Avery stays outside briefly, feeling that the day is unreal and assuming she will soon return to Connecticut only slightly richer. When Avery comes back to the Great Room, Jameson Hawthorne has dressed properly and salutes Avery, which makes Grayson visibly tense.

Mr. Ortega begins the will reading with the other lawyers present. Tobias Hawthorne has left individual letters for the required attendees, including Avery but not Libby. Mr. Ortega lists the people who must be physically present: Skye, Zara, Nash, Grayson, Jameson, Xander, and Avery, making Avery feel painfully exposed among the Hawthornes.

The will first rewards loyal staff: Andrew and Lottie Laughlin receive large cash gifts and lifelong tenancy, and security chief John Oren receives money and Tobias’s toolbox. Nan receives a large annual annuity, medical trust, and Alice Hawthorne’s jewelry. Avery is stunned by the sums but tells herself these people mattered to Tobias while Avery did not.

The mood turns hostile when Tobias leaves his daughters, Zara and Skye, only payment of their debts, symbolic keepsakes, and fifty thousand dollars each. Zara accuses Skye of influencing their father after Toby’s death or disappearance, and the sisters argue about Skye’s sons and Zara’s lack of a son. Mr. Ortega interrupts to warn that the will is ironclad and discourages challenges.

Everyone then expects the grandsons to receive the fortune, but Tobias leaves Nash, Grayson, Jameson, and Xander only two hundred and fifty thousand dollars each, payable at age twenty-five and managed by Alisa Ortega. As the room realizes that the vast majority of Tobias’s $46.2 billion estate remains unassigned, attention shifts to Avery. Mr. Ortega reveals that all remaining properties, money, and possessions go to Avery Kylie Grambs.