CHAPTER 73: GRAYSON

Grayson returns to the black-card suite, where Nash and Xander are waiting with the puzzle box. His brothers have not made further progress because the missing piece is not built into the box. Grayson retrieves the small not-a-USB drive and explains that Sheffield Grayson brought the necessary component with him whenever he visited his sister.

Nash and Xander carefully give Grayson room while still checking on him. Grayson confirms that Alisa has contacted Nash and then outlines the legal and financial mess: Sheffield allegedly stole from his company, cheated his mother-in-law of profits, and later drained Acacia’s trust after the company was sold. Grayson also points to Eve as a likely force behind the FBI search, because Eve knows what happened to Sheffield and has shown she is willing to manipulate events.

Xander tries to break through Grayson’s tension with teasing, and Nash steadies the conversation. When Xander asks what Grayson needs, Grayson asks for cookies, and Xander produces an absurdly overstuffed Oreo. The small gesture lets Grayson admit what he could only say to his brothers: he feels as if he is slipping because he has become emotionally involved with Gigi, Savannah, and Acacia.

Nash reframes Grayson’s concern, telling him that caring about them is not failure but living. Grayson nevertheless insists that he needs to focus. His plan is to open the box, examine its contents, remove anything that could connect Sheffield to the attacks on Avery or reveal that Sheffield did not simply disappear, and then return a harmless version of the box to Gigi and Savannah.

Thinking of the way his sisters and Acacia have protected and trusted him, Grayson accepts that he may not be fully okay with the deception but believes he has no choice. He kneels beside the puzzle box and fits the not-a-USB drive into it, beginning the process of opening it.