The Inheritances Game (Jameson Hawthorne)

Jameson's Letter

Avery's POV

I putt on my ratty pajamas and flopped down on what I was pretty sure were Egyptian cotton sheets. I wasn't sure how long I'd been lying there when I heard it. A voice.

"Pull the candlestick."

I was on my feet in an instant, whirling to put my back to the wall. On instinct, I grabbed the keys I'd left on the nightstand, in case I needed protection. My eyes scanned the room for the person who'd spoke, and came up empty.

"Pull the candlestick on the fireplace. Unless you want me stuck back here?" Annoyance replaced my initial fight-or-flight response. I narrowed my eyes at the stone fireplace at the back of the room. Sure enough there was a candelabra on the mantel.

"Pretty sure this qualifies as stalking" I told the fireplace- or more accurately the boy on the other side of it. Still, I couldn't not pull the candlestick. I wrapped my hand around the base of the candelabra. I was met with resistance, and another suggestion came from behind the fireplace.

"Don't just pull forward. Angle it down" I did as I was instructed, and the candelabra rotated. I then heard a click and the back of the fireplace separated from its floor, just by an inch. A moment later I saw fingertips in the gap, and I watched as the back of the fireplace was lifter up and disappeared behind the mantel. Now at the back of the fireplace there was an opening, Jameson Hawthorne stepped through. He straightened then returned the candle to its upright position, and the entry he'd used was slowly covered once more.

"Secret passage" He explained unnecessarily. "This house is full of them."

"Am I supposed to find that comforting" I ask him "Or terrifying"

"You tell me Mystery Girl. Are you comforted or terrified" He let me sit with that for a moment. "Or is it possible that you're intrigued? You're not asking about the keys" Jameson said with a crooked smile. "I expected you to ask about the keys."

I held them up "This was your doing"

"Cal helped too" he added before shrugging "It's a little bit of a family tradition."

"I'm not family"

He tilted his head to one side "Do you really believe that?"

I thought about Tobias Hawthorne - about the DNA test Zara's husband was already running. "I don't know"

"Everyone is going to want something from you Heiress" Jameson smiled. "The question is: How many of us have something you're willing to give?"

"Stop calling me Heiress," I shot back. "And if you turn answering my questions into some kind of riddle, I'm calling security."

"That's the thing, Avery," He said drawing out my name on purpose. "I don't think I'm turning anything into a riddle. I don't think I have to. You are a riddle, a puzzle, a game - my grandfather's last."

"Why do you think this house has so many secret passages? Why are there so many keys that don't work in any of the locks? Every desk my grandfather ever bought has secret compartments. There's an organ where if you play a specific sequence of notes, it unlocks a hidden drawer. Every Saturday morning, from the time I was a kid until the night my grandfather died, he sat my brothers, Cal, and me down and gave us a riddle, puzzle, an impossible challenge - something to solve. And then he died. And then..." he paused for a second looking towards me "There was you."

Me

"Grayson thinks you're some master manipulator. My aunt is convinced you must have Hawthorne blood. But I think you're the old man's final riddle - one last puzzle to be solved."

"That's what Catalina said" I said.

Jameson shrugged "She's never wrong, that's why the old man liked her." He said smiling,

"I'm not a puzzle."

"Sure, you are" Jameson replied "We all are. Don't tell me that some part of you hasn't been trying to figure us out. Grayson. Me. Maybe even Xander and Cal."

"Is this all just a game to you" I said angry,

"Everything's a game, Avery Grambs. The only thing we get to decide in this life is if we play to win. You're special, and what I want to find out is why you, Avery?" He took a step back opening more space between us. "Don't tell me you don't want to know, too."

I did. Or course I did.

"I'm going to leave this here" Jameson held up an envelope. He carefully laid it on the mantel. "Read it and then tell me this isn't a game to be won. Tell me this isn't a riddle." Jameson reached for the candelabra, and as the fireplace passage opened once more, he offered a targeted, parting shot. "He left you the fortune, Avery, and all he left us is you."