“I thought I was doing so well,” she said, voice rather shaky as she struggled to gain control over her sobs. “I got this whole house on my own, I had it remodeled and everything, I have this little teacup pig to take care of, I've made a lot of friends and I didn't really have many of those...” Harmonia paused and swallowed hard, “before... at all.” Which, she really didn't. She had her siblings, and Philotes, and to a degree... Hebe. “And even something I had thought impossible happened... I have someone who actually wants to be with me and isn't scared of Daddy,” the lump formed firmly in the back of her throat and was making swallowing very difficult.
For a few moments she just sobbed. “I was doing so well, I was so happy. But... I don't think I'm allowed to be.” Harmonia's grip on her grandmother released so that she was able to wipe at her cheeks. “Every time I find myself feeling happy and actually enjoying my life, that gets ripped away in some way. My children... my grandchildren...” There was a bit of a relapse where her shoulders began trembling again, her body completely overwhelmed. “And that stupid necklace went missing and it's my fault I didn't go on an intensive hunt right away, but... I'd been so incredibly miserable for so long I just... got so wound up in how good I was feeling for once... until...” Until she failed her family completely.
“Until I saw what it did to Anteros.” The words didn't seem to stop. Harmonia's eyes focused somewhere out in front of her suddenly, “so, I got it back and... honestly, I was just going to ask Heph nicely to just please destroy it and stop letting it hurt people not involved with all this. Because if his aim was to hurt my parents... I think he missed that mark by a thousand miles or more. And if the goal was just to hurt me... well... he succeeded ages ago and could we find a way to finish this because I cannot live like this. I cannot sit and worry that every time something good happens to me, something terrible is going to happen to someone I love as well. All because I was born... which I had no control over and certainly don't remember making a petition for from the aether.” The tears paused as she seemed to find a hypnotic focus and an eerie rhythm of the words she spoke.
“Except... I couldn't find him anywhere. After about the third forge I started to think it might be intentional given how strangely rude and forceful his statues and attendants were. I cannot stop this, not for myself, not for anyone else... it is in that vault now, but I don't even know if it will stay there... for as vile and evil a thing it truly is. It certainly seems bent on causing as much devastation as possible on its own for something inanimate.”
Harmonia rocked forward a bit. “How do I let anything go when I need the reminder that it will not be over and I should probably not let myself risk too much to avoid others getting hurt just by association?” She didn't even care if Hera would be angry with her for doing any of what she did on her own. What did it matter now? What could possibly be worse than what she was going to have to endure now -a long and endless life without joy because of a vengeful step-father and a curse he wouldn't break?