I love you, my little lily.

That is what Pluto said to me before I left the Underworld.  The tales of us are never truly told right.  What they always got wrong was that I did, in fact, love my husband.  At first, I admit that I had a pure hatred for him, but I grew to love him.  He is best friend, my husband, and my lover.  I am now standing in a garden in Florence, Italy. Most of the other gods chose to stay in New York City, but I never liked it there.  The air is polluted and I never felt that connect to there as I did here.  I walked over to sit next to a flower.  A purple tiger lily.   It was a gift from Pluto.

"I am counting the days until we meet again, my King of Death", I said to the flower.

Why did he have to trick me? 

My brother, my own brother, tricked me out of the throne and took it for himself.  To make sure I wouldn’t become a problem, Zeus banished me into the Underworld.  How could he?  I am walking to a park in New York City.  It is the Winter Solstice, the only time I am allowed to go to Olympus.  I never understood why he did it to me.  Am I such a horrible person that I deserve to be put into hell?  It’s not that I am mad, just that I am still confused.  I would have taken the position anyway.  I am Hades, Lord of the Underworld.  I still do love my family, including Zeus.  I am always compassionate.  When you see souls assigned to where they will be at for eternity, it makes you become this way, but also wary and despairful.

That is until I meet my little lily.

I really didn’t want the apple.

We were in Venice, Italy. It was Hera, Athena, and I.  When Eris threw that stupid Golden Apple, the second time, at us, we made another argument over who should have it.

Know your probably thinking, Aphrodite the Vain.

Well I’m way over that.  I am the Goddess of Love and Beauty.  I knew I was beautiful, but I wasn’t going to argue over it.

News Flash: We gods, yeah, we are all good looking.  Even my husband, Hephaestus, who was consider ugly.

My point is that I wasn’t in the mood to argue.  We found another young man, a descendant of Paris, to decide on who was the fairest of us.  Hera promised a wish, Athena promised he would never lose a battle, and I, well I promised him love.

The boy, Samuel, said, “I chose Aphrodite”.

This wasn’t expected…at all.