The Inheritance Games, #2
The Hawthorne Legacy
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Contents
CHAPTER 50
Overview
Avery and the Hawthorne brothers escalate their search for clues by breaking into Zara’s wing to find Tobias Hawthorne’s wedding ring. Their stealth fails when Zara catches them, turning the ring from a hidden clue into a costly bargaining chip.
The chapter raises the stakes around the ring’s significance and makes Zara an active obstacle, forcing Avery to confront the consequences of asking for the one inheritance Zara received.
Summary
Avery, Jameson, Xander, Grayson, Max, and Eli plan to search Zara’s wing for Tobias Hawthorne’s missing wedding ring. Grayson and Max agree to run interference, while Jameson, Avery, and Xander will search the rooms. Eli warns that the plan is a bad idea, but Avery notes that they have waited until Oren is off duty.
Jameson or Xander picks the lock to Zara’s wing, and the group enters. Grayson and Max remain posted in the hallway while Eli follows Avery, Jameson, and Xander inside. The search reveals several suite-like bedrooms, including separate rooms that appear to belong to Zara and her husband.
In Zara’s immaculate room, Avery reasons that jewelry would likely be kept in a safe. Xander and Jameson search for hidden mechanisms, and Avery finds a one-button remote taped behind a decorative leather-bound book. When Avery presses it, a built-in bookshelf slides away, but instead of exposing a safe, it reveals more shelves filled with paperbacks in genres Avery cannot imagine Zara reading.
Before the search can continue, the group hears Zara’s heels approaching. Jameson pulls Avery into a closet, and Xander hides elsewhere. Zara immediately detects them because of the bodyguard at the door and orders them out.
Jameson, Avery, and Xander explain that they want to see the wedding ring Tobias left Zara, noting that Tobias had also left Zara that same item when he first revised his will decades earlier. Zara recognizes the imbalance between Avery inheriting almost everything and now asking for the one object left to Zara. When Jameson asks Zara to name her terms for five minutes with the ring, Zara demands five million dollars.
Who Appears
- Avery GrambsLeads the search for Tobias’s wedding ring and faces Zara’s demand.
- Jameson HawthorneHelps Avery break in, hides with her, and negotiates with Zara.
- ZaraCatches the searchers in her wing and prices access to Tobias’s ring.
- Xander HawthorneJoins the search despite being abandoned by Rebecca and Thea.
- MaxVolunteers as a distraction and later appears during Zara’s confrontation.
- Grayson HawthorneSupports Avery’s plan by helping set up hallway interference.
- EliWarns the plan is bad and follows Avery into Zara’s wing.