Avery returns from speaking with Nan and thinks through Vincent Blake’s pattern: every message has been addressed to Avery, and on the phone Blake insisted on speaking only to “the heiress.” Nan’s warning reinforces that Avery, not the Hawthorne brothers, is now the person Blake has chosen as his opponent.

In the foyer, Avery overhears Thea trying to keep Rebecca from withdrawing into grief. Thea urges Rebecca to turn her pain into anger if necessary, even if that anger lands on Rebecca’s mother, Emily, Eve, or Thea herself.

Jameson asks Avery what she learned, and Avery explains that Blake once brought Tobias Hawthorne into his inner circle and treated him like family. Before they can pursue that lead, Grayson realizes Eve is missing. Eve left a note and slipped away from her guard by pretending to go to the bathroom; Grayson concludes she has gone after Blake.

The group weighs the danger, and Avery remembers Nan’s warning that men like Blake and Tobias are always dangerous. Grayson immediately prepares to leave after Eve, driven by guilt over having failed her before, but Avery and Jameson urge him to stop and think.

Jameson blocks Grayson and invokes the Hawthorne rite “On Spake,” forcing Grayson to listen while Jameson whispers to him. Instead of demanding a physical response, Grayson waives it, signaling that Jameson’s warning has changed his course. Jameson then turns to Avery and asks to speak with her alone.