Avery summons Grayson and Xander to the circular library, where Eve joins them. Avery shows the group the returned golden disk and the coded note. Eve is shaken by the disk’s value, while Grayson immediately notes that the message is not a ransom demand.

Because the note is built around revenge, Avery and Jameson connect the threat to the Hawthorne Island fire. The fire, long believed to have killed Toby, also killed David Golding, Colin Anders Wright, and Kaylie Rooney. Jameson frames the new question as a search through three victims’ families for someone with a motive.

Eve does not know about the fire, so Xander bluntly explains that Toby set it under complicated circumstances involving alcohol, arson, and a lightning strike. Avery realizes one victim was her aunt Kaylie Rooney, and Grayson points out that the fire links both Avery’s family and the Hawthornes. Since the Rooney family hates the Hawthornes and has a violent reputation, Avery leaves to call her maternal grandmother.

In the corridor, Avery calls the Rooney woman despite remembering their previous hostile conversation. Avery asks directly whether the Rooneys have “him,” but the woman assumes Avery is talking about one of the Hawthorne grandsons. Avery plays along to avoid revealing that Toby is alive and missing, and the woman responds with threats, including the sound of vicious dogs.

After the call, Avery concludes that the Rooneys likely do not have Toby. Nash finds Avery shaken in the corridor and comforts her, while Avery insists she is armed, trained, and capable of fighting back.