Page 48 of The Hawthorne Legacy
“What is it?” I said as she withdrew an object.
“A glass bottle?” Max leaned into Thea to get a better look. “With a message inside. A message in a motherfaxing bottle! Now we’re cooking.”
“Motherfaxing?” Thea arched a brow at Max, then stood and sauntered past me, back into Zara’s room. She tipped the bottle upside down on a nearby desk, and with some jiggling, a small piece of paper fell out. As Thea attempted to unroll it, I noted that it was yellowed with age.
“I’m guessing that’s pretty old,” Max said.
I thought about Tobias Hawthorne’s will. “Like, twenty years?” But when Thea finished unraveling the paper, the writing I saw on the missive wasn’t Tobias Hawthorne’s. It was cursive, with the occasional embellishment, neat enough that it could have passed for a font.
Feminine.
“I don’t think this is what we came here to find,” I said. Had I really thought it would be that easy? Still, I read the message. We all did.
You knew, and you did it anyway. I will never forgive you for this.
“Did what?” Thea queried. “Knew what?”
I stated the obvious out loud. “These rooms were Zara’s and Skye’s.”
“In my experience, Zara isn’t what I’d call the forgiving type.” Thea looked toward Rebecca. “Bex? Any thoughts? You know the Hawthorne family as well as anyone.”
Rebecca didn’t reply immediately. I thought about the picture I’d seen of Zara, Skye, and Toby smiling. Had the three of them been close once?
The tree is poison, don’t you see? Toby had written. It poisoned S and Z and me.
“Well?” I asked Rebecca. “Did you ever overhear any arguments between Zara and Skye?”
“I overheard a lot of things growing up.” Rebecca gave a little shrug. “People paid attention to Emily, not me.”
Thea put a hand on Rebecca’s shoulder. For a moment, Rebecca leaned into Thea’s touch.
“I don’t know who did what to whom,” Rebecca said, looking down at that hand. “But I do know…” She took a step back from Thea. “Some things are unforgivable.”
Why did I get the feeling that she wasn’t still talking about Zara and Skye?
“People aren’t perfect,” Thea told Rebecca. “No matter how hard they try. No matter how much they hate showing weakness. People make mistakes.”
Rebecca’s lips parted, but she didn’t say anything.
Max raised her eyebrows, then turned to me. “So,” she said loudly. “Mistakes.”
I turned back to look out the window again and focus on the task at hand. What “mistake” poisoned the relationship between Zara and Skye?
CHAPTER 41
I was staring out the largest ground-floor window when a new SUV pulled up outside. Jameson stepped out first, then Grayson. Both of them were wearing sunglasses. I wondered if they were hungover.
I wondered if either one of them had slept the night before, after that conversation with Grayson’s father.
It took me fifteen minutes to get one of them alone. Jameson and I ended up on a balcony. My breath visible in the air, I caught him up on what I’d found. He listened, quiet and still.
Neither one of those was an adjective I associated with Jameson Hawthorne.
When I finished, Jameson turned his back on the mountain view and leaned against the snow-covered railing. He was still dressed for Arizona. His elbows were bare, but he acted like he couldn’t even feel the cold. “I have something to tell you, too, Heiress.”
“I know.”
“Sheffield Grayson believes that Toby set the fire on Hawthorne Island.” Jameson’s eyes were still hidden behind sunglasses. It made it difficult to tell what, if anything, he was feeling.
