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"The two of you were walking around like ghosts. You were a robot, Gray." Xander was speaking quickly now – almost too quickly for the rest of us to follow. "Jamie was a ticking time bomb. You hated each other."
"We hated ourselves more," Grayson said, his voice like sandpaper.

This quotation comes from Chapter 86 and marks the resolution of the game that Tobias Hawthorne left behind. Having finally succeeded in getting Avery and all of his brothers to unlock the box of letters hidden in the secret passageway, Xander reveals that their grandfather instructed him to ensure that everyone played in order to bring them back together. The idea of creating a challenge to pull the boys out of their grief emphasizes the thematic significance of family bonds throughout the novel. While the Hawthorne family as a whole has its fair share of complex relationships, Tobias Hawthorne’s actions invite his grandsons to lean on each other for support despite their differences. Both Grayson and Jameson experience grief in their own way, but by coming together and acknowledging their struggles, they begin to find a way to move forward. Including all four brothers and Avery in the game also forces them to come to terms with the fact that their relationships with each other must evolve as they grow individually, especially in the wake of Tobias Hawthorne’s death.

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