That night, as Libby helps Avery take down her hair, Avery understands that the stained-glass octagon and the words hidden under the stair mean Tobias Hawthorne’s game is not over. The date 10/18 may have unlocked something, but it has not explained the larger purpose of the clues.

The next morning, Avery goes to find Jameson and Grayson, with Oren following her. Avery finds Jameson in the solarium and tells him she found another clue, but Jameson is emotionally shut down and uninterested. He tells Avery to throw her stained-glass octagon in the trash with the others.

Avery discovers that Jameson has found multiple identical stained-glass octagons hidden all over Hawthorne House, each tied to the numbers ten and eighteen. Jameson explains that the numbers appear in architectural details, art, fountains, chandeliers, and hidden compartments throughout the estate. To Jameson, the repeated date is not an invitation to solve more but a cruel reminder of Emily’s death and his grandfather’s manipulation.

Avery argues that 10/18 cannot be the final answer because it appears too many times and too deliberately; she believes it is a clue Tobias wanted all of them to notice. Jameson rejects the idea and says he is no longer playing the game. Avery then tries to find Grayson, but Nash warns her that Grayson does not want to see her and advises giving him time to heal.

Avery returns to Tobias Hawthorne’s portrait and rethinks the meaning of the repeated clues. She wonders whether Tobias’s entire game was designed to force the Hawthorne brothers to remember Emily and put family first, and whether Avery herself is merely another tool in that lesson. Though Jameson has quit and Grayson is avoiding her, Avery realizes she still wants to matter and decides she wants to win.