Page 15 of The Inheritance Games

“And if I refuse?” I asked. “Or if the Hawthorne family has me killed?”

“No one is going to have you killed,” Alisa said calmly.

“I know you grew up around these people and everything,” Libby told Alisa, trying to be diplomatic, “but they are totally, one hundred percent going to go all Lizzie Borden on my sister.”

“Really would prefer not to be ax-murdered,” I emphasized.

“Risk assessment: low,” Oren rumbled. “At least insofar as axes are concerned.”

It took me a second to figure out that he was joking. “This is serious!”

“Believe me,” he returned, “I know. But I also know the Hawthorne family. The boys would never harm a woman, and the women will come for you in the courtroom, no axes involved.”

“Besides,” Alisa added, “in the state of Texas, if an heir dies while a will is in probate, the inheritance doesn’t revert to the original estate—it becomes part of theheir’s estate.”

I have an estate?I thought dully. “And if I refuse to move in with them?” I asked again, a giant ball in my throat.

“She’s not going to refuse.” Libby shot laser eyes in my direction.

“If you fail to move into Hawthorne House in three days’ time,” Alisa told me, “your portion of the estate will be dispersed to charity.”

“Not to Tobias Hawthorne’s family?” I asked.

“No.” Alisa’s neutral mask slipped slightly. She’d known the Hawthornes for years. She might work for me now, but she couldn’t be happy about that.

Could she?

“Your father wrote the will, right?” I said, trying to wrap my head around the insane situation I was in.

“In consultation with the other partners at the firm,” Alisa confirmed.

“Did he tell you…” I tried to find a better way to phrase what I wanted to ask, then gave up. “Did he tell youwhy?”

Why had Tobias Hawthorne disinherited his family? Why leave everything tome?

“I don’t think my father knows why,” Alisa said. She peered at me, the neutral mask slipping once more. “Do you?”

CHAPTER 12

Mother-faxing elf,” Max breathed.“Goat-dram, mother-faxing elf.”She lowered her voice to a whisper and let out an actual expletive. It was past midnight for me, and two hours earlier for her. I half expected Mrs. Liu to sweep in and snatch the phone away, but nothing happened.

“How?” Max demanded. “Why?”

I looked down at the letter in my lap. Tobias Hawthorne had left me an explanation, but in the hours since the will was read, I hadn’t been able to bring myself to open the envelope. I was alone, sitting in the dark on the balcony of the penthouse suite of ahotel that I owned, wearing a plush, floor-length robe that probably cost more than my car—and I was frozen.

“Maybe,” Max said thoughtfully, “you were switched at birth.” Max watched a lot of television and had what could probably have been classified as a book addiction. “Maybe your mother saved his life, years ago. Maybe he owes his entire fortune to your great-great-grandfather.Maybe you were selected via an advanced computer algorithm that is poised to develop artificial intelligence any day!”

“Maxine.” I snorted. Somehow, that was enough to allow me to say the exact words I’d been trying not to think. “Maybe my father isn’t really my father.”

That was the most rational explanation, wasn’t it? Maybe Tobias Hawthornehadn’tdisinherited his family for a stranger. Maybe Iwasfamily.

I have a secret.…I pictured my mom in my mind. How many times had I heard her say those exact words?

“You okay?” Max asked on the other end of the line.

I looked down at the envelope, at my name in calligraphy on the front. I swallowed. “Tobias Hawthorne left me a letter.”

“And you haven’t opened it yet?” Max said. “Avery, for fox sakes—”