How could my dad make sense of this? He'd been in the Games, lost his first love, pregnant mother, and younger brother to Snow...He'd fought in the rebellion, though everything was safe, watched his only daughter- his only child- fight to save herself from suffering the fate that had been sealed for so many, and now war had subdued. The rebels had been rebelled against. I never imagined what being ruled over by a dictatorship would be like when we learned about the 2nd rebellion in school. Brave Mason, Zanna Mason's younger brother, had taken my mother away and forced her back to the capitol, forced Annie back to Four. My parents had married in secret before she left. My dad had turned back to drink- but like I said, to go through all that- who wouldn't?
As I slowly limped back from school with Charlie carrying his sister (today I just didn't have the strength) I sighed hard, I hadn't seen my mom for nearly a year. I had to go check my dad was still alive later- yesterday was their first wedding anniversary. The loudspeaker in the square fired up. Charlie clung to me and buried his head in my coat. Of course he would. Every single message Brave Mason had to give out to his people was always a form of devastating news.
"This is your president: Everyone, square, twenty minutes."
Once everyone had gathered in the square I felt dread. Finn clamped his arm around my shoulder and I turned into him not daring to look at the stage.
"Lil, look."
"I don't want to."
"Lily...you need to look."
"No."
Charlie tugged at my arm "Momma, what's nana doing?"
I looked up and she reached into a glass bowl full of names......let the games begin.
YOU ARE READING
The family ties of Lily Juniper Abernathy (book 3)
RomanceLily-Jay Juniper Odair hasn't had an easy life. But now it just might be near-perfect. She's been married to Finnick Odair II and has watched her son Charlie grow from a baby to a near-four year old. It is nearly four and a half years since the Hung...
