Chapter 233 What a Mother Should Have
On the other hand, Hera embodied more of a "Villainous Queen" persona. It wasn’t that she had inherently evil tendencies, but rather she displayed a fearless and sometimes petty side when crossed, akin to the villainesses depicted in novels. Despite this, she also exuded an aura of regal leadership, commanding respect with her strong mindset and imposing presence when necessary. Initially, Athena struggled to reconcile this transformation in Hera—from a once purely kind and naive soul to someone who retained her kindness and gentleness but shed her naivety, becoming more cunning and strategically astute. Despite Athena’s initial difficulty in understanding this change, she ultimately saw it as a positive evolution in Hera’s character that became different from the Hera depicted in the novel.
However, Athena eventually came to realize that the current Hera was likely the true Hera she would have been, had her parents still been alive to protect and pamper her as the princess she was. After their deaths, the vulnerable part of her surfaced and the other part of herself retreated, and she adopted the persona depicted in the novel, suppressing her true self in a quest for love—believing it could only come from Alexi. Hera believed that by exerting all her efforts and displaying sincerity, she could melt Alexi’s heart. Sadly, this belief ultimately led to her downfall, impacting both herself and her people.
Now, thanks to Athena’s companionship and nurturing, Hera no longer felt the need to conceal her true self—except for one instance. When she unexpectedly encountered Alexi, she tried hard to evade being drawn back into the storyline that dictated her fate. She believed she had successfully altered her destiny, only to realize the cruel truth: fate would not release its grip on her. Reluctantly, Hera returned to the role she thought she was meant to play, suppressing her true nature once more to stay by Alexi’s side.
But when she noticed Alexi treating her differently, Hera began to believe that there might be an escape from her tragic fate. She cautiously refrained from returning to her family after turning 18, wanting to ensure that the change was real. She made deliberate choices, diverging slightly from the expected path to see where they would lead. On their third anniversary and Alexi’s birthday, events that were marked as the beginning of the storyline involving Minerva and Alexi, Hera remained resolute. She held onto the belief that she had altered her fate significantly and that they had long strayed from the scripted narrative.
So, she poured her heart out and decided to buy him the gift he wanted: the Patek Philippe. It symbolized her commitment to a fresh start, believing that Alexi was the person fate intended for her to spend her life with. If they could defy the storyline and avoid the predicted outcome, this new beginning would be theirs to share. Hera hoped Alexi wouldn’t disappoint her, but ultimately, the inevitable still happened.
Hera’s heartbreak stemmed not from Alexi’s betrayal, which she believed had chosen her and hoped for a better future, but from realizing she had failed to alter the course of their lives, especially for her grandfather and those who depended on them. Athena was aware of all this, having been by Hera’s side every step of the way, sharing her hopes of defying both the world’s expectations and Hera’s predetermined fate.
But now that things are unfolding differently, Athena feels happy for Hera. Truly happy for her best friend. And she could only hope for the best, at first she felt bad about their plan of stealing Alice’s fate because she still believed that Alice was the pure and innocent girl beloved by the world—the chosen one. Athena thought that Hera might really be wrong about Alice, she thought that Alice was not perfect and surely, it was just a mistake on her part and a lapse in decision that she had associated herself with Minerva and her choice of choosing to help her friend. However, witnessing everything firsthand and standing alongside the characters from the novel, she realized how mistaken she had been.