Grayson Hawthorne

> Bribe. Threaten. Buy out. You couldn’t be more Hawthorne, darling, if you tried. That's why we call him the heir apparent.
>
> Skye Hawthorne to Grayson Hawthorne and Avery Grambs, *The Inheritance Games*

## General Information

### Also known as

Gray (by family and friends) The Heir Apparent (formerly)

Graybear (by those closest to him)

### Age

19 (in “The Inheritance Games” & “The Hawthorne Legacy”)20 (in “The Final Gambit” & “The Brothers Hawthorne”)

## Relationships

### Parents

Skye Hawthorne (mother)Sheffield Grayson † (father)

### Siblings

Nash Hawthorne (half-brother)Jameson Hawthorne (half-brother)

Alexander Hawtorne (half-brother)

Savannah Grayson (paternal half-sister)

Juliet 'Gigi' Grayson (paternal half-sister)

### Family

Tobias Hawthorne † (grandfather)Alice O'Day Hawthorne † (grandmother)

Pearl O'Day (great-grandmother)

Zara Hawthorne-Calligaris (aunt)

Tobias Hawthorne II (adoptive uncle)

Constantine Calligaris (uncle; through marriage)

Evelyn Shane (maternal adoptive cousin)

Emily Laughlin (maternal adoptive aunt)

Rebecca Laughlin (maternal adoptive aunt)

Colin Wright (paternal cousin)

### Affiliation(s)

The Hawthorne FamilyThe Hawthorne Foundation

Harvard University (attends)

Heights Country Day School (formerly)

## Series Information

### Appearances

The Inheritance GamesThe Hawthorne Legacy

The Final Gambit

The Brothers Hawthorne

**Grayson Davenport Hawthorne** is the second-eldest grandson of billionaire Tobias Hawthorne, the ninth richest person in the world. He is the son of Skye Hawthorne and his half-brothers are Nash Westbrook Hawthorne, Jameson Winchester Hawthorne, and Alexander Blackwood Hawthorne.

## Biography

### Early Life

Zara Hawthorne-Calligaris.

Grayson was seemingly raised to be the Hawthorne heir, but in actuality was left $250,000 like the rest of his brothers. He graduated from Heights Country Day School last year. Grayson has deferred college for a year to learn the inner workings of the Hawthorne Foundation. Tobias assigned him to make a study of modes of charitable giving, with an eye to improving the foundation's.

### *The Inheritance Games*

Grayson encounters Avery for the first time in the office of her school‘s headmaster where he explains to her that is needed for the reading of Tobias Hawthorne's will. After it is announced during the reading of the will that Avery is to inherit almost all of his wealth and assets, Gray becomes suspicious of her. He is determined to protect his family at all costs, as he has always done. Throughout his life, his grandfather instilled in him that one day everything would depend on him – that he would be the one to carry on the legacy and take care of the family.

However, as he realizes who Avery truly is, his suspicion transforms into a protective instinct. Gradually, he develops feelings for her.

After he, Jameson, and Avery discover the clues are Avery's birthday, October 18, and this is the same day that Emily died, Grayson tells Avery that maybe part of his grandfather's puzzle was to have Avery be his penance. Avery immediately rejects this. He then tells her the story of him, Jameson and Emily.

Grayson arrives in the underground tunnel in time to overhear Rebecca admit to Avery that she saw Skye and Drake in the tunnels the night of the shooting. He sends Rebecca away. Gray then tells Avery that Xander had told him that Avery needed him, so he came. He asks Avery to let him handle Skye. He promises her that "no more harm will come to her or hers." He tells Avery that he won't let anyone hurt her again.

The next day, Grayson has Skye removed from Hawthorne House. He tells Avery that he will always protect her, and that she deserves to feel safe in her own home. He will help her with the foundation, teaching her what she needs to know. But then he tells her that their relationship must remain platonic because he has seen how Jameson looks at her and he won't let another girl come between him and his brother.

### *The Hawthorne Legacy*

He finds out that his father is Sheffield Grayson, and that Sheffield blames Tobias for Collins death.

### *The Final Gambit*

Grayson has left to begin attending Harvard University. He hasn't responded to Avery since he left. He arrives back at Hawthorne House when it’s Avery’s birthday, or as Jameson calls it, an “introvert’s ball”.

The day after the party, a girl called Evelyn Shane appears, Toby’s real daughter. She looks every bit like Emily Laughlin and even sounds like her as well. When Grayson sees her, he thinks he is hallucinating. He eventually falls under the manipulation of Eve and wants to help her, hoping that she will be the Avery that he didn’t have.

In Grayson's eyes, Eve initially poses no threat and appears more vulnerable than Emily ever did. She is, in a way, one of them - a protégé of the family. Grayson believes that they owe something to Eve. Moreover, she is a master of manipulation, presenting herself as a helpless victim in distress. Grayson, at that point, is broken. On the day the bomb struck Avery, his trauma resurfaced. He feels terrible because he couldn't move towards Avery at that moment, against his will, and Emily haunts his thoughts. He confesses this to Avery in the wine cellar. Additionally, he knows he can never have Avery.

Eve's strong resemblance to Emily Laughlin, with whom both Jameson and Grayson had a past, serves as a constant reminder of his trauma. He still feels guilty for Emily's death, never allowing himself to grieve by suppressing his emotions. This exacerbates the entire situation. Nevertheless, Avery remains important to him as he is determined to find Toby, who was kidnapped, also for her sake.

Grayson silently breaks inside. He struggles to think clearly and makes the mistake to trust Eve, at least until a certain point.

It becomes clear that Eve was a spy for Vincent Blake, who had kidnapped Toby and later on Alisa Ortega. After Grayson realizes Eve's true nature in the chapel, he turns against her. Subsequently, he asks Avery for forgiveness, telling that he owes her more than she realizes. He opens up about his feelings and the past, and Avery requests him never to exclude her and his brothers again.

Grayson runs away from Hawthorne House and sneaks to the Blake Ranch. He exchanges himself for the freedom of Alisa Ortega.

Avery saves him through a chess tournament following Vincent Blake‘s rules.

The Hawthornes and Avery host a Countdown Party to celebrate that Avery will receive her inheritance. Once Avery receives the money, she announces the Hannah the Same Forwards and Backwards Foundation, a charity organization. She donates 96% of her assets and money to it and assigns Grayson to help her out with choosing which charities to donate to.

## Appearance

Grayson is incredibly handsome. He has light blond hair, pale gray eyes that border on silver, and "features sharp enough to cut rocks." He is nineteen years old in but comes across as older. He wears perfectly tailored suits. Grayson has a low, rich voice that's measured and precise. It's pleasant to listen to. He has very toned and defined back muscles, due to his excessive swimming he uses as a coping mechanism. He is shorter than Jameson, but broader than him through the shoulders. While not imposing physically, he still makes Avery's body go into high alert when she first meets him. He has very sharp cheekbones, and is very mysterious.

## Personality

Grayson is incredibly self-assured. Avery describes him as someone for whom "power was as much a fact of life as gravity. The world bends to the will of Grayson Hawthorne. What money couldn't buy him, those eyes probably did." He comes across as arrogant. Grayson is very serious, reserved, honorable and acts older than his age. As the family's heir apparent, he is responsible and a bit uptight. This also means he takes being disinherited the hardest of the Hawthorne brothers as his grandfather Tobias Hawthorne always told him that one day, everthing would depend on him.

Throughout the books, Avery comes to realize that he is indeed someone capable of self-reflection. He punishes himself for every mistake, every misjudgment, striving to always reach the limits of perfection. However, for his grandfather, he and his brothers were never enough.

Grayson attempts to suppress his feelings initially, viewing them as a weakness.

He is very protective of his family, and eventually comes to see Avery as one of them. Skye claims he was much different as a child; more carefree. She tells Avery that they couldn't keep clothes on him until he was four. He takes himself too seriously. Skye describes Grayson as being everything Toby wasn't. Avery discovers that Grayson's mind works disturbingly like her own. He's not the type to apologize. He can sometimes be quite reserved, and quiet, as seen throughout book 3.

Grayson still has not got over the past. He has had a lot of trauma, due to Emily, and this is seen in Book 2, when the bomb went off, and despite his strong romantic feelings towards Avery, he was frozen on the spot, reminded of what happened to Emily.

In book 3, Grayson is seen as broken, raw and vulnerable.

## Relationships

### Avery Kylie Grambs

Avery and Grayson meet when Grayson arrives at her high school to inform her that she is in his grandfather's will and must come with him to Hawthorne House. After Tobias's will is read, Grayson becomes hostile towards Avery because he believes she is a con-woman who manipulated his grandfather. He warns her several times to stay away from his family, and specifically from Jameson. Avery is immediately attracted to Grayson despite his rudeness and knowing that he is not for her. Her first impression of Gray is that he's the "most self-assured, self-righteous, arrogant jerk she's ever met."

When Avery's first and only real use of her new fortune is to arrange a place to sleep and food for her homeless friend Harry. Grayson is finally convinced that he misjudged her. They form a bond over their shared desire to use their money and power to help people. The two of them also share a passion for actuarial science and work together on the Foundation. After solving the Davenport desk clue, Grayson becomes certain that Avery has no idea why his grandfather left his fortune to her. Grayson becomes increasingly attracted to Avery, and the romantic tension between them grows. Avery feels as if Grayson wants to be the one to save her.

Grays makes it clear he will protect Avery. However, after solving his grandfather's puzzle left in his will, Grayson steps back from Avery telling her that they can't be together because Jameson also has feelings for her, and he refuses to have a repeat of what happened with Emily. Grayson and Avery continue to have a friendship that's complicated by their attraction to one another. They care for and respect each other, and Avery is one of the few people Gray trusts.

### Emily Laughlin

Grayson and Emily used to date, but their relationship was complicated by the fact that Emily was also dating Jameson. Grayson took Emily cliff diving, which resulted in her death. Grayson is racked with guilt as a result. (After he sees Avery on the ground in the Hawthorne Legacy, he starts to hallucinate her voice for weeks.) After her death, Grayson tells Avery that Emily was everything, but he says it in a way that makes it seem like it isn't a compliment. Grayson comes to think that at least on his part, he played Emily's game with him and Jameson not because he loved her, but because there's nothing more Hawthorne than winning. He also thinks Emily didn't just want them, but wanted what they could give her, which was experiences. The whole thing was a rush for him and Emily. But Grayson thinks it was real for Jameson.

### Jameson Hawthorne

Grayson and Jameson have had a serious falling out. The tension between them is palpable and explosive. The reason for their fractured relationship is Emily Laughlin. The break down in their relationship is so severe, that their grandfather uses his will to enact a final puzzle and game designed to bring Grayson and Jameson back together. Grayson calls Jameson reckless, then Jameson risks himself further to prove the point. Xander describes Jameson and Grayson's relationship by recounting how during their grandfather's Saturday challenges, Jameson and Grayson used to team up to beat Nash, then double-cross each other at the end of the game.

## Trivia

* One of the things Grayson learned and presumably mastered at his grandfather's behest is photography.
* He can have trouble sleeping, but when he does sleep, he sleeps "like the dead."
* According to Xander, Grayson has an incredible singing voice; going as far as comparing his singing skills to Frank Sinatra.
* Grayson knows how to play the violin quite well as well as speaking Latin.
* Grayson, according to Xander, is very ticklish.

## Quotes

> If you were smart, you’d stay away from Jameson. From the game. From me... This family—we destroy everything we touch.
>
> Grayson Hawthorne to Avery Grambs, *The Inheritance Games*

## References

1. ↑ *The Inheritance Games*: page 345
2. ↑ *The Inheritance Games*: page 11
3. ↑ *The Inheritance Games*: page 14
4. ↑ *The Hawthorne Legacy*: page 15