears from Max. She reveals that her strict parents have her on full lockdown. Avery’s fame has complicated Max’s life. Avery is forced to acknowledge the unfair dynamic of their friendship: “I’d always needed her more than she had needed me, because she was my friend, singular, and I was one of many for her” (243). Despite Max and Avery’s spat, Max continues to have Avery’s wellbeing at heart, and tells her, “You need to get out of Murderland. Like, now” (241). Avery protests that she can’t walk away from the inheritance and go back to living in her car. As she’s falling asleep, Avery hears a scratching from the other side of the wall where the secret passageway is—the one Jameson has used to enter her room in the past. She tells Oren, who searches the passage and finds it empty. He suggests that Avery sleep in Libby’s room. The next morning, Avery wakes up and finds Libby is already at breakfast. Libby’s phone is on the nightstand and shows multiple texts from Drake.

Avery goes down to the breakfast room. Nash, Libby, Zara, Constantine, Nan, Xander, and Thea are all there. Thea and Xander both know about Avery’s kiss with Jameson; Rebecca told them. “Word of Hawthorne hookups travels fast,” Xander says (249). Although they know about the kiss, they don’t know about the shooting. Grayson comes in and asks to speak with Avery in the hall.

Grayson asks Avery what happened. She tells him she was shot at. Then, Jameson arrives. Avery notes an “explosive” tension between the two. She’s uncertain if Grayson knows about the kiss. Nash arrives and interrupts the tension, offering to drive Jameson to school. He asks if Avery needs a ride. She declines and says she’s skipping school that day. Nash asks if Libby knows that Avery is “playing hooky,” to which she response: “My sister is none of your concern” (253).