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"IF you play the part of the weak little girl - they'll take you as just that." Was one of the many words of advice her father offered her before he passed, play weak and your enemy will believe that you are. From the start, he taught her how to defend herself. He knew that he wouldn't be around forever, so he did everything in his power to make sure that she would be. When she lost him, her attempts at believing him proved to be futile.
Theo remembered her father as strong-willed and mean. When he wanted things done, he wanted them to be his way and his way only. It was one of the many reasons why her older brother packed up and left the second he turned eighteen, leaving her to fend for herself. Every bit of the responsibility was put onto her. And the missing presence of her brother only made her father more strict towards the young girl. Everything was left to her.
But, although there were times when she loathed him for his ways, they ended up being valuable. Every lesson he taught helped her survive - and his tough exterior to trick his children into believing that he only cares for himself cracked the moment he saw his daughter trapped by a group of rotters. It was all an act and Theo never would've guessed it, but it was the truth.
The execution of his lessons could have been done differently, but the man convinced himself that it was the only way to make them survive the world. He just never thought the dead to walk before he could finish. He wished to raise his children to be able to understand the world and how it worked - that you couldn't rely on anyone else except yourself. When his wife left him with two children to raise, that was when he first saw the truth of how life worked. It was you against the world.
Theo never believed him. She didn't know if it was because she didn't want to live in a world that dark, or because she wanted to have faith in people. It was why she trusted the Governor to take her to a safe place, but she was only pulled into a war that wasn't hers. It made her start to confide in all of the words her father ever told her - and why she put on the act of the weak little girl in the prison. Cry, be protected. And if it falls apart, run.
Except she had forgotten the main rule to her father's game - the same one that got him killed. Don't grow attached. It was how he expected the girl to live, without trust and someone to confide in. Two months inside of the prison and the consistent ways of Adeline Grimes proved the rule to be excruciatingly hard. Theo began to trust, she let the woman in and became attached. The tears she cried started to turn real - and so did their connection.
Theo started to understand that her father forgot the main thing about his daughter. She never had a mother. And he never guessed that the woman who would end up taking Theo under her wing would be one who always wanted a kid but never could. It was as if fate intertwined its hands, veins of possibilities connecting and bringing mother and daughter together. Becoming dependent on one another.
