Avery, Jameson, and Xander realize that one black light is not enough to search Toby’s suite, so Xander produces seven. After they line the rooms with black lights and turn off the overhead lights, invisible writing appears across every wall of the wing.

The writing is not a single hidden message but an enormous diary spanning Toby Hawthorne’s life. As Avery reads, young Toby seems energetic, inventive, devoted to his sisters, fascinated by Hawthorne House, and worshipful of his father, which clashes with the anger suggested by the drugs, the poem, and the earlier clues.

Avery follows the diary through Toby’s childhood and adolescence until an entry after his sixteenth birthday marks the turning point: “They lied.” Over later entries, Toby gradually explains the lie. Avery discovers that Toby was secretly adopted, that even Toby and his sisters had not known, and that his mother had faked a pregnancy.

The revelation devastates Avery because if Toby was not biologically a Hawthorne, then any child of his would not share Hawthorne DNA either. Xander is confused about why anyone would hide an adoption, while Jameson continues searching through the walls with intense focus.

Avery then notices Toby’s distinctive handwriting, a mix of print and cursive that began when he was young. Avery realizes she has seen that handwriting before, and the recognition triggers her memory of her mother saying she had a secret about the day Avery was born.