Holy shit! Jameson Hawthorne and his beautiful pink lips can do shit that nobody I've ever met can. I make my way to the kitchen, hoping to seek advice from Libby but when I arrive she is not alone. 

"Libby?" Avery says and I make my way inside as well sitting cross legged atop the counter. Cupcakes are everywhere and I mean everywhere. "Do you think I should go for red velvet or salted caramel next?" She holds an icing bag with both hands. Her blue hair was a mess and was slowly escaping her ponytail if you could even call it that. "Red Velvet" I reply, Avery's head snap towards me and she makes a face to say 'not helping'. 

"She's been at it for hours," Nash says. I jump when he speaks having not noticed his figure leaning on the refrigerator with both thumbs inside the belt loops of his jeans. "Her phone's been going off for just as long." 

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here." Libby glances up from her cupcakes and side eyes Nash. "Yes, ma'am." Nash smiles. "Drake is gone," Avery changes the subject "I took care of it."

"I'm supposed to take care of you." Libby replies, "Stop looking at me like that, Avery. I'm not going to break."

"'Course not, darlin'," Nash says. "You..." Libby sneers annoyance gleaming in her eyes "You shut up." I think that's the meanest I've seen Libby say, not that it's even close to mean on my levels. "Shutting up now." Nash picks up a cupcake and takes a large chuck out of it. "For what it's worth, I vote for red velvet next."

Libby smiles a little. "Salted caramel it is." She decides with a smug face, "Really?" I grunt at Nash who chose this fate for me.

It's almost midnight when I hear the loud noise. My eyes are sealed shut but the sound make them twitch a little, regardless of that I still don't awaken. It comes again. And again. It's a thump like someone hitting wood but I determine it isn't coming from the door so I let myself continue sleeping. I hear it a few more times before blissful silence comes. Only a minute later I feel a presence near me, I hear whispers but can't decipher it into words. 

I only open my eyes when I feel water on my face, it takes me a second to realise what's happening, "Christ even that didn't wake her, you sure she isn't dead?' Jameson Winchester Hawthorne asks poking my shoulder. I open my eyes and suddenly feel very wet. 

"Avery!" I scream and jump to my feet, I run towards her in the bright pink light of my childhood nightlight. I chase her for another second before I feel two arms around my waist holding on to me as I try to run but end up floating and kicking my legs around.

"Let go Hawthorne!" I yell, he puts his hand over my mouth and I smile against it already knowing exactly what I'm going to do to get free. I stick my tounge out and lick his hand, he quickly releases me and inspects his hand with disgust "did you just lick me?" He asks with a disgusted expression. 

"Yes I did" I clarify proudly before running at Avery again with every intention of ripping every single hair out of her head individually. "We got the next clue" Jameson says, I pause. "You're lucky" I point at Avery. I have them explain everything they know and what the plan is. 

"Why are we still waiting then? Let's go" I say. I grab my jacket and shoes, leaving through the the passage the two had entered through still only dressed in the thin material of my pyjama shorts and vest.

We make our way outside to the woods "The Black Wood is enormous. Finding anything there will be impossible if we don't know what we're looking for." Jameson says as we walk outside. 

"The brook is easier. It runs most of the length of the property, but if I know my grandfather, we're not looking for something in the water. We're looking for something on—or under—the bridge."

"What bridge?" I ask. "The bridge," Jameson replies, "where my grandfather proposed to my grandmother. It's near Wayback Cottage. Back in the day, that was all my grandfather owned. As his empire grew, he bought up the surrounding land. He built the House but always kept up the cottage."

"The Laughlins live there now," Avery says. God knows how she knew that. "Emily's grandparents." She then adds. 

"Who's Emily?" I ask, Jameson frowns the slightest bit. "Xander said you'd had a little chat with Rebecca," he says after a long silence.

"No one at school talks to her," Avery murmurs. "Correction," Jameson replies. "Rebecca doesn't talk to anyone at school. She hasn't for months." He says then goes silent for a moment, "Rebecca was always the shy one. The responsible one. The one their parents expected to make good decisions."

"Not Emily." Avery finishes. "Emily..." Jameson sounds different when he says her name. Not good different. "Emily just wanted to have fun. She had a heart condition, congenital. Her parents were ridiculously overprotective. They never let her do anything as a kid. She got a transplant when she was thirteen, and after that, she just wanted to live."

I still don't know who this girl is but based of his tone I'm sensing he doesn't want to talk about her. "Did you take her driving?" Avery asks next. "Who is she" I ask again, in a really bitter tone I'm not used to. A weird feeling twists in my stomach, the same feeling I got when Avery and Jameson went for a joy ride in the race cars. 

Jealousy. 

"There is nothing that Emily and I didn't do." Jameson ignores me and speaks like the words are being forced from him. "We were the same," he tells me, and then he corrects himself. "I thought that we were the same."

Were.

"Who is she?" I ask, "Remember the photo you found in my room?" He asks. I think back to the beautiful girl in the photo frame. "Briefly" i lie, i remember it perfectly. "Emily" he introduces. "You're girlfriend" i recall. Someone with a girlfriend doesn't kiss another girl. 

"Wait, she's Emily? Red hair? Emily is your girlfriend" i ask baffled. "She was" he says. "You broke up?" I ask. He takes a deep breath, "Something like that" he says. 

"What happened to her?" Avery asks him, turning back to their conversation. "Did she live at the cottage?" He chooses to answer the first question "Grayson happened to her." Jameson says.

"What do you mean, Grayson happened to her?" Avery asks Jameson eagerly but trying to contain in based on the topic.

"Let's play a game," Jameson says suddenly, "I'll give you one truth about my life and two lies, and it's up to you two, to decide which is which."

"Isn't it supposed to be two truths and one lie?" I ask obviously. "What fun is it," Jameson replies, "playing by other people's rules?" We approach a hill and continue walking at a slightly quicker pace.

"Fact the first," he begins. "I knew what was in my grandfather's will long before you showed up here. Fact the second: I'm the one who sent Grayson to fetch you."

We reached the top of the hill, I see a building in the distance. A cottage—and between us and it, is a bridge.

"Fact the third," Jameson says, he stops and turns into a statue for a split second. His voice comes out as a painful, etching tone "I watched Emily Laughlin die." Those words make my jaw loosen and fall open slightly. My heart aches for him. He never mentioned Emily is dead. And until now, he never mentioned he watched her die.

Neither Avery or I say anything both deciding we know the answer. After all why would he lie about that.

I watched Emily Laughlin die.

"Shall we turn our attention to the bridge, Heiress? ET?" He says calmly, a new nickname, great. It takes me a moment to decipher his new nickname, Eiffel Tower or ET. Either that or he thinks I look like a wrinkly alien with a glowing finger..

"Did your grandfather build this himself?" Avery asks and i finally realise we are already on the bridge. 

"I don't know if he built it." Jameson grins, his teeth glinting in the moonlight. "But if we're right about this, he almost certainly built something into it."

"Any idea what we're looking for?" Avery asks. "I'll know it when I see it." He assures.

"I'll know it when I see it," Jameson repeats, more for himself this time. 

We start searching around Avery with her flashlight from her phone and me squinting my eyes trying to see having forgotten a flashlight.

"Or maybe I will." Avery says.

"Sometimes, Heiress," he says, "you just need a different point of view."

All of a sudden Jameson Hawthorne is jumping atop the railing of the bridge and looking down at us. Avery turns his flashlight towards him revealing his mischievous grin.

"We need to look below," Jameson says. He climbs to the far side of the railing, balancing on the bridge's edge. "Grab my legs," he tells Avery, but before either of us could figure out what to do or what he is planning to do, he changes his mind. "No. I'm too big. You'll drop me." He was back over the railing in a flash. Standing next to me "I'll have to hold you." He turns his head to me when he says this and Avery does too.

"No" i say, "please?" Jameson begs in an attractively low tone. "Fine! But there is absolutely no way, that she will be getting anywhere near me." I say side eying Avery. "What? Why?" She asks offendedly.

 "You know why! The incident with the bread and the ducks and the bridge." I say. "You and I both know that was not my fault" she bickers. "I almost drowned!" I cross my arms. 

"You didn't even come close to drowning, it was like a foot of water!" She argues. "I have trauma!" i sass.

She rolls her eyes and takes a large step back with a sigh. "Let's do this Hawthorne" i smirk. Avery passes me her phone so i can use the torch.

"How are we gonna do this?" I ask, we work out exactly how to initiate the plan and get started. I jump hesitantly onto the railing he was once on. 

I wobble slightly but regain my balance. I decide to stray away from the plan and attempt a method i think will work better. I flip into a handstand on the thin railing and Avery cringes.

Jameson Winchester Hawthorne wastes no time, he immediately wraps his arms around my waist, dangerously low. Butterflies eat me on the inside as he lowers me down and I am now dangling over the edge of a bridge for no apparent reason other than to find something that I don't know what is.

"Don't drop the phone," Jameson tells me. "And I won't drop you." 

His hands are braced against my hips. I am facedown, my legs between the balusters, my torso hanging off the bridge's edge. If he lets go, I'm in trouble.

"Jamie?" I ask shakily starting to feel unsure as I look down at the relatively high drop that would definitely break my brain. 

"Don't freak out on me now Ari" he says soothingly. A new nickname that I like even more. Something in his voice makes me braver. 

I flash my light at the underside of the bridge. Jameson doesn't let go.

"Do you see anything?" He asks softly.

"Shadows," I reply honestly."Some algae." I continue sarcastically. The blood was far passed rushing to my head. "The boards on the bottom aren't the same boards we can see up top," I note. 

"There's at least two layers of wood." I take time to count the boards. Twenty-one. I take another few seconds to examine the way the boards met up with the shore, and then I call back, "There's nothing here, Jamie. Pull me up."

He pulls me up and when I'm back on the bridge he wraps an arm around me. "You ok?" He asks softly, i nod the dizziness from my head at the sudden change of direction. 

"You scared me down there, I really thought you were going to freak out. What happened?" He asks cautiously. "I don't know.. I'm fine now I'm not upside down anymore." I nod. 

"God, you two are like an old married couple just hurry up and get married already." Avery smirks, I blush a brighter hue than i ever thought to be humanly possible whilst Jameson smirks. "All in good time" he says, only making me blush more.

There were twenty-one boards beneath the bridge and based on the count Avery just completed, twenty-one on the surface. Everything adds up. Jameson paces, Avery always thinks better standing still so she does that but I think best with my eyes closed which is really bizarre but I close my eyes tight and think. 

"It's getting late," Avery says.

"It was always late," Jameson says back. "If you were going to turn into a pumpkin, it would have happened by now, Cinderella."

"We have school tomorrow," Avery reminds him. I open my eyes at that and I groan.

"Maybe we do.. Maybe we don't. You can play by the rules—or you can make them. I know which I prefer, Heiress." Jameson says. 

The bridge creaks annoyingly as I lay down, secretly trying to get some rest in. Jameson keeps pacing. And the bridge creaks again.

"Holy shit, thats it!" I beam immediately sitting up. Both sets of eyes turn to me. 

"Wait... Stop." I order, shockingly Jameson does as I command. "Back up. Slowly." I wait, and I listen and that's when I heard the creak again.

"Either I'm so incredibly sleep deprived that I'm actually turning insane, or.." 

"It's the same board." Jameson finishes. "Every time." He squats down to get a better look at it. I roll over, too. The board doesn't look particularly different from any of the others. Avery runs her fingers over it, Jameson does the same thing.

I watch painfully as he intertwines both of their fingers making my stomach ache with jealousy but I still cant tell why because I don't like this guy.

The board creaks. He starts rotating their hands side to side.

"It moves." My eyes dart up towards him. "Just a little."

"A little isn't enough." He pulls his fingers slowly back from my sisters. "We're looking for a latch—something keeping the board from rotating all the way around."

Eventually, we find it, small knots in the wood where the board met up with the balusters. Jameson takes the one on the left. Avery takes the one on the right. 

There is a popping sound, together they rotate it until it flips.

I shine Avery's flashlight on the wood. Jameson does the same with his. Carved into the surface of the wood is a symbol.

"Infinity," Jameson says, tracing his thumb over the carving.

"Or eight." Avery says.

"Or two touching circles" I say. They both glance at me, that really was a terrible joke, i think I've lost my touch.