The Brothers Hawthorne

Jameson, scanning Vantage from the outside, looks for the highest point and runs toward it. Once there, he spots an even higher point: a bell tower. Jameson connects the tower to Rohan’s verbal clues about heights and bells. When he arrives, he can’t find a way inside, but Branford appears and opens the door for him. Branford claims he’s helping Jameson because they are family. At the top of the bell tower is a large bell, surrounded by suspended keys. Zella appears from a trap door above the bell and lands on it. Jameson, taking “a calculated risk” (401), gives Branford his box and leaps across the 70-foot drop, landing on the bell.

Jameson and Zella, both swinging on the bell, start looking for the correct key among all the decoys. Jameson confronts Zella about her connection to Rohan, and Zella confronts Jameson about his privilege and status. Zella refers to Ian’s father as “the old man” (403), and Jameson interprets that as a sign that Zella knows more about the Hawthornes and the Johnstone-Jamesons than she lets on. Jameson hears a clinking sound inside the bell, and reaching inside, realizes that there are handholds on the underside of the bell so that a person could climb inside. He does so and finds the key, but just as he reaches for it, Zella leaps to the key; she’s barely hanging on to the bell and the string of the key. Zella tells Jameson that unless he reaches out to save her, relinquishing the key, she’ll fall 70 feet to the ground. Jameson recognizes Zella’s risk, “an insane but calculated risk [...] [that] she’d calculated correctly” and saves Zella (406), releasing his hold on the key.

When Jameson and Zella make it safely back down, Zella gives Katherine the key, promising to repay her debt to Jameson in the future. Branford still holds Jameson’s box, but then Katherine says three words, a code that communicates to Branford that Bowen, his oldest brother and Katherine’s employer, is calling in some kind of debt. Branford hands the box over to Katherine, who opens it to find an empty music box with a single silver ballerina inside. Katherine rips out the ballerina, throws the box to Jameson, and walks back to the house to seemingly claim her prize. Jameson frantically searches the box, certain that he hasn’t lost yet; then, he remembers something Rohan said at the beginning of the game and smiles.

Grayson considers that even though he accomplished his goal—keeping Gigi safe and removing the puzzle box and its evidence—he is alone, and he doesn’t want to be. Grayson tells himself that, “every time he let himself care about someone, he lost them” and packs up to leave Phoenix (411). The mystery girl calls, but he tells her he has no answers for her and hangs up. Eve calls, and before Grayson can hang up, she explains that Vincent Blake is still recovering and may not make it. Eve says she doesn’t want to be alone, but Grayson refuses to comfort her. Grayson decides that repressing his emotions is a mistake and sends his brothers a 911 text.

Katherine brings the ballerina to Rohan, but Rohan tells her she’s not yet won. Jameson explains that Rohan asked them to tell him what was inside the box. Katherine still thinks it’s the ballerina, but she’s wrong. Jameson gives the correct answer, silence, and wins the mark and the Game. As his prize, Jameson takes Vantage for himself as his birthright, as a member of the Johnstone-Jameson family.

Before Branford leaves Vantage, he pulls Jameson aside for a private conversation. He chastises Jameson for his risk-taking, praises him for his honor in saving Zella at the cost of the key, promises to administer the trust for Vantage on Jameson’s behalf, and pleads with him not to reveal the secret about his son. Branford makes it clear that had he known about Jameson, he would have cared for him in Ian’s stead and that Branford considers him family. Branford agrees that Vantage rightfully belongs to Jameson, and Jameson treasures it as the first thing that feels truly his.