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CHAPTER 3- PICKING UP THE PIECES

The Guest’s Bedroom
Hades’ Palace
The Underworld

One Week Later…

-Hera-

I heard the door open but I continued to pretend to be asleep.

It was relatively easy for my eyes were so heavy and swollen that they looked shut even when I was awake anyway.

I felt the bed depress and felt Aerith’s presence. She was Hades’ queen and also one of my dearest friends. When she was new to being queen, Amphitrite and I helped train her. Now, she is both powerful and elegant—every inch a queen.

Truly fitting to be the Queen of the Underworld.

She also has a good heart and offered for me to stay here in their majestic palace. I didn’t want to go back to Olympus. And I hadn’t gone back there since I left Zeus last week. I wanted to but I remained firm in my decision.

It’s time to think about my own good.

There were a lot of gods and goddesses who offered me a place to stay. But I didn’t want to stay with them for I knew that they just wanted to see how low the Queen of Olympus has sunk.

With them, I’ll be like a dying animal on a zoo: in misery and bared for all to see.

So I opted to stay here.

Hades and Aerith have been great hosts and they left me alone for the past week. Aerith came to see me from time to time but I was unfit for company. She just stayed by my side and held me when I cried my heart out.

And for that, I will be eternally grateful.

“Hera…” she whispered.

I still continued my act of being asleep.

Aerith sighed and moved closer. “Hera, I know you are awake.”

I let out the breath I was holding and opened my eyes. I closed them instantly for the brightness of the room blinded me. I reached for the box of tissues beside my bed and grabbed one to wipe my eyes and at least make me presentable for the Queen of the Underworld.

If there was something I still had after I lost my husband, my home, my riches—it would be my pride.

I tried to sit-up slowly so my head would not spin.

Then, I saw what must have been hundreds of tissues scattered all over my bed and on the carpet. Aerith saw that I noticed and waved her hand. Instantly, everything vanished and the room was set to right.

“Thank you for letting me stay here,” I told Aerith.

She smiled. “It’s nothing. Since Hades renovated the palace, it’s much bigger and there are hundreds of rooms that are unused.”

“I hope you’re not here to tell me that I have to go…” I cursed myself when my voice broke.

“No!” she cried quickly. “You’re welcome here as long as you want! That’s what friends are for, right?”

I managed a weak smile for her. She has managed to fend Hades off from trying to talk to me. She knew I wasn’t ready for that yet. She knew that if I talked to him, he’ll tell me about Zeus and I just can’t handle that right now when my heart still aches and tears still poured from my eyes.

“Thank you.”

“But Hera… We really have to talk. It’s been a week and you can’t spend the rest of your life here!”

“But what am I supposed to do? I left Zeus! I left all of Olympus behind! I took away my curses for his women! I even gave them everything material he ever gave me. I gave up being his wife and his queen!” I sobbed.

Aerith moved closer once more and she pulled me into her embrace.

Again, I just let the tears fall.

I guess it’s true what they said that when your friends are there to comfort you, your composure and whatever mask you’re wearing shatters because you know that with them, you can truly be vulnerable.

Suddenly, there was another powerful presence in the room.

I looked up and stopped crying long enough to notice that it was my other friend, Amphitrite, Poseidon’s queen.

Without hesitation, she ran towards the bed and sat on my other side. She joined Aerith’s embrace and I could do nothing else but cry and cry… and cry some more.

After a few minutes of that, we disentangled ourselves from each other and wiped away our tears.

“That was intense,” Amphitrite commented.

“But we’ve been through worse, right?” Aerith piped in.

I shook my head. “I think this is the worse. I really did it for real. I left him. I left everything! I don’t even feel anything now!”

Aerith and Amphitrite frowned. “What?” they hissed in unison.

“When two fated people find each other, the fates bind their threads. And because we’re gods, there’s so much more when they bind our threads. We can feel the other’s power, thoughts emotion… We could speak to them telepathically through that bond. It’s more for us because we’re immortals and we’d get to live forever with that our fated…”

Amphitrite nodded.

“So?” Aerith prompted.

“The Fates must have done something. I don’t know! I just don’t feel him anymore. And when I said I truly left him, it hurt so much. Literally. I felt as though something was being torn from my chest. Before that, I heard Zeus calling out to me through our bond. But after that… No more. There’s only silence.”

Both my friends’ faces held horror.

Aerith swallowed. “I remember once I felt that pain too. I told Hades I didn’t want him and he told me he’d free me. He must’ve gone to the Fates to grant me my request. It hurt so much. But it stopped. I’m glad he did. I know I’ve been a horrible bitch to him before but I can’t imagine life without him now…”

I sniffed. “That’s good, Aerith. You got the best of the three brothers.”

Amphitrited laughed. “That’s true. Even though I love my Poseidon, he had his moments too. But Hades? He’s perfect. You both are perfect for each other,”

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Aerith stood up to get it and her husband peered inside.

“May I come in?” he asked.

I sighed. This was it. Facing him was inevitable anyway so I’d rather do it now while my friends are here.”

“Alright,” I answered and Hades stepped inside the room.

His hair was mussed and his clothing looked disheveled as if he just walked through a storm.

“What happened to you?” Aerith asked.

“I strolled through Olympus.”

“What?” Amphitrite asked.

“Zeus is racking up quite a storm. Everything in Olympus is now grey instead of white. Thunder and lightning everywhere. The winds are howling because of his orders and trees are being uprooted and flying everywhere. There are also a lot of burned areas because of his lightning.”

I held my head high. Serves him right.

But deep inside me, I also felt a twinge in my chest when I heard how he fared.

But I steeled myself. For centuries, I have endured. For centuries, I forgave. But I never forgot. When one lives with too much pain inflicted over and over again, it isn’t that easy to forget no matter what they say.

I guess those who say ‘forgive and forget’ never got hurt deep enough for them to utter those words so callously.

Forgiving and forgetting are two different things. It is easy to say that you have forgiven someone for their past transgressions but it is not so easy to erase the even from your mind.

And in my case, several centuries of the same pain, over and over again? It’s truly unforgettable.

But now I am fed-up with everything.

Now I have made my choice to leave Zeus. I have chosen to end several centuries of pain and in doing so, also saved myself for more of those in the future.

Now, the only thing I have to do is stay strong and not break down.

I have done this in the past but not as extreme as what I did last week. Also, I always ended up running back to him.

But what will that give me? A week of happiness and then years of being ignored and cheated on.

And what does it give Zeus? More arrogance and security that whatever he does, I’ll always be there. That when he apologizes and comes home, I’ll welcome him back with open arms.

Well--

No more…

I lifted my head proudly and stared at Hades.

“It isn’t my problem anymore,” I replied. I smiled to myself when I heard how confident my voice sounded. Surely, a bit more of this and I can do it.

I can be strong.

Hades ran his fingers through his already messy hair.

“For a week, storms raged all over Olympus and he does not leave his room! Hera, please. He’s miserable. He’s in pain. He says he cannot reach you anymore. He says he feels as though there’s this void in his chest. His roars of pain could be heard over the thunder!”

There was another twinge in my heart and tears pooled in my eyes.

I immediately blinked them away.

“Take his pain and multiply that a thousand times! That’s the pain I felt every time he cheated on me! But did anyone care? No! They even called me a jealous and vindictive goddess for wanting revenge or sending curses to all his women!”

Hades paled.

“Hera, listen—“

“No! Hades. You listen. I am done. I am through with everything! My patience is not infinite and I have reached my breaking point. Maybe the Fates noticed that and granted me this reprieve. Maybe they already severed our bond because it is what is right.”

Hades gasped and so did Aerith and Amphitrite.

“Hera, please. He’s miserable. He got himself drunk with Dionysus several times now. He’s looking for you. I’m not telling him where you are because that is your wish. But I think he knows you’re here. He told me to tell you he misses you badly. He promises to change. He asks for another chance…”

I took a deep breath and looked straight into Hades’ eyes.

“I am never going back to being his wife and queen again. Never. From now on, I am going to do all the things I’ve wanted to do. I am tired of managing a palace, no matter how beautiful, just so he’d have a perfect home he can come home to after all his affairs. I am tired of sleeping alone while he beds countless women! From now on, I am going to live my life the way I want!” I shouted.

Hades’ face fell and he sighed.

Everyone was silent for a long time after my outburst.

Hades stepped closer to me and sighed once more.

“Well… Zeus learned his lesson the hard way. I know he’s wrong with what he did and we constantly told him that… but he never listened. If this is truly the will of the Fates then they must have something bigger in store for both of you. I trust in their judgment for even though they made me wait for my queen for thousands of years, they gave me the most perfect love story and the most perfect woman any man or god could ask for.”

Hades looked at his wife and a sweet moment passed between them. I turned my head away for I just couldn’t look in the face of so much love and affection and not wish it for myself while feeling sorry as well.

Hades stepped back and kissed his queen.

Then he turned towards me.

“You are welcome to stay here in the Underworld until you want to.”

Then, he waved his hand and vanished from the room.

Aerith and Amphitrite patted my hands soothingly.

“We understand, Hera,” Aerith told me.

“Thank you,” I replied.

“But we still cannot let you cry all day here. We must do something else.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“We will help you move on,” Amphitrite replied.

“What is moving on?”

“Picking up the pieces of your life and your heart after a relationship ends. You know, learning to be happy again.”

“What we can do for you is to be here and help you until you’re back on your own feet again. There’ll be lots of shopping for us, spa days, manicure and pedicures, chat over coffee and those sort of stuff. We’ll just keep your mind off things… As for the deeper meaning of moving on, you’d have to ask Eros,” Aerith told me.

Amphitrite giggled and I also couldn’t help but smile.  When it came to love and heartbreak, Eros had an answer for everything. His judgment wasn’t clouded with vanity unlike Aphrodite’s so he’s who everyone spoke to when it came to matters of the heart.

Aerith stared at me from head-to-toe.

“Well. I think we start with a make-over. Just look at your eyes. They’re really swollen. You were a queen before but you left that life behind. Now, you have to show everyone that you are better off not being a queen. If you outshone the others before, you must glow brighter now. If you show yourself as someone defeated, everyone will laugh. But if you show you are more than the queen you once were, you will dazzle them,” Aerith told me.

She waved her hand in front of me and a beautiful gilded mirror appeared before us.

I looked at my eyes and truly, they were very swollen and also surrounded with countless wrinkles. I looked at my friends and they both looked young. Aerith was frozen forever at nineteen and Amphitrite looked to be in her late-twenties.

And me? Late forties.

Why? Because Zeus wanted it that way. He wanted us to look older so we would look like the wise King and Queen of the Gods.

But this was not how I looked before.

This was not how I looked when he first laid eyes on me.

I was once one of the most beautiful women. I even competed with Aphrodite and Athena. We let Paris judge and the whole scenario caused the Trojan War. So after that, we never did beauty contests again.

It was irrelevant then but it is important now. How else can I show that I am a newer version of myself other than showing my true form?

I waved my hand over my face and summoned my power.

Instantly, the wrinkles and laugh lines disappeared. My skin reverted back to being glowing. Because the wrinkles were gone, the green color of my eyes stood out. The grey in my hair disappeared and it was replaced with hair as black as midnight.

I looked at my fingers and the skin was smooth and soft once more. I looked like how Zeus first found me.

And by mortal age… One could say I would pass for a twenty-four-year-old.

“I missed this!” Amphitrite cried as she inspected every inch of me.

“Whoah. Is this a glamour?” Aerith asked.

I shook my head. “This is what I really looked like before Zeus wished for us to look older so that we will be wiser.”

“You’re beautiful, Hera,” Aerith said with awe in her voice.

“Thank you, my friend.”

I smiled. “Is this the start of things I have to do to move on?”

“I guess so. As they say: ‘you have to love yourself first’ and what you’re doing right now is showing the true side of you. It’s because you want to and not because someone else tells you to.”

Amphitrite clapped her hands. “Zeus is going to shit himself when he sees you in three days at the Summit of the Gods,” she said excitedly.

“What?” My face fell. I totally forgot that it was time for the Summit of the Gods. And there was no way out of that because I have to be there since I was a part of the original council.

“You have to be excited about this, Hera! In three days you will be able to show him what the treasure he lost! And I think that will be the perfect time to show him that you can live without him.”

I sighed and wiped away my tears. What they said was true.

If I was sticking to this decision, the first thing I have to do is to pick-up the pieces of my life and move on.

Next in my plans would be building a new life for myself and finally doing the things I wanted to do.

I’m an immortal who lived for thousands of years already yet I haven’t lived much.

Funny right?

Most of my life was spent supporting Zeus, managing Olympus, watching out for my husband’s affairs and cursing his women.

Well, it’s no wonder I got labeled as a jealous and vindictive goddess.

But all of that is going to change… Now.

What did a goddess like me want anyway?

Simple. I want a husband who’ll love me, be faithful and treat me like I am the rarest gem in the world.

I want to find something I’m good in and pursue a career in that. At the same time, I want to help women who suffered the same fate I did.

For a long time now, since women were allowed to have professions, I wanted to become a lawyer.

Why?

I want to defend women who have been cheated on. I want to help them with their rights. I want to give them the freedom they deserve.

And being a lawyer, I would be able to do that. I would still represent the side of me known as the Goddess of Marriage but this time it’s going to be on a more hands-on approach.

Now, after a week, everything suddenly seemed lighter.

I had a new purpose in my life and nothing could deter me from it.

I would pick up the pieces of my life, move on and finally be able to do the things I wanted to do.

There’ll be no more pain for me this time because I’ll get to live my own life. I’ll get to choose what I wanted.

I know it would be hard at first but I have two perfect friends who’ll help me along the way.

And after that realization, for the first time in a week, I smiled a true and genuine smile. I looked at my friends and this time, it was me who embraced them.

“Thank you for everything,” I whispered.

“It’s nothing! Let’s not get all sentimental or I am going to cry!” Aerith squeaked.

“So what do you say to moving on?” Amphitrite asked.

I stood up in all my newfound queenly glory and smiled at both of my friends.

“Let’s do it,” I replied with much excitement and every ounce of confidence I could muster.

Truly, this is the start of moving on…

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Thank you for reading and I hope you liked this chapter!

NEXT CHAPTER: The Summit of the Gods on Olympus. Zeus sees Hera for the first time after they separated. And this time, she is the young Hera already (Camilla Belle)

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