The Inheritances Game (Jameson Hawthorne)

Avery's Awake

I stared at my birth certificate. At the signature. This made no sense. None. Every single clue had pointed in the same direction. Toby had sought me out after my mother's death. He'd signed my birth certificate. He and my mom had been in love. Tobias Hawthorne had left me his fortune. I have a secret, my mother had told me, about the day you were born. How was it even remotely possible that Toby wasn't my father? 

"Upside, downside, inside, outside, left side, right side." Jameson and Catalina stood in the doorway. "What's missing?" Jameson asked. He walked toward me, and I tracked every step. He repeated his riddle. "Upside, downside, inside, outside, left side, right side. What's missing?" He stopped next to my bed.

"Beside," I whispered. 

He nodded. "I have to say, I'm not a big fan of comas." Jameson sounded just the same, wry and darkly tempting, but the expression on his face was one I'd never seen before. He wasn't joking. 

"I'm so glad your awake Avery." Catalina whispered joining Jameson at my bedside.

"I came to see you," Jameson told me. "The least you could have done was wake up while I was here, tragically backlit, unspeakably handsome, and waiting." Catalina smiled and shook her head.

"But there's no one besides the two of us who would have gone back in the wake of that bomb to look for this." He uncurled his fingers, and I saw a small metal disk in his palm. 

"I told him not to, but Jameson Hawthorne can't resist a puzzle." Catalina said, he looked to her staring into her eyes for a moment before handing me the disk.

"How did you—" 

Jameson shrugged "How could I not?" 

"Have you figured out what it is?" I asked, every nerve in my body alive. "No." Jameson smiled, "I was waiting for you." Jameson wasn't patient. He didn't wait. He lived with his foot on the gas. 

"You want to figure it out." I stared at him, feeling his stare on me. "Together." 

I swallowed and looked back up at Jameson. "Toby wasn't my father," I said, and then I corrected the tense. "He isn't my father." Toby Hawthorne was out there somewhere. He still didn't want to be found. Beside me, Jameson cocked his head, eyes sparking. "Well then. Game on." 

A/N: Sooo, I'm trying to decide whether to have another Catalina, Jameson scene or have Avery's kidnapping. The next chapter may take a while.