The Inheritance Games, #2
The Hawthorne Legacy
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Contents
CHAPTER 2
Overview
Avery pursues her bet with Jameson by examining Tobias Hawthorne’s private file on her, which confirms years of surveillance and reveals two partial photos of her with Harry, possibly Toby Hawthorne. The file deepens the mystery around Avery’s birth certificate, especially Tobias’s focus on her deadbeat father’s signature and her birth date.
Alisa interrupts Avery’s investigation to manage Avery’s public image at an NFL game, framing Avery as a Cinderella figure whose stability matters to Hawthorne business and political interests. The chapter ends with a new complication: Alisa cannot locate Harry, suggesting Toby has disappeared just as Avery and Jameson begin searching for him.
Summary
After making a wager with Jameson in the tunnels, Avery separates from him and uses Hawthorne House’s hidden passages to reach the Great Room. There, Nash Hawthorne is waiting. Nash asks whether Avery has seen Grayson or knows anything about Grayson’s conversation with Skye before Skye moved out, but Avery gives nothing away because Grayson forced Skye out after her role in Avery’s attempted murder.
Instead of meeting Libby and Alisa in the East Wing as Nash suggests, Avery goes to Tobias Hawthorne’s office to pursue the wager. Avery opens a hidden compartment and revisits Tobias’s surveillance file on her. The file contains years of photographs, including two pictures in which Avery was with Harry, though only the back of his head is visible.
Avery questions whether Tobias recognized Harry as Toby Hawthorne from behind, or whether Harry deliberately avoided the camera. Avery also studies her birth certificate, where Tobias had highlighted Avery’s birth date and Ricky Grambs’s signature. Avery understands the date’s link to Emily Laughlin’s death and Grayson and Jameson’s history, but Ricky’s signature remains unexplained, even as Avery remembers her mother once saying she had a secret about the day Avery was born.
Alisa Ortega interrupts before Avery can find more meaning in the file. Alisa reminds Avery about the upcoming NFL game, which is part of Avery’s public debut into Texas society now that Avery owns the team. Alisa insists Avery must appear as a Cinderella figure to control the public narrative after Skye’s departure and to reassure powerful Hawthorne business and political connections.
Libby appears dressed enthusiastically in team colors, while Alisa critiques her goth accessories. Nash joins them and undercuts Alisa’s explanation, suggesting Alisa and her law firm mainly want everyone to believe they have Avery under control. Remembering that the firm works for her, Avery asks whether Alisa managed to send money to Harry, but Alisa says her people cannot find any trace of him, confirming that Harry/Toby has vanished.
Who Appears
- Avery GrambsInvestigates Tobias’s file, questions her birth clues, and resists being managed publicly.
- Alisa OrtegaAvery’s lawyer; plans the NFL appearance and reveals Harry cannot be found.
- Nash HawthorneOldest Hawthorne brother; questions Avery, directs her to Alisa, and needles the firm’s agenda.
- Libby GrambsAvery’s sister; appears in spirited team attire that Alisa tries to sanitize.
- Harry/Toby HawthorneAvery’s vanished chess partner, possibly Tobias’s supposedly dead son and central new mystery.
- Grayson HawthorneAbsent but important; forced Skye out and remains emotionally distant from Avery.
- Jameson HawthorneBegins the chapter splitting from Avery after their wager to uncover the truth.