“They left me there to rot,” she said in a tone that bordered on snapping at him. Even so, she took the offered bit of cloth and wiped her eyes. It was a sincere belief of hers that her family wouldn't have cared if she ever came back. “Oh sure, everyone came to the wedding, like it was the biggest social to-do of existence. But after that was over, I was on my own.” She rarely saw anyone other than Philotes, and they had no immediate relations. Hebe visited her occasionally in the beginning, but that faded out over time.
Harmonia was quite sure her father was ashamed of her situation and his inability to get her out of it, which was why she only saw him on the battlefield, when she stood alongside her husband in their chariot. Even then, he said nothing to her. He, the family she loved above everyone else, didn't seem to speak to her. Balance was left alone to fend for herself.
“Please,” she begged. “There is nothing for me out there. I've been forsaken and apparently punished for my time away even though Zeus was the one to put me into this situation. I made the best of it and have only been met with heartache at the hands of those I used to revere as family.” Balance looked at Hades hopefully. It was how she genuinely felt -like her life among the mortals was some great disgrace to the Olympians that they felt the need to ruin the life she'd made for herself.
She let Cadmus twine himself around her arm and she raised the hand his head rest upon to her lips, placing a kiss on his small serpent head. “My husband was a good man. He treated me well and cherished our children. She allowed women rights in Thebes and Illyria that we are not allowed in say... Athens. He does not deserve this fate.”
Looking back up at Hades she pleaded with him again. “Please, Lord Hades. Let me go with my husband.”