When we reached the Capitol, I slipped out of the train unnoticed. I had the gift of disappearing into thin air. Or maybe Snow's supporters were too busy with tributes? I was sure that if Corio found out about their incompetence, he would be furious.

I wasn't stupid. I knew no one would let me see the president if I simply demanded it. I couldn't reveal my arrival so easily. I had to find at least one person who would support me.

My only friend from the Capitol was Tigris. She barely knew me, but she had an undeniable fondness for me. She alone knew that I loved Corio. And I was sure that for one brief moment my feelings were mutual. I was consumed with curiosity as to whether my former lover's cousin had any idea what had happened between us. Did she think Snow killed me?

I pulled my hood over my head to blend in with the crowds on the Capitol streets. Everyone wanted to see the tributes.

Times change, but people remain the same.

Tigris ran her own clothes shop. She also helped her cousin in conducting the games. First of all, she was a designer of costumes for tributes.

She was my chance as long as I remained unrecognized to Coriolanus' men.

"Tigris..." I whispered, standing in front of a woman approaching forty. She still had beautiful blonde hair, but she looked less and less like her former self. She was clearly influenced by the plastic surgeries that people in the Capitol underwent.

"Lucy Gray Baird," she gasped and plopped down on the nearest stool.

"I need your help, I will explain everything to you"

"Lucy Gray Baird," she repeated. "You're alive... I could only suspect that he killed you or... that you ran away from him. He was so changed. He married Liv."

I didn't want to hear about him marrying another woman. I wanted to talk about my daughter's life. That was all that mattered to me.

"I know and I'll tell you everything, but you have to listen to me. We don't have much time, you'll have to meet the tributes soon."

"What happened fifteen years ago? What happened in District Twelve?"

"Tigris, I'm begging you to volunteer to design clothes for the Twelves."

"Why would I put myself on a mine? Coriolanus always makes sure I get fours or one."

"Please, I'm begging you... A girl from my district entered the arena... she's as close to me as anyone else in this world. She's only fourteen and she needs sponsors to survive."

Tigris narrowed her eyes and looked at me like my snakes did. She wanted to see in my eyes a clue as to why I cared so much about this little one.

"You say she's fourteen... even with sponsors it will be difficult for her to survive," she said, coldly calculating the situation.

"I'm begging you," I continued to plead with her. "At least consider the possibility that thanks to you, this child can win and return to its mother."

Maybe I said too much, because Tigris looked at me with a different look. It was as if she began to understand everything.

"She's fourteen..." she repeated in a hollow voice. "I remember this little one, I glanced at this year's harvest festival, but I wasn't paying much attention. Remind me of her name."

I swallowed. I only wanted to tell Corio the truth, not his cousin.

"Rosaline..." I whispered, barely audible.

"Rosaline Snow" Tigris finished her full name.

"Rosaline Snow Everdeen. She's my cousin's daughter. She got married and... I was never the one to become a mother and you know it."

"Where is her father?" she asked and I knew she didn't believe me.

I fooled the entire district, but I couldn't fool this one woman.

"He's dead... He died a year ago," I recited the lie.

"Don't lie to me, Lucy..." she pleaded in a cold voice. "You're an experienced actress, but don't lie to the only person who can help you."

She looked at me with rebuke in her eyes. I felt tears under my eyelids. Tears I couldn't hold back.

"It's his daughter... I gave her to my cousin and her newly married husband to raise. No one noticed. It was winter, it snowed. No one saw my cousin, and I... I was hiding from Coriolanus at that time. "

"Corio, what have you done?" she moaned, clutching her head.

"I'm asking you to do everything in your power to get my daughter as many sponsors as possible. I'll talk to Coriolanus, but I need to make sure Rosie is reasonably safe."

"Lucy... I'll do whatever I can."

"I know it's too much to ask of you, but... make sure she has something to eat. She's so weak, in poor health from the very beginning."

"Lucy Gray, nowadays, tributes aren't treated like they used to be... Coriolanus made sure they had something to eat and something to wear..."

"He's doing it for a bigger show... But thank you for the information. I will have peace of mind about the fate of my child."

I wanted to leave the store as quickly as possible, but Tigris' voice stopped me: "Your child, Lucy Gray. She also has a father."

"I'm afraid I know him better than you do after all. If I had told him about the baby, I'd have been five feet under by now."

"But are you going to tell him now? Why are you taking such a risk?" she asked.

"Hope is the most dangerous thing. More than love or affection. Hope drives people to do things that seem impossible. Hope makes me think that maybe he cared enough to save his daughter... my daughter."

I turned to leave, but I felt I had to tell Tigris something important before I would be dead and she would never see me again.

"Thank you for washing my dress back then. It may mean nothing to you, but it meant a lot to me at the time... I survived by thinking that someone outside the arena actually thought I could win."

"Honey, he was the one who screamed the loudest that you won when Dr. Gaul wanted you to die with the other tributes."

I didn't want to remember his good side, and yet memories of times when I thought he loved me forced their way into my consciousness.