Thank you so much for the love!

The characters of The Hunger Games Trilogy do not belong to me.

Fated to Love

Part Eight

Madge had to admit it.

Katniss Everdeen—she would never acknowledge her by her married name—was a lovely woman. Genteel without realizing it, there was something appealing about the dark-haired, mousey girl. She had a pretty shade of hair, dark like raven feathers, and almond eyes the color of shining coal.

There was also a fire in her look telling Madge that she would be in for a fight, especially when it came to Peeta and their child.

Madge grimaced seeing Peeta's writing on the open journal in front of his wife. She could read just that bit to see his offspring's nickname: "Toad". The fact that he was writing to it irked her.

She was never a baby person, but she would deal with it if she had to.

And, there was always boarding school.

Katniss looked to her, a broken expression in her eyes.

"My husband wouldn't keep something from me," she told Madge quietly.

There was thinness to her words and Madge picked up on it right away. Her own gaze went to the place setting, her fingers tracing the edges of the plate as she contemplated Katniss' response and everything that had transpired over the past week.

Peeta had never changed his locks.

It had been easy to walk into the high-rise and into his office. She had spent nearly two hours looking through his office, seeing the picture of his new bride who was surprisingly plainer than she thought, and looking inside his drawers to find the sonogram of their baby.

If he would have waited after Madge had finished her dance career, this could've been their child instead of some random stranger's.

Maybe by then, she would've warmed up to the thought of children.

Her mind went to that look in her ex-boyfriend's eyes when he spoke of his wife and the odious "Toad".

It was almost akin to love.

"That's a very lovely picture that he has of you at his desk, you're such a natural bride. And, Rue even added that new closet space opposite his desk. It's a good thing; I used to buy him all these button-down shirts and they needed space."

There was a quick intake of breath from the girl, her hand going to that bit of swell.

This was it; that moment of impact.

"Men lie, Katniss," she explained further. "Peeta included. I mean, when Peeta had my father draw the codicil before he showed it to me, I was shocked."

Her father worked for the firm that handled most of the Mellark Corporation's business contracts and had very little contact with her ex. However, Katniss didn't need to know that and judging by the look on her face, she knew very little about the legal end of her husband's position.

Madge reached into her purse to take out the last card in her stack. She held out to Katniss the envelope with the Mellark Corporation logo.

While she was waiting for Peeta, Madge had perused her ex-boyfriend's desktop. He never bothered to change his password, giving her access to his personal files. When they were together, she insisted that nothing would be kept a secret, including his codes—which were still his mother's name.

She found the prenuptial agreement easily and read over it as she waited for her ex.

It really wasn't fair.

Katniss would be getting everything if they were to get divorced—a large stock in the company, alimony, and an extra trust fund for Peeta's child. At the moment, Peeta's wife owned a majority of company shares with him barely getting a quarter of the Everdeen Wheat Plantation.

The agreement was clean-cut.

Except for additions.

There was a stack of papers that Peeta had waived, most of them supplemental.

Her father had taught her that all prenuptial agreements usually came with these appendixes—that included the Termination of Parental Rights.

Which was the very paper that Katniss read as her face went ashen.

Printing it out on his stationary was easy enough and also made it appear more official.

Also, Peeta programmed his signature into the PDF reader—just about anyone could stamp a document with his signature.

They just had to have enough guile.

And, Madge was chock full of it.

"In the simplest of terms: you two get divorced, then he gets the baby," she explained to the silent woman. Her eyes went to the open journal. "Or, what did he call the baby? Toad...I think?"

Katniss simply nodded.

There was that small flicker of regret inside her.

However, Peeta was always a little wayward. He had been that way since he was a boy, dealing with his parents being gone. Madge often found him doing silly things like helping out his staff, especially the Sloans who were his good friends.

He gave them jobs for goodness sake—talk about giving them an easy life.

Then there was his mindlessness when it came to his career. Peeta wasn't too thrilled with corporate life. He had actually wanted to be a baker—like his father. She knew that he was meant for more, even if it wasn't what he wanted.

So Madge just…pushed him in the right direction.

And, if it meant giving him her virginity during prom, she'd do it for the greater good.

"I would never want to be in that kind of marriage." Katniss was silent, her stare on the 'codicil'. "I should go. My parents are expecting me for lunch."

Standing, Madge examined her own reflection in the restaurant window—perfect as always.

She looked to Katniss once more, trying not to bristle at the shimmer of tears beginning to film in her wide eyes.

"Peeta told me I would really like this place."

Madge turned and began her walk, taking a deep breath, and suppressing the guilt.

In the end, it would all work out in her favor.

Katniss would fight this.

The paper in her hands was trembling and she released her tight hold on the codicil to keep it from being crumpled. She would probably need to show it to someone.

Reaching for her bag, Katniss threw everything on the table into it, not realizing the rapidity of her movements until her mother and Uncle Haymitch rushed over to her.

"What's wrong?" Her mother placed her hands on her shoulders, steadying Katniss. She felt dizzy and confused, her gaze going to the broken plates on the floor. She must've been going too fast; it would account for the tingles pinching at her cheeks and the shakiness in her body. "You look sick."

"What did that girl say to you?" Her uncle suddenly demanded to know.

Hani looked to her brother. "What girl?"

"I just came up from stocking the bar downstairs and there was this girl talking to Katniss." Haymitch looked to her stiff form worriedly. "The next thing I know, there are dishes everywhere and Katniss is shaking like a leaf!"

"I'm fine," Katniss found herself saying. "I can handle this." She looked at the mess. "I'll replace the plates."

"Katniss, don't you think of leaving!" Her mother eyed for a moment. "You're going to sit down. You're going to drink some water and you're going to tell your Uncle and me what the hell is going on!"

"No, Mom." Katniss responded, her voice steadying. "I'm an adult and I don't have to tell you anything, okay?" She could feel the codicil in her purse, just pulsating with all the hurt and deception that it contained in-between all its official capacity. "I'm going to be a mother now. I can't keep running to my Mommy every time something bad happens."

"So it's bad." She looked to her Uncle Haymitch. He approached her steadily, lifting her chin. "You can't lie to me, Katniss. I can see it in your eyes." Katniss turned away from the man. "And yes—you're an adult and mother-to-be, but you're still family. We have to stick together, even if Peeta and Toad are going to be of your very own, you still have us." Haymitch didn't fail to see the brokenness in Katniss' greys and he looked to his sister. "Let her go, Hani. She has to solve this on her own or make a lot of stupid mistakes."

"Alright," her mother said in a tight voice. "But, you can always come to us—day or night." She reached to touch Katniss' cheek. "I know that you don't want our help but you have to remember that it's not just you anymore. It's Toad, too. You have to take care of yourself and this pale, shaky person before me does not look like she's taking care of herself."

"I just need to do this on my own," Katniss replied quietly. Taking her things, she gave her mother and Uncle a final nod. "I'll call if I need anything."

Turning, she headed towards the exit trying to keep the tears at bay.

Too proud to show her pain, it would be better to find a place—just about anywhere—to cry it out.

Katniss suddenly whipped around at her mother and Uncle Haymitch.

"We have a good lawyer, don't we?"

Haymitch and Hani looked to one another, silently communicating, before her Uncle finally nodded.

"One of the best," her Uncle assured her.

Katniss gave them a stiff nod. "Okay."

With that, she walked out of the restaurant.

'SOS. Something is going on with Katniss.'

'Wow. You totally didn't have to write SOS in the text, Haymitch. I mean, what century are we in?'

'Stop being a smartass, Johanna, and help the family out!'

'Sorry. Jace is just going down for a nap. What is going on?'

'Something's happened to your sister. She's disappeared from Arena—and broke two dishes in the process.'

'Fuck the dishes, we'll get more. What is going on with Katniss?'

'Some woman spoke to her while she was here and all of a sudden, she got all pale and shaky. Then, she asked me and your Mama if we had a good lawyer.'

'Wait—was the woman a blonde with blue eyes and a pitchfork-shaped tail?'

'I didn't see a pitchfork tail but she was a blonde—kind of icy-looking.'

'Fuck. That's Madge.'

'Madge? As in ex-girlfriend Madge?"

"Precisely, Prim. I'm going to find her and use her own pitchfork tail against her.'

'Don't leave us all out. We want a piece too.'

'Ladies, let's focus. We need to get to the bottom of this. Hani is sick with worry but we agreed to keep out—but nobody said that you two couldn't figure out what's going on.'

'I'll try to find Katniss.'

'Good idea, Prim. You'll be able to get to her. As for me, I'll just pull my dumbass cousin away from whatever meeting he's in. Peeta needs to get to the bottom of this and keep me from murdering Madge.'

'Good luck, ladies. Hani and I will be at the restaurant. I'll alert Cato about what's going on.'

'10-4.'

'Yes, Captain.'

'I'm never texting either of you again.'

"The perimeter for the West end of the complex is clearly over the property line," Peeta explained to the man in front of him. "I have an inspector coming in two weeks. That means this needs to be fixed—now."

"Mr. Mellark," the foreman began. "Two weeks is not enough time to tear down the structure—"

The door to his office burst open and Johanna marched in, Rue in tow. "Meeting's over, boys!"

His assistant looked to him helplessly. "She couldn't be stopped."

"That's fine, Rue," Peeta told her and nodded to the foreman as well as the other two men with him. "Please excuse me, but it seems I have a family emergency. Have Rue check for my next free day and we'll solidify plans."

The men nodded, shaking his hand, before promptly leaving the room.

After Rue closed the door, Peeta looked to his cousin. "What is going on?"

Johanna pushed her cellphone in his face. "This is what is happening."

He read over the conversation between Johanna, Haymitch, and Prim before looking to her.

"What has Madge done?" Peeta asked in a panicked voice. He went to his desk and picked up his own phone, quickly dialing Katniss' number and his heart jumped when it went straight to voicemail. "Katniss, sweetheart—where are you? Please call me back. Even if you don't want to talk to me, call someone." He hung up quickly. "What is being done?"

"The more important question is—what have you done?" Johanna asked him. "Your wife knows that you kept something from her!" She looked as troubled as he felt. "Madge has gotten to her somehow and you have to figure out what it is. Or, you're going to lose the woman you love."

Peeta looked to her. "You can tell that I love her?"

"You're so dense. Anyone can see that," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Now what are you going to do?"

His eyes went to his computer.

"Shit." Peeta sat at his desk, unlocked his computer, and went through his files. Running his security software, he looked through the logs and found what he was looking for. "I can't believe this."

Johanna joined him behind his desk. Skimming through the logs, she shook her head.

"I have to talk to the Everdeens." He grabbed his jacket and threw it on. "Have Rue call IT to override the whole Mellark Corp Portal, I want them to make sure that Madge hasn't compromised anyone else. Then I want you to tell your Dad what happened and have him take Mr. Undersee off the payroll in the legal department."

Johanna nodded. "Anything else?"

Peeta looked to his cousin. "Just pray that she'll forgive me."

She looked to him, her eyes heavy. "And, if she doesn't?"

He took in a shaky breath. "Then all is lost."

"Where is she, Peeta?" Hani asked in panic. "I shouldn't have let her walk off. She's pregnant and prone to fainting. She wasn't thinking coherently and that look in her eyes…"

Peeta placed his hands on her shoulders to stop the woman from pacing. "What?"

"She looked like she didn't know what was real and not real anymore," his mother-in-law replied softly. "Who was that woman?"

He sighed. "That was Madge Undersee, my ex-girlfriend. She came to see me last Monday and I was so stupid! I kept on trying to tell Katniss, but we were always getting interrupted and that's no excuse—"

"You're damn right that's not an excuse!" Peeta looked to find Haymitch stomping over with Prim and Cato behind him, both with grim looks on their faces. He stopped in front of Peeta, squaring his shoulders off. "Since Katniss met you, her life has gone completely crazy."

"And, so has mine—in the best way possible," he replied truthfully. "I know I've messed up and I know that she is somewhere thinking that I am the worst person alive. But, I don't care. What I care about is that my wife is safe and sound—that our family is okay." Peeta met their gazes. "That my marriage is alright. So I need your help, I need your help to find my wife."

Cato went to his side and clapped his shoulder. "We'll find her." He looked at his wife, who held a swaddled Jace in her arms. "When Katniss was upset on the Plantation, where would she go?"

"Somewhere that no one would ever think to find her," her sister replied. "Somewhere she could get lost in a crowd."

"Somewhere that made her feel invisible," Hani added and looked out onto the street. "You know, she always felt the loneliest in the most intimate of places."

"When her Dad died, she picked a place important to them and hid there," Haymitch told him. "There was this old dock at the far end of Seam Island and she stayed there the whole day after his funeral."

"You're right," Cato said. "I remember seeing her there, late into the evening. I gave her a lantern just so she wouldn't get lost if she stayed out there too late."

"So somewhere she could get lost, somewhere crowded, and somewhere that might have meant something to us," Peeta concluded. "There haven't been a lot of places that we've been to and we got together at Odair Resort…"

Then it came to him in a clear sudden wisp of memory.

"I know where she is."

Katniss sat in front of the children's play area. She watched as the mothers helped their little ones onto the plastic slide. The children squealed as they slid down and clapped their hands when they got to the bottom.

Would Toad like slides? She wasn't a playground sort of kid; she was more of the dig in the backyard type. Her Dad used to help her plant apple seeds and told her that they would someday grow into trees. She didn't think to ever check up on whether or not that actually happened—whether her seeds grew into something more.

After her Dad died, she never wanted to go back to the place.

Maybe if she went back, Katniss would've seen her apple trees—tall and strong. At least she would know that she brought something to fruition. Katniss didn't know if all of this drama was good for Toad. She suspected it wasn't, but she never would give Toad up.

Even if it meant sacrificing her marriage—and her heart.

"This wasn't here the last time we were at this mall."

Peeta sat next to her on the bench—the very one that she found Madge's engagement ring under. He told her that it was bad luck to where someone else's ring.

So far, it seemed that the theory was correct.

Katniss remained silent at his words.

"Katniss, what happened?" he suddenly asked her.

She whipped over at him, feeling the hurt rising. "You kept something from me!"

"I know I did." Peeta gazed apologetically at her. "I tried to tell you—"

"You should've tried harder!" Katniss stood up, no longer caring that they were in a public place. "You fed me to your ex-girlfriend on a silver platter. You just proved to her as well as me that I know nothing of your true character or who you are." She took the codicil and shoved it in his face, practically pressing it to his nose so he could pick out the notes of betrayal. "And, you had this heinous piece of paper created for her to show me!"

Somewhere she could hear a child crying, probably from all the yelling she was doing.

Peeta yanked the paper from his face, reading over it quickly. His blue eyes flared in shock over what it said.

Madge really was a piece of work.

"This…this isn't real," he told her helplessly.

"So this document is fake," she gasped out, her eyes trained on the paper in his limp hand.

"No." Peeta looked to her. "It was part of the prenuptial agreement, but I waived it—"

Katniss burst into tears. "It should have never been there in the first place!"

She hugged herself, her arms wrapping around their child.

"You made me believe you, Peeta! You made believe in magic and love and all that bullshit. Then you humiliated me for your ex-girlfriend—the very one that you were going to propose to—to see!"

"Katniss, don't do this to yourself," he pleaded, unaware of the people around them. "Don't do this to us or Toad. You're supposed to keep yourself healthy and safe."

"But, I'm not safe and neither is Toad—especially when we're around you," Katniss told him bluntly. "You did this to us. You broke us. You broke me—but what did I expect from someone who came into this marriage without any love behind him?"

"And how the hell would you know that?" he retorted.

"Can you really say that you love me especially after all of this?" she asked him, her eyes going to that wretched codicil in his hands. "I was just some vessel to hold the Mellark heir in. Someone there for everyone to put their crap on—a Post-It Girl."

"That's not true," Peeta told her in an anguished voice, his eyes beginning to burn. "And, I'm sorry if anyone ever made you feel that way."

"No, you made me feel that way," she intoned, face flushed and shiny with tears. "That's the worst part of loving you, Peeta. You knew exactly how to break me and you did a damn good job of it." She looked to the codicil. "I will fight you on this."

Peeta met her fiery gaze, feeling as if he was sinking. "I won't fight back."

A security guard approached them. "Sir? Ma'am? You two need to leave the premises."

Mothers clung to their children as they stared disdainfully at the two. He would not be surprised if this whole fight appeared on YouTube. But it didn't matter, not when Katniss stared at him with an expression so pained that it felt like tiny slashes on his skin.

Katniss nodded at the man before turning and heading towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" Peeta called out.

She didn't respond.

Johanna knocked on the doorway of the kitchen where Peeta sat on a stool, his eyes staring at the phone in front of him. He didn't respond, simply staring at the screen of his phone.

In all their time, she had never seen him this way—and it scared her.

She heard a shuffle and turned to see her Dad standing beside her. His hand reached to cup her cheek, caressing her chin affectionately, before looking to her cousin who was like a son to her father and a brother to her.

Moving aside, Johanna watched her father go to Peeta, his hand going to his shoulder.

"Don't do this to yourself, Peeta," her father told him gently.

Burying his face in his hand, her cousin began to sob.

Quietly, Johanna approached and her father handed her Peeta's phone.

On the screen was a text message:

I want a divorce.

There was actually going to be another ending, but it seemed like the best (worst) place to stop. At this point, we are very far off in characterization and even the plot line from the series.

I didn't want y'all to be too dependent on the source material.

I know some of you are upset. I don't blame you and it's not going to get better at this point. The next two chapters will be the hardest for me personally to write.

I'm thinking there will be a trigger warning at Chapter Ten.

Anyway, please be gentle with me about these next few chapters. I cried a lot during the series at this part of it—it hit a little too close to home.

Feedback is love—or dislike—depending on how you see it.

Thanks for reading, JLaLa