tricks of time ― grayson hawthorne [the inheritance games]

035. A DEADLY TRUTH

Everything makes so, so much sense it almost hurts.

"So then why me? Why not Oren? Ms. Laughlin?"

He offers me a knowing look.

"Why would he offer it to Ms. Laughlin? Like he said in the poem, he hated her."

Oh my God.

"I don't know why he didn't just offer it to someone else in the family or in the close inner circle- like Oren. But I suppose it would have been because he didn't want to break the family up. He wanted to punish us, but not break us up. He offered it to you, because this whole time, he knew who you were. He kept tabs on you."

Oh my God.

"He gave it all to a 'random' girl in Connecticut because it would be a shock to the family. But it would cause disruptions, or rivalries. My Grandfather valued family. He would never want to tear ours apart."

"It makes so much sense-" I mutter.

He smiles slightly. "It does, doesn't it?" His voice cracks. "He wanted to make damn sure," Jameson said, "that I never forgot. What I did to this family."

"This isn't your fault," I say.

"This is my fault," Grayson says instead.

Yet I think we both know that there's nothing we can do to convince Jameson of anything. Because the truth, although hard to process, is that he is the reason I'm here.

"Don't bullshit me," he says, voice cracking again as he looks down. You're the one who said it, Leah: He didn't disinherit us for you. He did it for your sister. We weren't getting the money anyway." Grayson too, looks like he's piecing everything together.

"It was going to go to charity-" I began to say.

"That night- he must've thought of you. He must've remembered that you were still alive. And I agree- you were the perfect person to give it to."

None of this made sense in my eyes, but at the same time, they'd known the old man. I hadn't. What they were saying- it made sense to them. In their eyes, this hadn't been a whim. It had been a very risky gamble. I had been a very risky gamble.

Tobias Hawthorne had bet that my presence in the House would shake things up, that old secrets would be laid bare, that somehow, someway, one last puzzle would change everything. That, if Emily's death had torn them apart, I could bring them back together. "He put me here so we figured it out. So I figured out the truth about my mother."

"Very good, Heiress," Jameson says. "You're exactly right."

Abruptly, I switch topics. "What are we going to do about Ms. Laughlin? Mallory? I don't know if I should...talk to her about it," I say. Somehow, I know that they understand exactly what I mean by when I say "it."

"You have to tell her you know," Grayson says almost instantly. When he sees me giving him a questioning look, he looks agitated. "You have to!"

"It's not as easy as you think, big brother," Jameson chimes in. "How is she just supposed to confront her biological mother that she hadn't met for 17 years in an instant? That's bullshit."

I shrug my shoulders and lock eyes with Grayson as he presses a kiss to my forehead. "Do what you want, Leah," he says, and his voice is soft and calm.

"I'll do it," I say. "I'll have to do it at some point, right? I can't die with this secret. I have to do it. It's now or never, right?" I feel flush from the adrenaline that is flowing through my bloodstream.

"By the way," Jameson begins to say. I see him pull out a folder sheltering a large stack of papers I didn't realize he had tucked away this whole time. "I broke into my Grandfather's study."