Half and Half

Chapter Twenty Five

Persephone stared at the letter in delighted shock. She honestly couldn't believe that the words before her were real. She had received the letter from Queen Belle and, at first, thought it to be addressed to her by mistake and that it was really for the former King Beast.

It wasn't until Beast informed her that, if Belle had wanted to send him a letter she would have, that Persephone realized the letter was for her and opened it.

Dear Lady Persephone,

I hope this letter finds you well and that it also finds young Mal to be well. It was a pleasure hosting the two of you in the castle during your time in Auradon.

I won't bore you with any pretentious dribble as I know your time is valuable so let me jump to the main point of my letter. Your petition to adopt young Mal has been approved and the registries have been updated to reflect it. In all legal sense of the word, Mal is your daughter by rights and would never need to return to the 'care' of Maleficent.

Please reach out if you have any questions regarding the adoption, and I will make sure I'm available to take any portal calls as well.

I hope you all are in the best of health.

Sincerely,

Queen Belle Le Bête

High Queen of Auradon

How...how had it been so simple to take Mal out of Maleficent's clutches? Could it really be over? Just like that? Could...could they really have Mal back and have a way to guarantee there'd be no lizards lurking in the shadows trying to steal her back?

It was almost like a dream come true, something Persephone never thought would happen.

"Steph?" Hades' voice called, her husband looking at her in concern. Of course she was still standing in their bedroom looking at Belle's letter so her husband's concern was understandable.

"Oh! Hades!"

"Is everything okay?" Hades asked as he walked over to his wife. "You normally don't act like this over a letter. Granted we normally don't get that many letters..."

Persephone smiled as her husband's rambles trailed off and she handed him the letter. "Read it."

"Steph, are you sure? This is your mail—."

"Hades, I wouldn't have told you to read it if I didn't want you to read it," Persephone told him. "Not to mention, this impacts you as well. You should read it."

"Okay..." Hades said slowly as he glanced at the letter in his hands. His eyes got wide as he realized just what he had in his hands and he looked back at Persephone. "Steph...this is real?"

"The only people who know about the adoption are myself, Queen Belle, and the council and I doubt anyone on Queen Belle's council would forge a letter from her," Persephone said. "But that is a good point. Is Beast here?"

"He's about to leave for his shift but we can ask him," Hades said and the two Gods scurried out of their room. Thankfully they were able to catch Beast just before he walked out the door.

"Is everything okay?" Beast asked as he looked at the two of them.

"Yeah, yeah," Hades nodded. "Listen, Beastie, you'd say you know your wife's handwriting pretty well right?"

"I'd say so," Beast nodded, though he was still unsure as to what Hades was asking.

"So you'd know if something that claimed to be written by her was a forgery?"