The Brothers Hawthorne (The Inheritance Games Book 4)

Drunk Gigi was remarkably determined. Grayson ended up letting her into the black-card suite. Savannah followed, and Xander and Nash made themselves at home.

Grayson opened the briefcase containing the photographs. He flipped one over without allowing himself to even register the age he’d been when it was taken. “Date written on the back,” he said, his voice controlled. “Nothing else.”

He checked a second photo and a third—the same. Gigi began to spread the photos out.

“What if Dad’s trying to tell us something?” she said.

“What if he left,” Savannah countered, “because he doesn’t care?”

“Don’t say that,” Gigi implored. “Do you really think that I’ve been looking for answers, looking for Dad, for me?”

Savannah’s expression was very hard to read. “Geeg.”

“You,” Gigi replied, “were everything he wanted in a daughter.”

Savannah looked down. “And it still wasn’t enough.”

Grayson looked away from the two of them.

“On the way here, I told myself that if there was even a small chance Dad was innocent, I was going to prove it,” Savannah said. She swallowed. “But maybe I just want to understand. Why he left us. Why nothing was ever enough for him.”

Gigi enveloped Savannah in a hug, then her blue eyes narrowed. “Prove Dad innocent of what?”

Grayson waited for Savannah to lie to her. She was the one who’d insisted that Gigi, like their mother, needed to be protected.

“Embezzling from Grammy. Emptying Mom’s trust.”

Gigi took in that info. “I am starting to feel distressingly sober. I think I need another mimosa.” S~ᴇaʀᴄh the FɪndNøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“You got drunk on mimosas?” Nash asked mildly.

Gigi held up a single finger.

Xander interpreted. “On one mimosa?”

“And four cups of coffee,” Gigi admitted.

Savannah’s eyes narrowed. “Oh dear lord.”

Gigi looked at her twin. “I forgive you,” she said, and the fact that the words came out of nowhere seemed to make them hit Savannah harder. “You were just trying to protect me.” Gigi turned toward Grayson. “And I forgive you, Lord of Lies, because you need me in your life.” She glanced at Xander and Nash. “He takes himself way too seriously.”

“I do not,” Grayson grumbled.

Gigi moved like lightning and tickled his side. “Now, about those photographs…”

Grayson swatted her hand away and jumped back when she went in to tickle him again.

“We don’t need the photographs.” Savannah took pity on Grayson and distracted her twin. “We already know where we’re going next.”