Chapter 40 Summary, Analysis, and Key Moments

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Thirty-six hours have passed since Toby's captor went silent. The Hawthorne estate is besieged by paparazzi, and the family has been holed up in the solarium, combing through files on Tobias Hawthorne's many enemies. Avery, the four Hawthorne brothers, Libby, and Eve have all finished their stacks, but nothing matches—no clue points to who might have taken Toby. The silence is oppressive, and each person copes in their own way.

Jameson vanishes into the hidden passages of the house, only reappearing to sleep beside Avery. Grayson pushes himself to exhaustion in the pool, swimming lap after lap. Nash slips past the press, sneaks out to a bar, and returns at two in the morning with a split lip and a trembling puppy tucked into his shirt. Xander barely eats, and Eve refuses to sleep, convinced that memorizing every detail of every file will yield an answer. Avery, unwilling to admit they've hit another wall, keeps returning to the solarium to reread files the others have already gone through.

Her persistence pays off in an unexpected way. She picks up a file on a man named Isaiah Alexander—a former Hawthorne lab employee, a PhD who was fired. The file is empty, missing its single page. Eve dismisses it as a misfiling, but Avery's attention snags on the name. She realizes that Xander's full name is Alexander, and that Isaiah Alexander could be Xander's biological father.

Avery finds Xander in his hidden lab, a cluttered workshop filled with random objects and half-built contraptions. She confronts him gently, asking if he took the missing page. Xander denies it, claiming he didn't even know Isaiah was on the List. He admits he's been compiling his own file on Isaiah for months, ever since he learned the man was fired from a Hawthorne lab around the time Xander was conceived—possibly because of that conception.

Xander's usual cheerfulness cracks. He confesses his fear of contacting his father: what if Isaiah hates him? Avery reassures him that no one who knows him could hate him, but Xander reveals a deeper truth—people have hated him his whole life. He then shares a secret he's carried alone: he was the only one who knew Tobias Hawthorne was dying. Tobias kept it from everyone else for weeks, and he asked Xander to be with him at the end. Tobias's last words to Xander were that by the time this is over, Xander would know what kind of man Tobias was—and what kind of man Xander wants to be.

Key Events

• Thirty-six hours pass with no contact from Toby's captor; the family reviews files on Tobias's enemies without success.

• Each Hawthorne brother copes differently: Jameson retreats into the walls, Grayson swims obsessively, Nash sneaks out to a bar and returns with a split lip and a puppy, and Xander barely eats.

• Avery discovers an empty file on Isaiah Alexander, a former Hawthorne lab employee.

• She connects Isaiah's name to Xander's full name and confronts Xander in his lab.

• Xander denies taking the missing page and reveals he didn't know Isaiah was on the List.

• Xander admits he has been secretly compiling his own file on Isaiah, who was fired around the time Xander was conceived.

• Xander confesses his fear that his father might hate him.

• Xander reveals he was the only one who knew Tobias was dying and shares Tobias's final words to him.

Character Development

This chapter deepens Xander's character significantly. Until now, he's been the comic relief, the inventor who deflects with humor and