tricks of time ― grayson hawthorne [the inheritance games]

029. A TALK

He nodded toward the painting. "Cézanne's Four  Brothers," he said as I came to stand beside him. "A Hawthorne family favorite, for obvious reasons."

I made myself look at the painting, not at him. There were four figures on the canvas, their features blurred. I could make out the lines of their muscles. I could practically see them in motion, but the artist hadn't been aiming for realism. My eyes went to the gold tag under the painting.

Four Brothers. Paul Cézanne. 1898. On loan from the collection of Tobias Hawthorne.

Jameson  angled  his  face  back  toward  mine.  "I  know  you  know what happened."

"You loved her, didn't you?"

"So did Grayson," He said.

"You were going to marry her, weren't you? And Grayson, Celeste?"

He looks at me funny. "What? Where'd you get that from?"

I look back up at him. "Celeste."

Footsteps echo in the hall and I thought Oren had found us.

"I hope I'm not interrupting."

In unison, Jameson and I looked toward the doorway. Grayson stood there, and I realized that from his vantage point, all he would have seen of me when he'd walked into the room was the braid. For a moment, Grayson and Jameson stared at each other.

"What happened that night?" I said through grit teeth.

They both stare down at their feet. So similar, yet so different, I think.

Jameson talks first. "This isn't about that night. That night, is doesn't matter. What matters is the game that my Grandfather has been playing this whole time."

I furrow my brows. "Game? What game?"

"Don't you understand?" He says, finally looking up at me, "you were placed here for a reason. Pure luck, as you would have it, wouldn't make any sense in this situation. Haven't you even wondered for a moment why you are even here?"

"Of course, I've thought about tha-why would you even think I haven't? Of course I don't belong here, I know that, Jameson, what are you saying-"

"But have you ever even thought about why he gave it to you in the first place? This whole Inheritance?"

My lips part slightly. I'm not able to fumble for an answer before he speaks.

"That's right! You haven't! But this whole time, I have. I was never fully content with you getting the whole Inheritance, and for what? I lived with it, but doesn't mean I didn't care."

I think my brain might be exploding.

This whole time, everyone was right. Everyone who was warning me was right. Rebecca, Thea, Celeste...they were all warning me. For this. The Hawthorne's were never okay with me here. They just didn't show it.

And I was too petty to believe what I didn't want to believe.

"Jamie, don't do this," Grayson finally speaks up from the corner.

"No," he says. His voice is angry. "I want to solve this, once and for all, so I know what the hell happened that made her get the Inheritance."

Silence.

"You're going to do one thing with me," he breathes out hoarsely, "and then I swear, I will tell you everything about Emily. Whatever you want to know."

I look back at Grayson. I don't even know why I'm looking at him constantly. I'm supposed to be mad at him.

Jameson must've taken our silence as a yes, because he talks. "True North," he says. I furrow my brows. True North?