The chap­ter opens with Avery, Max, and Lib­by in a room filled with shelves of games, reflect­ing the Hawthorne fam­i­ly’s com­pet­i­tive nature. Avery tries to focus on find­ing chess sets, divert­ing atten­tion to Max’s roman­tic involve­ment with Xan­der to avoid her own com­pli­cat­ed feel­ings about Grayson. Max shares her evolv­ing per­spec­tive on rela­tion­ships, shift­ing from pre­fer­ring dra­mat­ic tropes to appre­ci­at­ing the unex­pect­ed con­nec­tion with Xan­der. The light­heart­ed ban­ter con­trasts with Avery’s inter­nal ten­sion, hint­ing at unre­solved emo­tions and rival­ries.

As they search, Avery dis­cov­ers six chess sets but finds no hid­den clues despite thor­ough inspec­tion, deep­en­ing her frus­tra­tion. The arrival of Grayson shifts the dynam­ic, as Max departs with a humor­ous warn­ing about his “cheek­bones.” Grayson’s pres­ence stirs Avery’s mem­o­ries of his close­ness with Eve, adding to her emo­tion­al tur­moil. The chess sets remain a mys­tery, sym­bol­iz­ing the larg­er game Avery feels trapped in, while her reluc­tance to con­fide in Grayson under­scores their strained rela­tion­ship.

Grayson broach­es the top­ic of Eve’s strug­gles, sug­gest­ing she vis­it Toby’s sealed wing in Hawthorne House—a place laden with secrets. Avery hes­i­tates, feel­ing pro­tec­tive of Toby’s mem­o­ry and wary of Eve’s intru­sion. Grayson’s empa­thet­ic approach, acknowl­edg­ing Avery’s feel­ings, reveals his growth and under­stand­ing of her per­spec­tive. Their inter­ac­tion is charged with unspo­ken his­to­ry, as Avery grap­ples with trust and the weight of shared mem­o­ries.

The chap­ter clos­es with Avery propos­ing a deal to Grayson, mir­ror­ing their estab­lished dynamics—Jameson’s wagers ver­sus Grayson’s deals. This moment hints at Avery’s attempt to regain con­trol amid emo­tion­al chaos. The unre­solved ten­sion between them, cou­pled with the ongo­ing mys­tery of the chess sets, sets the stage for future con­fronta­tions and rev­e­la­tions, leav­ing the read­er antic­i­pat­ing the next move in their intri­cate game.