After Grayson refuses to take Eve to Toby’s wing himself, Avery honors their bargain and brings Eve there. Avery carries Tobias Hawthorne’s satchel with her and suspects Grayson is going to the pool instead.

As Avery and Eve enter the sealed-off wing, Avery explains that Tobias Hawthorne closed it after Toby disappeared and that Avery’s group searched it after learning Toby was alive. Avery shows Eve the hidden metal compartment beneath a marble tile, where William Blake’s poem A Poison Tree is engraved.

Eve reacts intensely to the poem, silently tracing the words and then admitting that Avery’s explanation of Toby identifying with hidden wrath feels as if it describes Eve herself. Avery continues by explaining how the poem once led to a legal text, a coded message, and a poem Toby wrote before running away about secrets, lies, poison, stolen evidence, and a message written on the wall.

When Eve asks what evidence Toby meant, Avery guesses it concerned Toby’s adoption and offers to turn on the black lights so Eve can see the invisible journal Toby wrote on the walls. Eve stops Avery and asks to experience that part alone.

Eve explains that she grew up feeling physically and emotionally unlike her mother and family, down to her hair, eyes, thoughts, and feelings. After leaving home at eighteen, Eve took a mail-in DNA test hoping to find relatives, but found no matches; Toby eventually found Eve, yet the Blake poem gives Eve a stronger sense of connection to him. Avery understands and leaves Eve alone, reflecting on Avery’s own similarities to Avery’s mother and the fierce, guarded love Avery inherited from her.