The Inheritance Games Book Summary; Part 3

The first book in The Inheritance Games series, acclaimed by The New York Times Bestseller young adult fantasy trilogy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. The Inheritance Games is a book full of puzzles, plot twists, emotion, and tension with an interesting take on games. The Inheritance Games has plot twists from the very beginning and will keep you guessing throughout the book.

In the morning, Alisa says she will shut down the problem with Zara and Constantine (Zara’s husband). Alisa explains they have a lot to lose if they challenge the will. Avery asks how long ago Tobias wrote his prior will. Alisa said it was twenty years ago in august and the entire estate was to go to charity. She said Tobias also changed his name but before that, he didn’t have a middle name. Avery asked what happened twenty years ago for him to change his will. Alisa said Tobias and his wife lost their son Toby. Toby had taken his friends to a vacation home and it caught fire. He and three of his friends died. Toby’s remains were never found. Zara and Skye had the option to say their father was under duress when the will was written. But Tobias signed a document reaffirming his will yearly. He never changed it until Avery last year. Avery thought maybe Tobias knew her mom. Alisa changed the subject and said there was an issue with Libby. It is best that Libby stays on the estate. Alisa says Libby attracts attention from the press. Avery says Libby never talked to the press but her ex-boyfriend and her mother have. Alisa says they can do a one-time payment to the mother and give nothing to Drake. Alisa tells Avery she has an appointment this afternoon to work on her wardrobe and appearance. She says looking at the part is always step one. Avery took the binder from Alisa that held all the key information. Avery headed out the door and towards the bowling alley. 

Avery tapped the screen and the monitor flashed “Welcome to Hawthorne House, Avery Kylie Grambs”. She wondered how her name was already programmed into the unit. Avery picked up the ball and remembered how she and her mom always played bowling back home. Five games later, Avery was covered in sweat and her arms were aching.  She left the bowling alley and went to find the gym. There was a bunch of exercise equipment, a basketball court, and a door along the back wall. She opened the door and found a giant rock wall on the other side and Jameson hanging from it with no harness. Jameson asked if she has ever climbed one but she said it was her first time and she was a quick learner. She got about six feet up before things became difficult. She tried to reach to grab a handhold but just missed. Jameson reached down and grabbed her hand. He said she can drop or he can try to swing her up. Avery dropped and watched Jameson climb back down the wall. Avery turned around and saw Grayson standing in the doorway, she turned away from him and told Jameson that she’ll see him in the library.

Avery entered the library at 9:15 and Jameson entered at 9:30. They went to get to work but a minute later, Grayson showed up and asked what they were doing. Grayson said he just wants to spend time with his brother and Avery told Jameson that he doesn’t trust her with him. Jameson made a smarta*s comment. Grayson asked again what they were doing. Jameson said, “Heiress and I are following a hunch, doubtlessly wasting sinful amounts of time on what I’m sure you would consider to be nonsensical flapdoodle”. Grayson said he does not talk like that and asked what hunch. Avery tells him about the letter and tries to understand what Tobias was thinking. Jameson tells Grayson that he can leave anytime but Grayson says no and repeats half of Jameson’s letter. Jameson says Grayson got left the same message. Avery tells them about the change in the will but Grayson already knew. Grayson asked what the hunch was but Jameson said he’ll let Avery decide if he can stay or not. Avery eventually said he could.

As Grayson worked behind her and Jameson above her, she wondered if they have ever gotten along. Grayson said there was nothing here and Jameson replied saying that he doesn’t have to be there. Grayson said if Avery is here then he is also. Jameson said, “Avery doesn’t bite. Frankly, now that the issue of relatedness has been settled in the negative, I’d be game if she did”. Avery choked on her own spit and realized he was baiting Grayson and using her to do it. Grayson told Jameson to shut up and to keep looking. Avery and Grayson worked closer together. When they were close enough, Grayson said Jameson is grieving and he needs the rush of the game. Jameson needs this to mean something. Avery didn’t know what this was but she said that Grayson doesn’t think it does. Grayson said, “I don’t think that you have to be the villain of this story to be a threat to this family”. Avery said that he keeps talking about his family but she is a threat to him. She inherited his fortune, his house, and his grandfather chose her. The closer Grayson came, the more alert her body became. From above, Jameson called out to Avery. He said he found something. She rushed past Grayson and up the stairs. Jameson held the cover in one hand and the book in the other. The cover said “Sail Away”, and the book said “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus”. Avery said the name, Faust, and Jameson said the devil you know or the devil you don’t. Avery opened the book and found a translucent red square. Avery asked what it was and Grayson answered from downstairs, it was filter paper. She looked through the book and it was all in black ink but words were circled. She read off the circled words and Jameson wrote on the back of his hand. They deciphered the words into a phrase, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Avery asked what the chances were that there was a will written in red ink.

Avery asked Alisa if there was a red will that Tobias had written. She said she will schedule an appointment after Avery went to the stylist. After Avery was done with the stylists, Zara asked if she could talk to her for a moment. Once they were alone, Zara apologized about the press conference but is not sorry she did it. She said Avery is now in charge of the family’s foundation. It is one of the largest private charitable foundations in the country and it gave away 100 million dollars a year. The foundation gives money to children and families, health initiatives, scientific advancement, community building, and the arts. Zara says she has spent most of her life running the foundation. She asked if she can run the foundation. Avery agreed but she wants to be involved. Zara said she can teach her Monday after school. Oren opened the door because he didn’t want Avery to be in a room alone with Zara.

Alisa met Avery in the lobby of Ortega, Mc Namara, and Jones to see the red will. They went to the third floor and Alisa said Tobias instructed her to leave the red will there if Avery or the boys were to come looking. Alisa then left Avery to look at the will. She placed the red film over the writing to see if anything came up. Underneath the red ink, there will be another color that the film will show. Avery worked through the will, and when she got to the boys’ names, their middle names showed up under the film. Westbrook, Davenport, Winchester, and Blackwood. 

Avery was back at Hawthorne House when Nash stopped her. Nash asked where she was running to but before Avery could answer, Alisa answered for her. Nash and Alisa exchanged a quick conversation and Alisa left angry. After Alisa left, Nash asked where Avery was going. She said she is going to meet Jameson in the solarium. Nash began to show her where to go and asked what she did for her birthday. He said Tobias would call them into his study and say three words, invest, cultivate, and create. Tobias would give the boys ten thousand dollars to invest, then they would pick a talent or interest to cultivate for the year. He would lay out a challenge every year, something they would suppose to create by their next birthday. Nash asks if Jameson told her about the weekly riddles, and she nodded. He says Tobias would lay out a series of objects. A fishing hook, a price tag, a glass ballerina, and a knife. By the time the puzzle was solved, they had used all four objects. Nash told her the solarium is the last door on the right. Before she left, Nash said, “You might think you’re playing the game, darlin’, but that’s not how Jamie sees it. We aren’t normal. This place isn’t normal, and you’re not a player, kid. You’re the glass ballerina–or the knife”.

The solarium was an enormous room with a domed glass ceiling and glass walls. Jameson was standing in the middle of the room shirtless and drunk. Jameson what Avery thought of the names. She said they were all last names, possibly the boy’s fathers. He said Skye doesn’t talk about their fathers, they are hers and hers alone. Jameson had a scar running down the length of his torso, before Avery could think about it too much, Jameson said they are going to see his mother.

He took Avery through the coat closet in the foyer. He pushed past the coats and pulled something. Jameson turned around and told Avery to step where he does. He used his phone as a flashlight and after five minutes they got to a peephole. Jameson said the coast is clear. “Do you trust me?’ I was standing in a phone-lit passageway, close enough to feel his body’s heat on mine. ‘Absolutely not.’ 

‘Good.’ He reached out, grabbed my hand, and pulled me close. ‘Hold on.’’

Her arms curved around him and the wall started to rotate. She told him he doesn’t need her for whatever he was doing. But he said he does need her. She said she is the knife which took Jameson by surprise. He said she had been talking to Nash, he said she is the puzzle and she can tap out and not find anything out. She said let’s go get some answers. They opened the door and Jameson asked his mother if she was decent. She said she was but she was in the bathtub covered in bubbles. Jameson asked about his middle name. Skye changed the topic but Jameson changed it back. She said she’ll answer his question if she can talk to Avery alone.

When Skye and Avery are alone, Skye tells Avery that she forgives her. Skye says Avery will continue to give her financial support. Avery asks why she would give her anything. Skye didn’t answer so Avery said if she isn’t going to answer Jameson’s question she is leaving. Halfway toward the door, Skye says because she is their mother and she will answer Jameson’s question as soon as Avery answers hers. Skye asks what Jameson’s intentions are toward Jameson. Avery says excuse me. Skye tells her she walked in with Jameson, and she has concerns because he is special and brilliant, the way Toby was. Avery asks what happened to him. Skye says her father ruined him. He was spoiled and he was always supposed to be the heir, but he was gone. Then Skye had the boys. Jameson was Tobias’s favorite where it should have been Grayson. Grayson is everything Toby wasn’t, but Jameson is just like him. Jameson used to get lost in secret passages when he was little. Skye would hold him tight but all he wanted to do it to get lost again. Skye tells Avery that is all she is, a way for Jameson to get lost and she was too, meaning Emily. She says Avery is no Emily. Skye took a drink of champagne and tells Avery that Tobias chose the boys’ middle names.

Avery told Jameson about the middle names. Jameson walks back and forth trying to make sense of the middle names. He says the old man was playing the long game and he might know who their fathers are. There were no secrets Tobias didn’t know. Avery says she can ask Alisa to hire a private investigator, but Jameson tells her to give six hours to sober and he will show her what he does when he hits a wall in a puzzle. 

Seven hours later, Jameson snuck Avery out through the secret passageway in the fireplace. Jameson took her to a garage in the house. He started listing cars that Avery now knows and says how they do on the race track. Jameson solves a Rubix’s cube to get the car keys. She tells him no way but Jameson says, “There’s nothing like speed for getting out of your own head–and out of your own way.” Avery asks if there is even room for two people in the car Jameson chose. He says he thought she never would ask.

Jameson drove the car onto a pad that would raise to an exit. He didn’t speed or take his eyes off the road but Avery was thinking that this was a bad idea. But Avery didn’t want to be anywhere else, only Jameson and her.