Things in Arendelle were improving little by little, thanks to the money that had been recovered Elsa had made sure that the quality of life of the inhabitants of her kingdom improved, and the most neglected areas of the kingdom received the necessary help.
Things had changed in the castle, too, as soon as Elsa had returned to Arendelle she had taken on the job of firing the employees from Weselton and sending them all back to her homeland, then hiring most of the people who had been fired by Zachary, there were also a few new faces in the castle.
Kristoff had also been in charge of supervising some renovations in the palace, so that Elsa could feel more comfortable, her office had been moved to the library, and she had moved to another bedroom.
The months had passed a little slowly, Elsa tried to adapt to being in charge of the kingdom again, Kristoff and Anna helped her at first, although as Anna's pregnancy progressed; the redhead was increasingly unwell and after the birth of little Prince Einar, the baby occupied all her mother's time.
The blonde was the one who continued to help the queen with the paperwork; As well as being the one who most of the time took care of the meetings with the council, sometimes Elsa appeared at the meetings with the council, but she was always accompanied by her brother-in-law, despite having made it clear to the members of the council that she would take the reins of the kingdom and having taken care to remove from the council some members who had done or said something against her, the pressure that existed on her seemed to not end.
It made Kristoff particularly angry that some council members had suggested on more than one occasion they had suggested that Elsa should start considering looking for a new husband, insisting on mentioning the need for an heir to the crown, so she preferred to keep Elsa away from those men; Elsa fortunately with the passing of the months and after the arrival of Einar had gradually recovered her happiness.
Elsa for her part tried to keep herself busy not to remember, sometimes the memories tormented her and managed to tear her down, she doubted that she could forget everything she had experienced in her marriage, but at least that was less and less frequent and she had no intention of invoking old memories For this reason she had ignored each and every letter that Hans Westergard had written to her.
Hans's letters had begun to arrive a few weeks after little Einar's birth, the first time she had read the redhead's name written on an envelope she had panicked, had never read any of those letters, and had directly thrown them into At the fireplace, many times her curiosity tempted her to open the envelope and read the content hidden in those letters, but the fear of reliving things she was still trying to overcome prevented her from daring to read them.
However, despite not having received an answer to any of her letters, the redhead's correspondence did not stop arriving.
- "Anna is very excited about the presentation party of Einar" - The queen commented. - "Anna has always liked parties"
- "You're right, she loves those things" - said Kristoff smiling slightly. - "She is impatient to be able to dance, you know, listen to the music, meet new people and see some acquaintances again" - There was a short silence - "What about you?" Kristoff asked Elsa. - "How do you feel about the party?"
"I'm not thrilled to see some of those people" - She answered. - "But maybe a party could be good for me, I want and need to leave the past in the past, to continue with my life"
- "You don't have to push yourself or rush to do it"
- "I know, but I don't want to keep putting off the inevitable, if I keep doing it I will never face anything and I would just keep running forever" - she said. - "I do not want Zackary to continue controlling my life even when he is no longer here"
- "Anna and I will always be there for you, and we will support you in everything you need" - said Kristoff.
Kai entered the office announcing the arrival of new correspondence, Elsa quickly noticed the name of the now King of Weselton written on one of the envelopes. The queen took the letter in her hands, and a new silence invaded the entire room.
- "You miss him, right?" Kristoff asked.
- "He hurt me" - She commented. - "I trusted him, Hans only used me" - She said. - "The last time we spoke, he said that he was sorry and that he had changed, that he cared about me, but how could I trust him again? How do I know if what he says is true?"
- "I would lie to you if I told you that Hans is my favorite person in the world, but when we saw you again in Weselton after so long, I saw something in you that I thought Zackary had destroyed a long time ago, I don't know if the actions of Hans were honest, but he did you good, and I know he was an important person to you "- he said.
- "Zackary destroyed the letter that Hans had sent him, I looked for it" - She commented. - "I thought that if I found her I would know if Hans was telling the truth or if something in Zackary's words turned out to be true, but I think it doesn't matter much who said the truth, do I?"
- "You want to forgive him" - Assured Kristoff. - "Only it scares you to do it, Elsa, you don't have to forgive him soon, but maybe reading one of his letters is the first step"
The blonde sighed, peering at the envelope for several minutes before finally taking the letter opener for the first time to read one of the redhead's letters.