Prepare for all the spoilers. Avery Grambs has not had an easy life. Her mom was really good at making their struggles fun for her daughter though: flashlight tag when the power was shut off and games of ‘who can make their cookie last the longest’. But then she went and died when Avery was fifteen. Avery didn't let it stop her. She does well in school, balancing the need to work with the need to get good grades - plus she runs poker games after school for extra cash. But this time, she's flown too high to the sun and gotten burned because she had the audacity to actually study for her physics test. She was the only person to get every question right in her teacher's class… ever. So, he and the principal think she cheated. She is told that she can retake the test the next day, the teacher made a new test just for her, but Avery says no. She will take the test right now while the principal watches her. After school, Avery goes to work and then back to the apartment that she lives in with Libby, her half-sister seven years older than her. They had different moms but the same absent father, it was a surprise to everyone when Libby took Avery in after Avery’s mom died, since they hadn't seen each other much growing up. Avery gives Libby her tip money, forcing her to use it for rent, and Libby gives her a muffin. Avery can see that Libby has also baked her favorite cupcakes too. She knows what those are. Apology cupcakes. Libby’s boyfriend Drake must be moving back in. Drake is violent, and although he's never hit Libby, Avery knows it's just a matter of time. Plus, he's never forgiven Libby for letting Avery move in and he uses Avery to hurt Libby. Avery can't stay and watch their relationship get even more tumultuous, waiting for the day he finally hits Libby. She tells Libby that she will be living in her car instead. She parks behind the diner where she works and settles in. She texts her best friend Max, who moved away between eighth and ninth grade, but who managed to stay in touch. Avery looks at a stack of postcards that her mom left her and reminds herself of her future. She will graduate. She will apply for all the scholarships. She will get a degree and a job that allows her to travel. And she will go to the places on the postcards. The next day, Avery gets called down to the office again. She thinks it's about how she did on the replacement test but is surprised to find Libby there too, as well as another guy not much older than she is. A guy with entrancing gray eyes. He asks the principal to give them a moment. He introduces himself as Grayson Hawthorne, grandson of Tobias Hawthorne - who recently died. Avery was named in Tobias’ will, though no one seems to know why. Neither does Avery, she's never even heard of the man. They've been sending certified letters to Avery’s house, requesting she attend the reading of the will, but Libby has been destroying them (she thought they were a scam). So, Grayson was sent to collect Avery in person. He'd like to leave soon; they've already delayed the reading for months. He leaves the sisters alone to discuss, and Libby tells Avery they have to go. They have to see what’s in the will. She's already gotten Avery's shifts at the diner and her own shifts at the assisted living facility covered for the next couple of days. And Grayson has their tickets to Texas - they're flying first class. Avery thinks that if nothing else, it will get Libby away from Drake for a few days. Avery spends the flight researching Tobias Hawthorne, who it turns out was the wealthiest man in Texas and the ninth richest in the U.S. When they land, they're met by Alisa Ortega of McNamara, Ortega, and Jones - the law firm that Tobias Hawthorne used. Alisa explains that they'll be staying at Hawthorne House and the will is set to be read a shortly after they arrive. Alisa is to act as liaison between the Hawthorne family and the sisters. She spent a lot of time at Hawthorne House growing up, since her father was Tobias Hawthorne's lawyer for her whole life. Avery asks if Alisa has any idea why he may have named her in his will. Alisa asks if Avery is the world-saving type - she answers that she is not (she spends her mornings playing chess with a homeless man and buys him breakfast if she wins, so I'm not sure this was an honest answer). Alisa asks if she's ever had her life ruined by a Hawthorne. Avery’s life has not been the easiest, but she doesn’t think that’s due to any Hawthornes. Alisa says “lucky you” in a tone that indicates that maybe Alisa’s life was. As they approach Hawthorne House, which looks very castle-esque, Alisa tells her that Tobias had four grandsons. Inside, they see Grayson again. He takes Libby's coat (Avery keeps hers) and Grayson uses a hidden combination of panels to open a secret door revealing a coat closet. He's about to close the door when there's a noise inside and another Hawthorne steps out. This one is delightfully rumpled and quite charming. Grayson introduces him as Alexander, his brother and the baby of the family. There was a secret tunnel that ended in the coat closet, the house is full of them. As Xander leads Libby toward what may or may not be an indoor roller coaster, Grayson explains. His mother, Skye, had four sons - all with different fathers. His aunt, Zara, has no children. Xander is the best of them all - even though he can't keep still and often talks without thinking. Soon, Avery meets Skye and it is apparent where the Hawthorne brothers get their charm. She is effortlessly graceful and welcoming, and a little eccentric. Her sister is... not. But Avery only sees Zara for a moment before her husband calls Zara away to speak to Alisa's father. They are called into the Great Room, where Avery sees another brother, Nash, and meets Tobias’ mother-in-law, who her great-grandsons call Nan. She is clearly still grieving her son-in-law, and it reminds Avery of her own mother. She steps outside for a moment to breathe. While outside, someone on a balcony above Avery gives her a riddle. She looks up to find the last Hawthorne brother, Jameson, drunk and shirtless. He hangs onto the balcony and drops down next to her. His eyes are a piercing green, and he has a scar that runs from his hip to his collarbone. He asks to call her M.G., short for Mystery Girl, which she immediately tells him he cannot do. That doesn't stop him. Avery stays out for a few more minutes after Jameson goes in. By the time she reenters the room, Jameson has found a shirt and a suit jacket. The lawyers call for everyone's attention. They pass out letters to the people named in the will, ostensibly from Tobias, to be read after the will is read. Then they start. Tobias leave an older couple that worked for him one hundred thousand dollars each and a cottage to live in for the rest of their lives rent free. To his head of security, he leaves his toolbox and three hundred thousand. To Pearl O'Day, aka Nan, he leaves one hundred thousand dollars a year, plus a trust for medical expenses, as well as all of his late wife's jewelry. To each of his daughters he leaves enough money to pay off any debts incurred up to the time of his death and fifty thousand dollars. To Skye, he also leaves a compass so she can find true north, and to Zara, his wedding ring so she can know a love like he had with his wife Alice. This does not go over well. Zara blames Skye and also mentions someone named Toby, a name that Avery doesn't recognize. Zara's husband says not to worry, they will challenge the will, but Mr. Ortega, the lawyer, recommends he not do that. The will is iron clad and there will be penalties to ensure it isn’t challenged as well. Moving on to the brothers Hawthorne, they receive two hundred and fifty thousand dollars each, which they will receive when they turn twenty-five. Until then, Alisa will manage the money. That shocks not only the brothers, but Alisa as well. Avery does the math. This doesn't make any sense. Tobias Hawthorne was worth over forty-six billion dollars. Mr. Ortega continues speaking. Everything else, money, assets, property, and other worldly possessions, he leaves to Avery. The atmosphere in the room changes drastically. The whole family turns on Avery. Even Skye shrieks like a banshee. Grayson tells Avery that she should leave the house. Problem is, it's her house now. Mr. Ortega clarifies that anyone who tries to intercede on the will’s stipulations will relinquish rights to their own inheritance. Tobias Hawthorne's head of security, John Oren, steps between Avery and the Hawthorne family. Mr. Hawthorne's last request, per Oren's letter, was to continue as Avery's security. She's going to need it. Avery rushes outside, Libby right behind her. Before long, Nash walks out too. He tells her not to worry; he never wanted the money. This is all a karmic joke being played on people who deserve it. He notices Libby, gives her a slow smile, then gets on his motorcycle and drives away. Oren drives the two sisters to a hotel where Alisa meets them. This hotel belongs to, or will belong to, Avery - after it clears probate. They go upstairs and go over the contents of the will. The only thing Avery has to do in order to fulfill the terms of her inheritance is to live in Hawthorne House for one year, starting no more than three days from now. The same house where the majority of the Hawthornes live too. The Hawthornes who want her out of the way. And, per Tobias’ rules, she can't kick them out of the house without good reason. Oren says there's a low chance of anyone seriously trying to hurt Avery, the boys would never do something like that, and the women would do it through legal proceedings. Besides, Alisa tells Avery that if she should die while the estate is in probate, Texas law would require the estate to pass to Avery's heir, not revert to a prior will. And if Avery chose not to live at Hawthorne House, the estate would go to charity - not to Tobias' family. Avery hasn't opened her letter. Not yet. She speaks to Max on the phone and wonders if maybe her father wasn't her real father. Her mom always said she had a secret, but she took that secret with her to the grave. Was it that Avery was a Hawthorne? There's a knock on the door and Oren looks out of the peephole to find Grayson. Avery allows him in. Grayson looks disheveled. He tells Avery that he doesn't know what she had on his grandfather, but he sees her clearly now and he will figure it out. And when he does, she will be sorry. She slams the door on his face and opens the letter from Tobias. All it says is "I'm sorry.", signed with his initials - TTH When Avery wakes up, Alisa and Oren are talking in the suite’s kitchen. Oren explains that he will give her a security detail. There will be threats: paparazzi, kidnapping plots, general threats, there always is. He also wants to put a detail on Libby when she gets back. She flew on one of Avery's private planes to pack up their things at home - they left Avery in Texas, so she could meet the Hawthorne House deadline. Alisa wants to get her in the house that night before any news outlets are tipped off about the story (the law firm is trying to keep a tight lid on it). Hawthorne was their most important client, their only client actually, and now that title belongs to Avery. They spend the day going over specifics: quitting Avery’s job and unenrolling from her school. But all that comes to a stop when Libby walks in. She has a black eye. Avery wants to hire a hit man (Alisa can make some queries), but Libby insists that she is fine. Then they realize that Drake tipped off the paparazzi, there is a mob outside the hotel. Libby apologizes profusely. Libby probably told Drake everything to try to pacify him before he got violent. But when he started making plans for Avery's money, Libby stood up to him and that's when he hit her, and she left him and thus, the paparazzi. Jameson texts her and says congrats, she's famous now. Avery is rushed to a car and taken to the house. They're met with an envelope of keys. Legally, the Hawthorne's had to provide Avery keys to the house. And they did just that, on a key ring with one hundred others. Jameson speaks over the intercom to say he believes in her. Avery plays chess, and poker, and she likes statistics. She loves a good game. Looking at the keys, the majority of them have the same pattern on the teeth, but the heads are all different and ornate. But one of them has teeth that look different. She uses it to open the door. Inside, she's given a brief tour of the house by Alisa and meets the Laughlins - the couple also named in Tobias' will. They explain that Mr. Hawthorne liked things to be kept private so most of the household tasks are done by a small staff, though they have other staff members on retainer. Those staff members work on call but are paid a full wage. Avery gets the feeling that Mrs. Laughlin considers her an outsider as well. Despite leaving the day before, Nash enters the house and finds them in the hall. Alisa makes herself scarce, there's some sort of history there. Nash sees Libby's black eye. When she assures him that she's fine, he insists that he knows she is, but he'd still accept the name of the person who hurt her if she was willing to give it to him. Meanwhile, Oren wants to introduce Libby to her security lead Hector. As they wander off (Oren assures Avery that she's safe with Nash), Avery hears a crash from upstairs. Nash sighs. This is why he was called back. He invites Avery upstairs with him. Trial by fire and all that. They go upstairs to the library where they find Grayson and Jameson. They are fighting about something, but it seems deeper than just Avery - like it's been going on for longer. Nash asks whose ass he needs to kick but then Xander comes in and wrestles him to the floor in a friendly match. Avery doesn't belong here. These are the brothers Hawthorne, with bonds that she will never understand. Grayson is still angry at Avery even though Nash says there's no point - this is what their grandfather wanted and there's no changing it. Jameson chimes in that Avery solved the keys faster than anyone else. The keys weren’t just hazing her but some sort of tradition. Grayson is aghast that Jameson gave her the keys! Jameson whispers that he told Grayson she was special, but Grayson reminds Jameson that he said to stay away from Avery. Gray is trying to protect him. But Jameson retorts that the only person Grayson has ever protected was himself. Nash sends Avery with Xander to see her wing. They stop for scones first. On their way, Xander insists that he does hate Avery, both personally and on principle. It's why he gave her the lemon scones instead of the blueberry ones. But truly, he doesn't think she's a manipulative mastermind. His grandfather was too clever for that. Avery is not the cause of what's happening. He leads her to her wing of the house, where his grandfather was living before he died, explaining that the house can be confusing. Tobias built an addition every year, it is the largest residential home in Texas. He stops at a portrait of Tobias Hawthorne at the entrance to the wing. Tobias doesn't look at all familiar to Avery. Xander leaves Avery to explore on her own. She finds several bedrooms and an office. Inside, there is shelf after shelf lined with the achievements of Tobias' grandsons. A book of photography by Grayson, patents held by Xander, trophies, medals, black belts, even world records. Four framed comic books written by the brothers. It doesn't make sense that Tobias left everything to her when, by all accounts, he was incredibly proud of his grandsons. She looks at Tobias’ desk and finds a compass that, when turned to point northwest, opens a compartment on the desk. She's about to go through it when Libby finds her. They sit together on one of the balconies overlooking a pool. Libby overheard Zara saying that they were going to test Avery's DNA. That makes sense, it's what Avery would do. But Libby is worried. They didn't grow up together. If it turns out that their dad wasn't really their dad, will Avery still want her around? Avery insists that she will always want Libby. Avery is in her room when she hears someone speak to her from behind her fireplace, telling her to pull the candelabra to let him in. He walks her through how to open the secret passageway, and it opens to reveal Jameson. He explains that his grandfather was obsessed with riddles and puzzles, practically everything in the house has a secret compartment and he used to give his grandsons a new thing to solve every week. Until he died, but then he left them Avery. He thinks Avery is the last puzzle Tobias wanted them to solve. She tells him to get out, but before he leaves, he gives her the letter he got from Tobias. Read that and let him know if she doesn't agree with him. Jameson's letter is full of cliched sayings. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't, or is it? Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. All that glitters is not gold. Nothing is certain but death and taxes. There but for the grace of God I go. And lastly, don't judge. Avery begins to think Jameson was right. That, or Tobias was a madman. She wakes up in the morning to a barrage of text and social media messages. Now that the news has broken, everyone wants to know her or hate her. She takes Max's number from her old phone but doesn’t bother with anyone else. Alisa explains that a lot of the staff have come in. They're loyal and concerned. Nash in particular brings in a lot of people to work at the house, people he meets on his wanderings. He and Alisa were engaged for a while when they were young but there were issues. Alisa assures Avery there is no conflict of interest. In the meantime, she has enrolled Avery in the school that Jameson and Xander attend. Xander goes to school early on Fridays, so it is just Avery and Jameson in the car. They discuss the letters. She shows him hers and he asks if she was terribly wronged in her life. Just once, but not by Tobias - unless he's responsible for her mother having an incredibly rare blood type and ending up too low on the donor list. Back to Jameson’s letter, it's pointing out that money and power can corrupt and it sounds like Tobias knew he was dying, though no one else did. Avery points out that her letter was signed with just his initials (TTH) while Jameson's had his whole name (Tobias Tattersall Hawthorne). They pull into the school, and Oren tells Avery that the school should be safe, but he will be nearby anyway and warns her not to leave the grounds. Jameson sneaks out of the car saying that the last thing she needs is to be seen with him on her first day. The kids at school studiously ignore Avery, except one named Thea. Thea escorts Avery to the headmaster's office, giving little tips and tricks along the way. She says it must be hard living with the Hawthorne's. They've been a "twisted, broken mess" since before Avery and they still will be after she's gone. They meet Xander coming out of the headmaster's office (bleeding) with three other boys. Apparently, his extracurricular activity on Friday mornings is robot dragon fight club. He tells Avery that Thea's uncle is married to Zara. He brings up that Zara and her husband are trying to find a way to challenge the will - a warning to Avery not to trust Thea. The headmaster, Dr. McGowan, seems quite kind and asks what Avery is passionate about. Not what her plans for the future are, but what she is passionate about. Avery realizes she no longer needs to live a life based solely on practicalities. She answers that she wants to travel. Everywhere. Avery speaks to Max at lunch and Max reveals that she is being hounded by reporters. Her parents are freaking out. They can't speak long before Max has to go back to class. Thea is waiting in the lunchroom and apologizes for coming on strong that morning. She just wanted to warn Avery about the Hawthorne brothers. They used to be like royalty. Everyone wanted to be them or to be with them. When you were around them, you felt special. Like they were magical and so were you. But they aren't what Avery thinks. Avery starts to feel weirded out and gets up to leave but Thea gives her one last warning. The last girl who got tangled up with the Hawthorne brothers, who spent hours in that house, ended up dead. Avery ends up running into Xander almost right after leaving Thea (him and his robot dragon). He can tell Thea got to her, but when she says she doesn't want to talk about Thea, that's fine with him. He hates talking about her. He asks about Avery’s meeting with Jameson the night before. Xander tells her that when their grandfather gave them their puzzles, he always lost. He was the youngest and least competitive, the most likely to get distracted. But what he did get to do was chat with his grandpa. And he tells Avery one interesting fact. Tobias wasn't given a middle name when he was born. He leaves her in the library and tells her she will be safe from Thea in there. But he can't come in with her. She realizes that Tobias used the middle name in his will too and immediately texts Alisa, who assures her he legally changed his name years ago. Avery looks again at her letter and Jameson's and notices something in Tobias' middle name - it has a smidge too much space between tatters and all, as if it is two words. She gets a message from Jameson; he's also figured something out about the sign off. Avery thinks. The whole letter is full of proverbs except the last line: don't judge. She asks him if don't judge a book by its cover means anything to him. It sure does. That evening, they meet in the library. Jameson asks what she thinks they're looking for and their best guess is a book that doesn't match its cover. That could take days with how big the library is. He asks if she thinks they're related - it would be a shame if they were. As they scour the books, she asks why she shouldn't be seen with him at school. He scoffs at her. He's sure she heard whispers today. She admits what Thea told her and he confirms it. Her name was Emily, and she wasn't just a girl. Avery can tell that whoever she was, she mattered to him. They decide to call it a night and meet the next day to continue. Avery thinks they'll be done within the week. Jameson doesn't even look contrite when he asks her not to hate him, but this isn't the only library. Avery is too shaken up to sleep, both by the revelation about Emily and what it felt like when Jameson stood close to her. She (and her shadow Oren) go to the in-home theater instead. Grayson finds her there. He warns her to stay away from Jameson. The people in this family are barely holding on. Skye hasn't left her room in days, Xander nearly blew himself up today, and Jameson is one bad turn away from self-destructing. Avery asks what will happen to her if she doesn't - the same thing that happened to Emily? Grayson snaps at her. Jameson wasn't the only one to care about Emily, it seems. Even Oren signals for her to back down. Grayson retorts that he will know everything about Avery in a few days. And her family. Her mom. She snaps not to talk about her mother. He makes a prediction. Avery won't last a month in the house. Actually, she won't last a week. Libby comes in with some new electronics for Avery that Alisa encouraged her to buy. But first, she needs to show Avery something unsavory. It's a video of Drake talking about Avery and her "daddy issues". There are other interviews too - including one of Skye and Zara. They say they have been in touch with experts on elder abuse and give one big piece of information: Avery is not a Hawthorne, per her DNA test. The next morning, Alisa tells her that the law firm is going to speak to Zara and her husband, Constantine. If they contest the will, Zara will lose the inheritance she did receive - which includes paying off her substantial debts. And even if the will were overturned, it would revert to the previous version in which the family receives even less. That version was standing for twenty years and confirmed on a yearly basis. Twenty years ago, coincidentally the same time that Tobias gave himself a middle name and created his previous will, was when his youngest child died. Tobias II, or Toby, took a few friends to one of their vacation homes and there was a fire. Three other kids died too, Toby was nineteen. But his remains were never definitively identified - thus Skye's assertion that he "disappeared". That version of Tobias’ will stood until a year ago. In the meantime, Alisa has asked Libby to stay inside as much as she can. Already, Drake and Libby's mom have spoken to the press. The lawyers are willing to make a one-time payment to Libby's mom for a signed NDA, but not to Drake, and Libby is only going to attract more attention if she goes out. In addition, Alisa has called someone to help Avery with her wardrobe. Avery goes looking for the bowling alley (her name has been preprogrammed by someone) and then after several games, goes to the gym. She finds Jameson on the rock-climbing wall and gives it a shot. She's only about six feet up when she misses a hold and nearly falls. Jameson catches her and offers to try to swing her back up. She wants to say yes, but Grayson invades her thoughts and she lets go instead. Jameson continues climbing but Avery spots Grayson glaring at her through the door. She decides that's enough climbing for the day. Avery gets to the library fifteen minutes before Jameson, and Grayson gets there one minute after. He doesn't trust Avery with his brother. Jameson lets him in on their hunch that Tobias left them one last game to play but Grayson isn't convinced. He got the same letter. It wasn’t a clue, but a sign that their grandfather was losing it. Avery points out what she learned - that the previous will left their family even less. Tobias didn't disinherit them for her, he did it before his grandsons were even born. Jameson didn't know anything about this, but Grayson is not surprised. He wants to know what their hunch is, and Jameson leaves it up to Avery to decide. She decides to let Grayson stay. They all search - Jameson a level above, but Grayson on the same level as Avery (better to keep an eye on her). As he gets closer, he whispers that Jamie needs this game to be real. He's grieving and he's looking to feel anything. But then, Jameson finds something strange. He holds up a book with a cover called Sail Away, but when the cover is removed, the book is The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. It follows Faust, who made a deal with the devil. Inside the cover is a square of red filter paper. One of their grandfather's favorite tricks, the paper filters text and shows hidden messages, but the red acetate only works on red text. This text is black. Avery flips a few pages and finds a word circled in pencil, and then another and another. When rearranged, the words say, "where there is a there is a way". The phrase is missing the word will. They need to find a copy of the will printed in red ink. Alisa agrees that a viewing of the red will can be arranged but Avery has to meet with the stylists first. They try to talk her into creating her own image, but it isn't until Xander comes in that Avery agrees to do it. He explains that if she doesn't do it, someone else will create her image for her. As someone who is of mixed race, he understands what it feels like to be judged. He's looked at like half a Hawthorne. Avery chooses the "preppy with an edge" outfit and asks Libby how she looks, but Libby is texting someone and looks like a deer in the headlights. Libby has also undergone her own makeover, but it's subtler and she got a wall full of boots out of it. Xander says that Avery looks great and not at all like she seduced an old man out of his money. Zara comes in and scoffs. No one thinks that. She asks to speak to Avery. Zara has spoken to the lawyers and come to Avery with a proposition. She has run the Hawthorne Foundation her entire adult life and she would like to continue doing so, and to continue getting paid to do it. Avery agrees but she wants to be included in the Foundation. Zara agrees to teach her what she needs to know. Then Oren comes in and stands next to Avery. He had said that Zara would come after Avery legally but now that Zara can't do that, he doesn't want Avery alone with her. Avery is set up with a copy of the will known as the red will, written completely in red ink. Mr. Ortega was instructed to keep the will at the firm and show it to Avery or his grandsons if they asked for it. When the red acetate is layered over the will, the red letters disappear. It will show anything that is hidden underneath the red letters, words layered underneath the red. There are only four words that show up through the acetate. The middle names of Tobias' grandsons. In order: Westbrook, Davenport, Winchester, and Blackwood. They all have their mother's last name of Hawthorne, so do their middle names belong to their fathers? Avery texts Jameson what she found. She's supposed to meet Jameson in the Solarium, but she doesn't know what that is, let alone where. Luckily, Nash is there when she walks into the house. On their way, he tells her that his grandfather gave them three instructions on their birthdays each year. They'd be given ten thousand dollars to invest and told to cultivate one thing of their choice. An art, a language, a sport, a hobby. No expense was spared in the cultivation of whatever they chose. And lastly, Tobias would issue them one challenge - something they were expected to create by their next birthday. Invest, cultivate, create. He'd often laid out items for their weekly challenges and by the end of the challenge, the items would always get used no matter how obscure they seemed. Like a fishing hook, a glass ballerina. Jamie and Gray would team up against Nash, but they'd double cross each other at the end. He points out the Solarium to Avery and leaves her with a warning. She thinks she's playing the game but to Jamie, she's the glass ballerina. Jamie is in the Solarium, once again drunk and shirtless. His mother has never once told any of them about their fathers, even when they'd asked questions. And now he's going to have to go ask again. He leads Avery to the coat closet secret passageway and Avery tries to see how he triggers it, but she doesn't catch it. Inside the passage it's very dark and the floor rotates them toward another door. Avery asks why he asked for her help, he doesn't need her. He says he does need it, he's just not sure why yet. She asks if she's just a tool for him to get what he wants and he responds that she isn't a piece of the puzzle, she is the puzzle. And she can leave - or she can find the answers with him. They get to Skye's room and she invites them into the bathroom as she takes a bath. Skye is covered in bubbles and apparently thinks that's decent enough. Jameson does not seem surprised by this. He asks where he got his middle name and she doesn't answer. She won't until she's allowed to speak to Avery in private. Skye says she forgives Avery for taking her birthright and that she expects Avery to continue supporting her - if only because she is the mother of the Hawthorne boys. She asks what Avery wants with Jameson. Jameson is special. He was his grandfather's favorite, just like Toby was. Tobias ruined Toby, spoiled him, but then Jameson came along. Jamie’s always been looking for something. He used to get lost in the halls; he liked doing it. He got lost in Emily too. And that's all Avery is - another way for Jameson to get lost. Then Skye tells Avery that her father chose the middle names her sons have. That confuses Jameson. Maybe his grandfather knew who their dads were, there was no such thing as a secret kept from him. But he's been playing a long game for their whole lives. Tobias disinherited his family and then chose his grandsons’ middle names, or all of them except Nash's, shortly afterward. He asks Avery if she wants to see what he does when he needs to clear his head, especially when he’s hit a wall on a puzzle. He shows her the garage, chooses the Aston Martin, and calls ahead to make sure the track will be cleared for them to drive. Sitting next to him, going one hundred and fifty miles per hour around a racetrack, Avery finally feels free. Oren is waiting at the track when they finally stop driving, and he is not happy with their leaving the estate unaccompanied. The paparazzi got footage of them from a helicopter. Xander walks Avery to science lab the next day at school. He doesn't admit that he got the same letter as his brothers, but he does concede that if he did, he might want to actually win this time. When the choice in the lab is to either sit next to Thea or a quiet red-haired girl that Avery saw in the library, Avery chooses the quiet girl. The girl doesn't talk to anyone, but she does tell Avery that her name is Rebecca Laughlin - the granddaughter of the Laughlins that work at Hawthorne House. She shows Avery how to use her tablet to turn in their lab assignment and Avery sees Rebecca's wallpaper - a photo of Rebecca with another girl in flower crowns. Rebecca says the girl was her sister who died. Avery knows instinctively that her sister was Emily. Rebecca says that Emily would have been very interested in meeting Avery. After school, Oren takes Avery to Hawthorne Foundation to start her education, but it's not Zara who meets her, it's Grayson. Zara gave him the job of teaching her the ropes. But first, he gives Avery the report he received on her mother. There's nothing new in it, nothing indicating any secrets she had, though Avery knows she had them. Her mom even told her she had a secret. She just died before she could say what that secret was. Grayson also apologizes for misjudging Avery. She hasn't tried to buy a single thing since inheriting the money. He will always side with his family, but he can also admit when he's wrong. She says that's not quite true. She did ask Alisa to give a large amount of money to someone she knows, a homeless man in the park. This is a good place for her tutelage to begin. Jameson says she cannot concern herself with the individual. The whole world is now her responsibility. He shows her the last birthday challenge he was given, to study the different types of charitable giving in order to improve their own. The Foundation cannot react to stories emotionally, but use reason to analyze where the largest, most beneficial impact would be. They go over numbers and graphs until Nash calls Grayson. Avery looks at the art on the walls. Unlike the main part of the Foundation, which is decorated with hundreds of photos taken by Grayson himself, here there are maps. Including a hand drawn map of Hawthorne House's property. Avery spots Wayback Cottage where the Laughlins live. There is the Black Wood to the north and a creek to the west. Blackwood. As in Grayson Blackwood Hawthorne. And the creek is labeled The Brook. To the west. Westbrook. As in, Nash Westbrook Hawthorne. She almost doesn't notice when Grayson walks in behind her and says that Nash called about Libby. Libby is currently with Nash at Hawthorne House, but Drake is at the front gate demanding to be let in - and he called the reporters before coming. Gray and Avery both get in the backseat of the car, and Oren drives straight to the House. Alisa explains over the phone that both Libby and Avery have protection orders against Drake, and Gray assures Avery that Nash won't let Drake hurt Libby. But Avery cannot let this story get out. By the time they arrive, cops are there and the paps are eating it up. Avery gets out and makes an announcement just as Drake starts to fight the cops. She distracts the reporters, telling them that she knows why Tobias Hawthorne chose her. She's the only person who knows the truth. And if they dare to print one word about what is happening at the gate right now, she will make sure that they never find out. Alisa is going to kill her. The first words any reporters have gotten from her and they're a complete lie. Libby isn't doing well either. She has already baked hundreds of apology cupcakes and she's about to start another batch. Nash isn't far away and he's managing to distract Libby a bit by annoying her. He votes for red velvet. She makes salted caramel instead. The headlines that pop up that night don't look good, so Avery distracts herself by googling Emily Laughlin. All she finds is an obituary before there is a knock at the fireplace. She opens the passage to find Jameson. In her room. At midnight. Standing very close to her. She wants to lean toward him, but she fights it. He doesn't. He asks if what she said to the reporters was a lie, he can't always tell because she keeps her cards so close to her chest. She confirms it was lie. He figured out the same location information about the middle names and asks her if she wants to go for a walk to figure out the other two names. Avery spots Oren as he trails them. Jameson says the Black Wood is huge so they should start with the creek, and the bridge in particular. It's where his grandfather proposed to his grandmother – the bridge near Wayback Cottage. The cottage was Tobias' original house. He bought the surrounding property as he made more money. Wayback Cottage, where the Laughlins live. Xander has already told Jameson that Avery spoke to Rebecca today. Rebecca was always the shy responsible one, but she hasn't spoken to anyone at school for months. Emily, on the other hand, had been born with a congenital heart defect that made her parents overprotective. Once she received a transplant, she wanted to do it all. There's nothing she and Jameson didn't do (including driving like he did with Avery). Jameson thought that he and Rebecca were the same. But then Grayson happened. Avery asks what that means and Jameson offers her a game: two lies and one truth. 1. He knew what was in the will way before Avery showed up. 2. He sent Grayson to get Avery. 3. He watched Emily die. She can tell just by the way he says it that number three is the truth, not that it tells her anything about what Grayson had to do with it. But then they see the bridge. They look over it, on the rails, on the footpath, on the balusters, underneath, and they find nothing out of the ordinary or even a little bit interesting. But then Avery notices that one board always creaks. Working together, they can tell that it's supposed to rotate, and they finally find two knots that, when pressed in tandem, pop a mechanism that allows the plank to rotate so the bottom of the plank is facing upward. They see an infinity symbol carved into the wood. Avery prepares for school the next morning when Mellie, one of the women Nash brought home with him (one of his "projects" if you ask Alisa) knocks on the door with a breakfast tray. She explains that the whole house is cleaned on Tuesdays so Avery says she will just hang up her towel and get out of Mellie’s way. Mellie looks a bit stunned. Avery goes to find Libby and knocks lightly in the bedroom door before opening it and going inside. She finds Nash sleeping in one of the chairs. He wakes up and comes to the hallway. Libby is going through something and needed someone to be there, but Avery tells him not to get any ideas. She isn't another of his projects. Nash isn't sure what Alisa has been telling her and is also a bit offended. Mellie hears them talking and comes out, probably to see Nash. She's all smiley when she sees him but as soon as she sees which room he came out of, Mellie stops smiling. Alisa adds a new class to Avery's ever-growing schedule: media training. If she's going to speak to the press, she's going to do it well. And she's also booked some outings for Avery, hoping that it will appease the press for now. Thea speaks to Avery as soon as Avery gets to school, asking if what Avery said is true. She can tell that Avery doesn't like her, but Thea is used to it. But Avery better get used to her. Because her parents are going out of town for a bit, she'll be staying with her uncle and aunt in Hawthorne House. Thea’s not worried, she's immune to the Hawthorne brothers. Emily was her best friend, after all. Xander says that if Thea is moving in, she's up to something. Avery is unsure if "she" refers to Thea or to Zara. Xander tells Avery she needs to be prepared for dealing with Thea. Then he shows her his lair in yet another hidden room of the House, which houses his newest Rube Goldberg machine. Mrs. Laughlin pulls out all the stops to welcome Thea to the House and there is a full family dinner - everyone is in attendance. Skye proposes a toast to Avery, and Thea follows that by toasting Emily. At that, Jameson storms away from the table. Grayson is gripping his champagne class so tightly his knuckles turn white. After a few minutes, Avery leaves the table too. She assumes that Jameson has gone back to the bridge, so she goes to get her coat in order to follow him. Grayson speaks to her as she grabs it. He knows where she's going. He also read the Red Will. He followed the clues. He saw Jameson and Avery at the bridge, and he saw the symbol after they left. But he warns Avery. She shouldn't play the game. She should stay away from Jameson, and from him too. From them all. The Hawthornes destroy everything they touch. Avery finds Jameson still worked up at the edge of the woods. She distracts him and asks what they do next. He skipped school today; he must've been working on something. He's been checking the Black Wood for symbols like the one on the bridge, tree by tree (he's marking the checked trees with glow in the dark tape). Avery helps him. Two days later, they're still at it and they aren't the only ones. Jameson saw a map of the woods that Grayson has and Thea has been trailing Avery. Avery only comes out when she can shake Thea – like when Thea sniffs out a chance to irritate Xander. Jameson explains that they dated once and their breakup was less than amicable. Then Avery feels something. An etching in a tree, but an old etching. It reads Tobias Hawthorne II. Just as they read the name, a crack sounds out and Jameson pulls Avery to the ground. Oren is already up and moving by the time Avery realizes the sound was a gunshot, and that realization makes the second gunshot even scarier. Soon Oren is back. The shooter got away and while Avery wasn't hit, the tree behind her was. She has a piece of bark stuck in her collarbone that will need stitches. Oren digs the bullet out of the tree in case it can be traced. Even Jameson is shaken. Someone saw the two of them out there and decided to take their chances - twice. Oren calls for back up to do a sweep of the woods though the shooter is probably already gone. He waits with Jameson and Avery until the backup comes with an extra vehicle for them and then they leave. Not to Hawthorne House but for Wayback Cottage. Oren doesn't trust the people in the House. Not the family or the staff. Mrs. Laughlin has never been a fan of Avery's but as soon as she sees the injured girl, she makes her some tea with a heavy dose of whisky in it. Oren stitches Avery up as she runs through possibilities. Jameson was with her and Avery doesn't think it was Xander or Nash. And Grayson wouldn't, would he? Mr. Laughlin comes in the front door with muddy boots - from the Black Wood? As soon as he sees them, he's told that security protocol is already being followed. He asks where Rebecca is. She's visiting her grandparents. Avery doesn't hear where exactly Rebecca is before being ushered into the bathroom to clean the blood off her face. Avery is in shock. She checks the room leading to the bathroom, the bathroom itself, and the shower. Nothing is there but she is still shaky. She tries to call Max but gets no answer - seven times. The last time they spoke, Max wasn't very chatty. Maybe she doesn't want to speak to Avery anymore. Avery stands there for who knows how long until Jameson comes and helps her. He is gentle as he helps her wash her face and her hands, running a washcloth down her neck. It doesn't feel like she's a game to him now. It didn't when he pulled her to the ground and covered her body to protect her either. She pushes him against the door and asks to kiss him, he doesn't hesitate before saying yes. It's gentle, and then not gentle, and then he whispers that they're so close. He can feel it! Somebody didn't want them to see Toby's name. Was he thinking about the game when someone shot at them? When Avery was being stitched up? While he washed the blood off her face? It's more likely that someone just wanted to kill them, but he tells her to think. What if Toby's name and the infinity symbol are telling them that Toby isn't dead at all. She gets angry. If she had been in a slightly different spot, Oren would've been removing a bullet from her chest. What happens if she dies while the will is in probate, or if she leave the house before the year is up. She's not sure the family knows the estate would go to charity and not to them. She tells Jameson that not everything is a game. He responds that if Emily taught him anything, it's that everything is a game. Avery doesn't follow Jameson when he leaves. When she finally comes out of the bathroom, Rebecca is there. She's glad that Avery wasn't shot but she also wanted to warn Avery. Everyone thinks that Emily was great. And she was… when she wanted to be. But more than that, she was magnetic and no one could say no to her. She wanted everything. She never wanted to choose, to limit herself. She dated Jameson and Grayson at the same time, and they didn't know at first. When they found out, she refused to choose and neither wanted to give her up. So, she turned it into a little game. Avery asks how Emily died - Grayson told Rebecca it was Emily's heart. Three hours later, Avery is finally able to return to the house. Oren assures her that there will be no stone left unturned, they will investigate all staff members and look into the family's financials to see who could have done this. They've already cleared all the family members and the Laughlins, they were all caught on camera at a time that would make it impossible for them to be the shooter. Libby was cleared as well. She was with Nash. They did not pull the trigger. But Alisa gives Avery bad news when she meets them at the house. She made an oversight when she told Avery about the inheritance stipulations. What she said was correct except for the Foundation. If Avery leaves the house or dies before she becomes conservator, the Foundation passes to Tobias' grandsons. Avery may not be able to change that until she is fully in control at twenty-one. Zara and Constantine know this, which means Grayson surely does as well. Oren says that Avery will not go anywhere without him from now on. He watched the armory surveillance already, and though no one took a gun today, both Jameson and Grayson were looking at rifles within the last few days. That's news to Avery; she wasn't even aware of the existence of an armory. Alisa says if Avery had actually read the list of what she'd inherited, she would know that Tobias was a gun collector and had the largest collection of Winchester rifles in the world. Now Avery knows exactly why Jameson and Grayson looked at rifles, and it had nothing to do with shooting her. Avery asks Oren to take her to the armory, which doubles as a safe room and tornado shelter. She asks to see the Winchesters and to be shown how they work. On the fourth gun, she sees letters engraved into the lever pulled to load the gun. O-N-E. So, the bridge does not have an infinity symbol, but the number eight. And Jameson may think Toby's name was the second clue, but Avery isn't so sure. The writing wasn't the same. The name looked like it had been engraved by a child. But she is sure that she has an 8 and a 1. Avery is crying in her shower when Max finally calls her back. After explaining that she's fine, Avery asks why Max didn't answer. She's completely locked down - no phone, no internet. And, because Avery was being accusatory, Max tells Avery it is because of her. Max's family is strict; she's not supposed to date. So, after Max caught her boyfriend taking screenshots of her texts with Avery to send to a reporter and broke up with him, he sent some risqué photos he received from Max to her mom, it didn't go over well. But Avery didn't even ask how Max is doing even though Max has already said things were difficult. Avery never asks Max how she's doing. She doesn't even remember Max's now ex-boyfriend's name. She has always needed Max more than Max needed her, so Max figured it was okay. But Avery doesn’t get to blame her when she can’t be at Avery’s beck and call. And she doesn't know when she'll be able to reach out again. After hanging up, Avery hears scratching from the fireplace. No one answers when she calls out so Avery does the smart thing and alerts Oren. She stays in Libby's room that night, sleeping in bed with her sister. When she wakes up, Libby is already gone. Checking the bathroom, Libby isn't there, but her phone is. She has dozens of missed messages from Drake, but only three that Avery can read. They insist that he loves Libby, and he knows that Libby loves him back. Avery finds Libby at breakfast, Nash not far away, but Avery is stopped by Thea before she can get to her sister. Rebecca texted Thea about Jameson and Avery in the bathroom at Wayback Cottage. Oren has asked both Rebecca and Jameson to keep their mouths shut, they do not want the other Hawthornes to know they're being investigated just yet, but Rebecca only stayed quiet about the shooting. Luckily, Xander pops up and saves Avery from Thea. Nan, the Hawthorne's grandmother, calls Avery over to speak to her. Avery moves too fast and pulls at the stitches on her chest causing her to hiss in pain. Nan notices, and so does Xander. Again, Xander blocks Avery from Thea's view. Before Xander can ask Avery what happened, Grayson asks to talk to Avery in the hall. Grayson can tell she's hurt and, for some reason she doesn't understand, she tells him what happened. Grayson turns on Oren and wants to know why she wasn't protected. He's clearly surprised. So, he wasn't behind the shooting. Grayson says that he will hold Oren personally responsible if anything happens to Avery. Jameson comes down just then and the tension between him and Grayson could be cut by a knife. Luckily, Nash breaks it by saying he will hog tie Jameson and take him to school if he tries to skip again. Nash asks Avery if she needs a ride too and is rebuffed by Oren, which Nash definitely notices. Avery says she's not going to school today. Avery also asserts that Libby is none of Nash's concern, so he should leave her alone. Nash interjects - everyone at that house is his concern. He may leave at times, but he always comes back. The people there still need to be taken care of. Avery tells Libby she's staying home that day but doesn't tell Libby what happened what happened in the woods. Libby immediately declares the day a Sister Day and Avery asks if Libby will help her find a Davenport. A desk with a bunch of little hidey holes built in. She can't help but think of how she's turned Libby's life upside down, both when her mom died and she went to live with Libby and now. She doesn't want to worry Libby about the whole shooting thing. And she wonders if Libby is still seeing Drake. They search wing by wing for the desk, Oren trailing not far behind them. When they reach the spa, they find Skye. She's ordered a masseuse, but Oren insists the House is closed to visitors at the moment. Libby asks why and Skye spills the news - Grayson told her there was an incident the night before in the Black Wood. Libby demands to know what happened and why Avery didn't tell her right away. Avery insists that she didn't want to worry Libby since she has enough on her plate already. Then Avery asks about Drake. Libby hasn't texted him back, but Avery points out that she hasn't blocked him or asked for a new phone either. She certainly hasn't prosecuted him for violating the protection order. Libby says she never asked for the protection order in the first place, but she immediately looks like she regrets saying it. She doesn't want to change her number because her friends have this number, and so does their dad. That surprises Avery. She hasn't spoken to their dad Ricky in years, though her case worker has. Avery points out that Ricky just wants money - just like Drake and Libby's mom. Low blow. Libby decides to walk away from the situation before they argue more, but she reminds her sister that she is still her legal guardian. If someone is shooting at Avery, Libby wants to know. Avery continues to search for the Davenport, checking the libraries next, but then she gets distracted by the sound of piano music. Nan is listening to a piece being played, the piano is doing the playing itself. She says she used to play but she was too good at it and got too much attention for it, and her husband broke her fingers for it. He met with a tragic accident not long afterward. Nash tells Nan not to scare Avery, but Nan insists that Avery shouldn't scare easily or she won't make it in Hawthorne House. After Nan leaves and they're alone, Nash asks if Avery spoke to Libby. This whole situation hasn't been easy on her. Avery wants to know what Nash's intentions are with Libby, and he turns the question back on her and Jameson. Avery doesn't answer, only saying that he was right about his grandfather's game. He responds that it will only get worse the further into the game she gets. That won't stop her. She asks if he knows about a Davenport desk. He asks if she's checked the libraries and she says yes. The circular library, the onyx library, stained glass window library, the one with the globes, the maze library. Oren confirms there are only five. Nash says that Oren's wrong about that. Nash leads her to a part of the House she hasn't seen, past a door that has been bricked up. The bricked door leads to Toby's wing of the house. The wing they are going to was started the year that Nash was born. Skye was not a good mom, so Tobias compensated by building Skye’s children a wing to play in. Arcade games, board games, slides. And a library in the ceiling of the game room. Nash explains that when he was seven, Grayson was born. Then Jameson and Xander came the next two years. Skye would leave for a couple weeks and come back knocked up. Oren checks out the library and comes down to tell Avery that it's clear, but she is probably going to pop a stitch if she tries to climb up. That catches Nash's attention. The fact that Oren didn't hide her injury from Nash tells Avery one of two things: either he trusts Nash or he wanted to see Nash's reaction. Nash didn't know about the shooting and doesn't know who did it, but he's going to speak to his people on the staff. This is why Oren told him, because the staff will talk to Nash. When Nash leaves, Avery goes up into the library. She finds a spot that opens up to a staircase, the first secret passageway that she found all by herself! At the bottom of the stairs, she finds Grayson holding a flashlight staring at a desk. He hasn't looked in it yet. She tells him that she told Nash about the shooting and Grayson shakes his head, Nash will want to save her now too. She asks if he know who shot her and Grayson says he doesn't. She believes him. Then he asks if he can see where she was hurt and she shows him the wound on her chest. They confer and find out they have th e same clues. Then Grayson invites her to check the desk. She finds a secret compartment holding an empty keychain. It is in the shape of a one. Avery barely sleeps that night. She stays in Libby's room, but Libby doesn't - though Avery is told that she's still on the estate. She's dropping support people like flies. Avery thinks she hears footsteps at one point but then nothing. She dreams of her mother. Her mother used to play “the secret game”, where she would have Avery try to guess her secret. Avery never did. Her mother died before she found out what the secret was. But she dreams of her mother telling her a clue about her birthday. Alisa wakes Avery up and reminds her that she's making her debut in Texas society that evening. They need to go dress shopping, and then hair and makeup will be there that afternoon, not to mention media training. It's not negotiable, this is a part of damage control for talking to the press. Much to Avery's dismay, Thea joins their dress shopping expedition. Thea asks what Avery did to Rebecca to make her cry, and why Jameson is so miserable. Avery doesn’t answer. Avery asks why Thea is staying at the house, what task her aunt and uncle have given her, and also gets no answer. When they arrive at the boutique, Avery requests a dress that will cover her clavicle and Thea demands it be green to bring out Avery's eyes. On their way back, Thea tells Avery that neither Oren nor Alisa wanted her to come today but she insisted - so that she could warn Avery away from the Hawthorne boys again. As Thea talks, Oren swerves the car hard and Avery notices that another guard has his gun drawn. Something is wrong. They swerve again, but not quickly enough to avoid being hit by the person trying to run them off the road. The car that hit them spins out and is surrounded by police in seconds. Oren reveals that this was the real reason for going out. They used Avery to draw out whoever wanted to hurt her instead of waiting for another attack. They tell Thea about the first attack, and she realizes that was probably the cause of Rebecca’s crying. And the person they just caught trying to run them off the road was Drake… with a rifle in his trunk. Oren says the police will want to talk to Libby too. Because if Drake was on the property, someone had to sneak him in. And even without a will in place, Avery's heirs are her father and sister. Nash is furious when they get home. Alisa didn't even warn him before the police showed up to haul Libby away - and she certainly wasn't provided with a lawyer. Alisa retorts that she's not in the habit of saving every person she comes across. Avery demands that someone from the firm be sent to help Libby and then tells both Oren and Alisa to leave her alone. She is also furious; they didn't even tell her they were going to use her as bait. But she can't be left alone, because the media consultant is waiting. The consultant makes Avery practice not responding to questions designed specifically to elicit a response. Questions about her mom, the shooting, Libby. The only answer she's allowed to give is that she's grateful to be alive. Libby returns to the house halfway through makeup and hair, throwing herself at Avery and apologizing for not blocking Drake. Not for letting him into the property or for helping him with the attack, for not blocking him. Avery feels good knowing that Libby doesn't have anything more to be sorry for. The team does her hair and makeup the way they were told to make it look, Avery assumes that was Alisa’s instructions. By the time Avery is dressed, she looks incredible. She knows that she has to go to the gala. She has to learn to control the narrative and she can't look like she's scared. Drake tries to paint Libby as the mastermind of the attack, but Oren doesn't believe it. Since there's no footage of Drake entering the property, he probably came in via the tunnels. Oren knows of two tunnel entrances, both of which are secure, but there may be others (knowing Tobias). Only someone very familiar with the house would know of them. On the way to the gala, Alisa tells Avery that the foundation bought two tables so Avery will be sitting with the other Hawthornes that night. Oren tells her to play nice. If they're behind the attack, let them think that they've gotten away with it. When Grayson sees Avery, he drops his champagne glass. He stops to speak to her, asking what she's done. Avery realizes that something is very wrong and takes refuge in the bathroom. Thea follows her in, laughing. Thea did exactly what Emily would have wanted her to do and texts Avery a picture. Avery's hair looks exactly like Emily's does in the photo, the makeup makes her eyes look big like Emily's were and the dress makes them look green like hers. Even the necklace is strikingly similar to Emily’s in the photo. Thea assures Avery that she didn't do this to her; she did it to the Hawthornes. She never said she wasn't just as screwed up as they were. Alisa finds Avery in the bathroom trying to take out her hair. She didn't know what Thea did, but Avery can't hide in the bathroom any longer. All she can do is take the necklace off before joining the table. Avery sits next to Grayson and insists that she didn't do this on purpose. He didn't think she did. Avery accidentally knocks over Alisa's glass of wine and one thing becomes very clear to her - she doesn't belong in this world. When she needs some air, Avery walks through the museum where the gala is held, trailed by Oren. Jameson never showed up to the dinner. She finds him looking at Four Brothers by Cezanne. He admits that she beat him to the Davenport and that he no longer thinks Toby's name is a clue, but she's done playing. She's not really a person to him, just a piece of the puzzle, and she's done playing the game. He explains that he gets too focused. He was never meant to pay attention to more than one thing at a time. When she prepares to walk out, he stops her. He doesn't care that she's dressed like Emily tonight. In fact, he had already gotten tired of Emily’s games and had broken up with her on the night that she died. He doesn't care about Emily anymore. He asks Avery to go back to the Black Wood with him. Just don't make him do it alone. Soon, Grayson finds them and Jameson leaves. When she tells Grayson what Jameson said about breaking up with Emily, Grayson asks if Jameson told her that Grayson killed Emily. She sits alone for a long time before Alisa sends Xander to find her. He gets her to dance one dance before leaving, coaching her through a waltz and telling her how he invested his birthday money and is a millionaire in his own right. It’s the truth, but he’s trying to take her mind off serious things so that the pictures of them dancing look good. He also explains that he and Thea never really dated. It was Emily's idea for them to get together. Thea and Rebecca were in love already by that time. Knowing that Emily would not have been okay with that, Xander and Thea pretended to date to throw Emily off the scent. She found out the truth on the night she died. When Avery is free to go, she asks if he's leaving too. He wants to, but no. He reveals that he’s already solved the Blackwood clue. And as much as he wants to win the game, his brothers need it more. So, he advises Avery to take a helicopter above the Blackwood when she gets to the house. He will have one waiting for her. By the time Oren checks the helicopter and gives the all clear, Jameson is waiting inside. Grayson gets there just before they take off. Xander had known they'd follow Avery. Above the woods, they see that there is a pattern of darker trees along the outside forming a zero. When they land, Jameson is excited. Eight. One. One. Zero. A combination? Coordinates, address? Avery wonders if it could be a date. She runs through the possibility and hits one that she instinctually knows is correct. October 18. Her birthday. Jameson stumbles away from her. That was the day that Emily died last year. All of this was just to send a stupid message to them! Jameson angrily congratulates Avery. She had the good luck to be born on the right day. It’s why she was chosen as Tobias’ heir. The mystery is solved. He storms away from her. She has to think there's more to it than just being born on the right day. Grayson apologizes for Jameson's behavior. He already knew that all this was a message - for him. He's known it since the will was read. Maybe Avery is part of his penance. Then he explains. Rebecca and Emily came every year for a few weeks in the summer; he and his brothers have known them for their whole lives. Emily wasn't allowed to run or play like the rest of them because of her heart condition, so she would make up little games for them. Whoever could bring her what she wanted would win. And the brothers were nothing if not competitive. Then Emily got her transplant and she became wild, always wanting new experiences. The crazier the better. She and Rebecca moved here permanently when Emily was sixteen and she soon ruled the school. She turned her relationship with Grayson and Jameson into a game. A competition. Did they play because they loved her or because they wanted to beat their brother… Grayson isn’t sure. Emily didn't really want them though. She just wanted what they could give her. The thrill of whatever experience she wanted. Cars, parties, places they should not have been. Then one night she called Grayson and said she was done with Jameson and she only wanted him. To celebrate, she asked him to take her to Devil's Gate - where people cliff dive into the Gulf of Mexico. He knew it was a bad idea, but he took her anyway. He wanted to do the lower cliffs, but Emily headed straight for the top, past all the danger signs, in the middle of the night when they weren't supposed to be there at all. Even professionals hesitate before jumping from the top, and never at night. They dove in the water and they were fine. Emily was fine. Grayson went to get their towels and came back to find Emily dead. Either the adrenaline or the altitude, something killed her. She didn’t drown and she didn’t hit her head. And it was his fault. Only after did he find out that Jameson had refused to take her to Devil’s Gate, that she hadn't chosen him at all. After the funeral, Tobias had told Grayson that family comes first. If Grayson had chosen his family in the first place, if he had chosen Jameson over Emily, this never would have happened. Avery is just their grandfather driving that message home. Avery thinks everything over as Oren walks her back to her wing. How many people have her birthday? Is that really all it was? She looks at the giant self-portrait of Tobias Hawthorne, searching it for answers she knows she won't find. But then she sees the signature. Tobias Hawthorne XXVIII. Tobias Hawthorne 10 18. Inspired by the mirror that hides the entrance to the armory, she feels around the portrait and finds a small trigger button, the portrait swings out when it's pressed. It reveals a keypad. She enters 1-0-1-8 and the top step of the staircase she just walked up opens like a box to reveal a compartment beneath it. Inside is a hexagonal stained-glass ornament. Engraved on the underside of the step is a riddle. Top of the clock, meet me at high. Tell the late day hello, wish the morning goodbye. A twist and a flip what do you see? Take them two at a time and come find me. Avery takes the ornament and finds Jameson first. He's already found several similar ornaments and he’s thrown them all away. Now that he knows about the 10-18s that his grandfather planted, he can't stop seeing them everywhere. Everywhere he sees it, there's a stained-glass ornament. Avery insists that it is not the date, this is just the next clue. One that his grandfather wanted to make sure they didn't miss so he made sure to put it everywhere. But Jameson isn't playing anymore. He's all done. Avery can't find Grayson. She finds Nash instead and he says to give Grayson time, he doesn’t want to see Avery right now. Avery decides that the brother may be done, but she isn't. And she's going to prove that she is as special as Jameson once insisted. She's going to win. Avery decides that the riddle is pointing to something happening at noon, but the second half of the riddle means nothing to her. When Xander finds her, she shows him the ornament and tells him the game is not over, but his brothers don't want anything to do with her. Xander has seen something like the ornament before. In the gray room, there is a huge stained-glass window. In the two top corners, the pieces are purple octagons just like Avery’s ornament. They find a ladder and octagonal glass moves when touched, one twisting slightly and the other flipping a little further than exactly upside down. When the sun shines through the glass, the beams cross on the floorboard. Not the right floorboard, it's not quite noon yet. Not wanting to wait, Avery and Xander starts testing the floorboards to either side. One of them pops up when pressed to show a small dial. When Avery turns it, the floor she and Xander stand on starts to sink. When they stop moving, they face a set of stairs. They go down, stepping on every other step. They descend into the tunnels. Ahead of them, it forks into three branches - but a gargoyle points to one branch in particular. They follow the gargoyle right to a dead end. Not willing to give up, Avery retraces her steps and looks for any anomalies in the tunnel. She finds a grate in the tunnel floor that has a brand name engraved on the metal, but most of the letters have been worn away. The only letters that can still be read are M-E. She pulls on the grate and it comes off. Xander descends into the hole that the grate covered, Avery not far behind him. They drop into a small room. One of the walls is made of cement and has Avery's initials carved into it. When she walks toward the wall, a facial scanner scans her face and the wall opens in the middle like a door. Xander says it didn't matter if any of the brothers had figured it out. They would not have gotten any further without Avery. But just past the opened wall, they find a door. There are four touchpads surrounding it. When Xander touches a touchpad, it shows Jameson's initials. There is one touchpad for each brother. They aren't going any further without all four brothers participating. Xander goes to fetch his brothers and once she's alone, Avery hears footsteps from above. She remembers that someone gave Drake access to these tunnels. Then she sees Rebecca looking down at her. Rebecca explains the whole thing. Their whole family revolved around Emily and it’s Rebecca's fault Emily died. When Emily started getting out of control, Rebecca told their parents. They forbade Emily from seeing the boys but not from seeing Thea. When Emily caught Thea and Rebecca together, Emily insisted that Thea loved her more and to prove it, she told Thea she was going to jump from Devil's Pass. She believed that Thea wouldn’t tattle on her. Rebecca begged Thea to back her up when she told her parents about Emily’s plan, but Thea didn’t. She chose Emily. So, Rebecca went to Jameson instead. She played him a recording that she had of Emily. Emily liked to keep score between Jameson and Grayson. What they'd bought her, where they'd taken her, what they'd done with her, or to her. That’s what made Jameson break up with her. Maybe if Rebecca hadn't done it then Emily wouldn't have felt the need to prove herself. Wouldn't have felt the need to jump from the top, a jump that even professionals have trouble with. Mr. Hawthorne had told Rebecca about the tunnels and showed her all the entrances. He said that Rebecca deserved something of her own, since Emily got so much attention. She hides down here when things are bad at home, they get bad sometimes - ever since Emily died. She was in the tunnels on the night that Avery was shot, she saw Drake with Skye. Grayson overhears Rebecca as he comes to meet Avery. Rebecca should have told him. He would have taken care of it. He tells Rebecca to leave and drops down to Avery. He asks Avery to let him take care of Skye. He will make sure that Avery is safe. She isn’t sure about that, but he offers to play her for it. He tells her to pick any number one through ten. If he guesses it, he will take care of Skye himself. He trusts her not to lie about the number she chooses. Avery knows he doesn't trust easily, so this is a big deal. And when he guesses her number (two), she doesn't lie about it. Soon, Nash and Xander come. Xander insists that Jameson is going to come too, but he’s taking his sweet time. He doesn't show for nearly ten minutes. When he does, he places his hand on the keypad, unlocks the last bolt, and then pulls himself out of the room to leave. Avery tries to follow him; Grayson gives her a boost back into the tunnel. Jameson insists that this is an elaborate game for him. So that he won’t forget. Grayson asks him what he's talking about. Jameson reveals that he followed Grayson and Emily to Devil's Pass. He saw them jump. He saw Grayson go to get towels. And then Emily saw him. She thought that he had come back to her, that she had won. That she could continue to play with them both. But Jameson walked away from her. He heard Emily make a weird noise and looked back to see her flailing in the water, but he thought it was a ploy to get him to stay. He thought Emily was manipulating him. He kept walking. When he turned around again, she wasn't moving any longer. When Grayson came back, Jameson left. Their grandfather knew somehow that Jameson was there that night and wanted Jameson to tell Gray the truth, but Jameson wouldn't do it. Their grandfather made this whole game to make sure that Jamie would never forget. But Xander (who followed Grayson with Nash) says that's not true. Their grandfather knew he was dying and gave Xander a job to do. Make sure that Jamie and Gray played until the end. There was something he wanted the four of them to find together. Grayson corrects him. The five of them. They drop back down one by one and Jameson opens the door, which is now unbolted They find a box with Avery's full name on the top in expensive scrabble letters. The box won't open but she realizes that the letters come off. There are four blank tiles in addition to the letters, and they rearrange the words to spell “a very risky gamble”. According to the brothers, Tobias was always saying that. The box pops open to reveal a new letter written for each of them. Avery opens hers to find a single sugar packet. She remembers a moment in the diner where her mom worked. She'd been building a tower out of sugar packets like a house of cards. Her mother called her by her full name and told her to make sure that he sugar packet structure was at least three stories high, it's the only good way to make a sugar house. A man sitting behind Avery had caught notice of her name and asked her to spell it for him. Was it really just that one moment that caught his notice? His grandsons decide that it was. He'd noticed Avery and needed something to get their attention too. Something to bring them together again after being torn apart. Something to help them purge the poison that was ruining their relationships. And it's not like the estate was coming to them anyway - if it didn't go to Avery it would've gone to charity. It was never about her at all. Just like Nash said, she was just the glass ballerina. When they leave the tunnel, Oren is waiting. She wonders why he never followed her down and realizes he must've gotten some sort of prior instruction from Tobias. He's more loyal to the dead man than to her. Later, she sits at Tobias' desk and looks at his original letter. The one that he signed with his initials. She looks at the compass in the desk, which to the letter T. Knowing what she knows now about Tobias, she searches around the compass. The letter T moves when she presses down on it and she hears a click. She does it again and hears another click. Then as she searches, she sees a groove and a latch that turns the T into an H. She presses again and a compartment opens. She finds a dossier with her name on it. Inside are pictures of her and a copy of her birth certificate. It has her birthdate and father's signature highlighted. The photos span years, increasing in quantity after she turned sixteen. After Emily died. She can't help but feel like she is not just a name to Tobias Hawthorne, not just a moment in a diner. The next morning, Oren tells Avery that Skye left the house. Security was given strict instructions not to allow her back on the premises. Avery finds Grayson. He didn't have to do that, he won the bet. He says that Skye left on her own. She was just made to understand that leaving was a better option than staying. After everything, he chose Avery over his family. Over his own mother. She stands right in front of him, so close, and she can't look away. She touches his jaw and he lets her, for just a second, before drawing her hand away. He will protect her always and help her with the foundation. He will help her with whatever she needs. But he can't let another girl come between him and Jameson. Avery tries to call Max but is sent to voicemail. Then she finds Libby, who is in the music room with Nan. When Libby leaves to do some stress baking, Nan asks Avery to stay. She heard about Skye. If someone is going to kill a person, they should have the decency to do it themselves instead of hiring someone. Avery tells her that Tobias changed his will when Toby died. Nan talks about Toby. He was such a good boy - until he wasn't. He had a bit of Nan in him too. She shows Avery a picture of Toby that she keeps in her locket, a photo from when he was sixteen. Avery is stunned. She has met Toby. She knows Toby. She plays chess with him in the park. She buys him breakfast sandwiches when she wins. He is the homeless man she asked Alisa to find and gift some money to. Xander's letter from Avery's box had said one thing. Xander, Well done. Tobias Hawthorne. But the thing is, his grandfather had told him something else. If he could get his brothers to the end, then his own game would begin. He had tried all kinds of ways to make invisible ink on his letter to show up. Nothing has worked so far. But there is one last way that destroys the document it's printed on and to test it, he wanted witnesses. So, he's asked Rebecca, and Thea too, so he wouldn't be alone with Rebecca. When he submerges his letter in the water, two additional words show up: Find and II. As in: Find Tobias Hawthorne II.