lover/fighter - Finnick Odair

Chapter 5 - Dark waters

The next morning brings unpleasant news. Rhea is dead tired after she started the cab ride home later than expected the night before. After her rather unfriendly conversation with Griffin Ashway, she had refused to simply leave out of pure defiance. Instead, she had continued exactly where she had left off and had given him provocative looks again and again. She wanted to let him know that he had no control over her anymore.

In former times this had been different. More specifically, during the first 2 years of her education, because it had been Griffin who had financed her. He had been the sponsor behind her studies until their 'relationship' came to a very unpleasant end. Rhea likes to avoid thinking back to that time of her life, at least to the moments that were corrupted by him.

It may be true that she would never have gotten to where she is today without Griffin Ashway, but she also paid a high price for it. The things he had taken from her in those 2 years Rhea could not begin to compare with the expenses he had incurred for her. She had lived a life at the lowest limit of existence, but she was used to that. What she had not seen coming was how far the greed of the people in the Capitol reached. They take and take and take as long as there is still something to get. With her it had been just like that and some days she wondered what was left of her at all.

Rhea had always thought of herself as a strong woman, able and willing to fight her own battles, but then she had failed. For a long time she had remained steadfast, had kept herself on her feet and had convinced herself that there was nothing she couldn't get through. But at some point, quite suddenly, the last thread of her power of resistance was torn. For the first time in her life, she had felt utter helplessness and despair, no longer seeing a path she could have taken.

But she was lucky. More lucky than she ever expected here at the Capitol. More lucky than most of the others who lived a similar existence in this miserable place. Because in her moment of greatest need, someone had come to her rescue. Someone had taken care of the broken girl, picked up her broken pieces and, with calm and care, put them back together, part by part. From then on, her life had been a completely different one.

Griffin Ashway was from then on only part of an ugly past, even if he wouldn't readily accept it. After her breakdown, there had been only one meeting between them before last night's encounter. Things got nasty very quickly after she had told him in all clarity what she thought of him, after she had completely withdrawn from his influence and he didn't flare up long to throw threats around. What he hadn't counted on was that Rhea had grown up in the Capitol just as he had. And so it happened that he hadn't noticed how Rhea too had stolen something precious from him without him noticing it. Not money or jewels, something much more important that could easily cost him his head. It was knowledge, the knowledge of his greatest secret, which had fallen into Rhea's hands by pure chance. Perhaps it was fate if one believes in such a thing.

He had never been seen in her field of vision since then, even if he did not want to believe her at first. He had been so sure she was bluffing. After all, she could have played this trump card way sooner. She had come into possession of information that could severely damage his career, his business and his high position in the Capitol. She could have blackmailed him outright with it and been set for life, so why wait? But she had her reasons, and when he realized how much she really knew, Griffin Ashway suddenly seemed very small.

That's how they parted ways back then. Now that it was time to take advantage of her, he had crawled out of his hole again. There was no doubt that he must have been watching her closely over the years, even if she had never seen or heard from him. He was a cautious man and he knew what was at stake for him. Honestly, she had expected him to approach her at some point, driven by the constant trepidation that she would use her secret weapon at any moment, perhaps just on a whim. But that didn't happen.