Cover of The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games, #1)

The Inheritance Games, #1

The Inheritance Games

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes


Genre
Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Year
2021
Pages
335
Contents

Chapter 40

Overview

Jameson and Avery realize that Tobias Hawthorne's choice of the grandsons' middle names may be another deliberate part of the Red Will puzzle, suggesting Tobias planned around them for decades. When the clue hits a wall, Jameson pulls Avery into his own method of thinking: speed, danger, and rule-breaking.

The chapter shifts Avery and Jameson from deduction to intimacy, as their trip to the racetrack gives Avery a rare sense of freedom while deepening her connection to him despite warnings that he may be using her.

Summary

Avery tells Jameson that Skye said Tobias Hawthorne chose the grandsons' middle names. Jameson immediately connects this to the Red Will, realizing that Tobias picked the names shortly after disinheriting the family twenty years earlier and then later highlighted them as clues.

Jameson works through the implications: Tobias may have been planning around the boys for their entire lives, and the middle names must mean something. Avery suggests searching for men with those surnames or asking Alisa to hire an investigator, while Jameson considers that Tobias may have known the identities of Skye's sons' fathers despite Skye's secrecy.

After giving himself time to sober up, Jameson takes Avery through the hidden fireplace passage to a vast garage filled with Tobias's luxury vehicles. He shows Avery rare cars and motorcycles, then opens a puzzle-locked key box and chooses the key to an Aston Martin Valkyrie, explaining that speed helps him think when a puzzle has stalled.

Against the restrictions on Avery leaving the estate, Jameson drives the car through a hidden underground exit and to a racetrack prepared for them. At first he is controlled and quiet, but once on the track, the speed overwhelms Avery's anxiety and suspicions.

As the car reaches extraordinary speed, Avery feels a rush of fear, adrenaline, and freedom. For the first time since inheriting Tobias's fortune, Avery escapes the pressure of the mystery and focuses only on the moment with Jameson.

Who Appears

  • Avery Kylie Grambs
    Tells Jameson Skye's revelation and joins him on a risky racetrack escape.
  • Jameson Winchester Hawthorne
    Connects the names to Tobias's long game and uses speed to think through puzzles.
  • Tobias Hawthorne
    Deceased patriarch whose chosen middle names and hidden cars shape the chapter's mystery.
  • Skye Hawthorne
    Her prior revelation about Tobias choosing the boys' names drives Jameson's deductions.
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