The Inheritances Game (Jameson Hawthorne)

Wrong Timing Xan

I didn't tell Eve about the disk. I justified it to myself because, for all I knew, there was nothing to tell. Not every mystery was an elaborate puzzle. The answer wasn't always elegant and carefully designed. And even if Toby's abduction did have something to do with the disk, where did that leave us? Feeling like I owed Eve something, I asked Mrs. Laughlin to prepare her a room. Tears overflowed the moment the older woman laid eyes on her great-granddaughter. There was no hiding who Eve was. No hiding that she belonged here.

Hours later, I was alone in Tobias Hawthorne's study. I told myself that I was doing the right thing, giving everyone space. Seeing Eve had dredged up trauma. They needed to process, and I needed to think. I triggered the hidden compartment in the old man's desk and reached for the folder that I kept inside. Flipping it open, I stared at a drawing I'd made: a small coinlike disk the size of a quarter, engraved with concentric circles. The last time I'd seen this bit of metal, Toby had just snatched it from my hands. I'd asked him what it was. He hadn't answered. All I really knew was what I'd read in a message Toby had once written to my mother: that if she ever needed anything, she should go to Jackson. You know what I left there, Toby had written. You know what it's worth.

I stared at the drawing. You know what it's worth. Coming from the son of a billionaire, that was almost unfathomable. In the months since Toby had left, Catalina, Jameson and I had scoured books on art and ancient civilizations, on rare coins, lost treasures, and great archeological finds. We'd even researched organizations like the Freemasons and the Knights Templar. Spreading that research out on the desk, I looked for something, anything we'd missed, but there was no record of the disk anywhere, and Catalina and Jameson's globe-trotting search of Hawthorne vacation properties hadn't turned up anything meaningful, either.

"Who knows about the disk?" I let myself think out loud. "Who knows what it's worth and that Toby had it? Who even knew for certain that Toby was alive, let alone where to find him?" All I had were questions. It felt wrong to be asking them alone. Without meaning to, I reached back into the hidden compartment, to another file, one that billionaire Tobias Hawthorne had assembled on me. Did the old man know about Eve? I couldn't shake the feeling that if Tobias Hawthorne had known about Toby's daughter, I wouldn't be here. The billionaire had chosen me largely for the effect it would have on his family. He'd used me to force the boys to confront their issues, to pull Toby back onto the board. It should have been her.

A creak sounded behind me. I turned to see Xander stepping out of the wall. One look at his face told me that my BHFF had seen our visitor. "I come in peace," he announced gravely. "I come with pie."

"He comes with me." Max stepped into the room behind Xander. "What the ever-faxing elf is going on, Avery?"

Xander set the pie down on the desk. "I brought three forks." I read meaning into his grim tone.

"You're upset."

"About sharing this pie?"

I looked away. "About Eve."

"You knew," Xander told me, more injury than accusation in his tone.

I forced myself to meet his eyes. "I did."

"All those times playing Cookie Golf together, and you didn't think this was worth mentioning?" Xander pulled off a piece of pie crust and brandished it in the air. "This might have escaped your attention, but I happen to excel at keeping secrets! I have a mouth like a steel trap."

Max snorted. "Isn't the expression 'a mind like a steel trap'?"

"My mind is more like a roller coaster inside a labyrinth buried in an M. C. Escher painting that is riding on another roller coaster." Xander shrugged. "But my mouth is a steel trap. Just ask me about all the secrets I'm keeping."