Like the title of chapter says, this is just a short timeline/headcanon of the di Angelos' life before... you know, all the bad stuff happens. Some of these events are canon, but because of the little information we were given I had to make most of the stuff up entirely out of my mind or conjecture.

First off...

MEET THE DI ANGELOS!

HADES
played by FINN WITTROCK

MARIA DI ANGELO
played by GENE TIERNEY

BIANCA DI ANGELO
played by ISABELLE FUHRMAN

NICOLÒ DI ANGELO
played by FINN WOLFHARD

Now let's get this tragedy started!

* Maria was born on January 2, 1912 in Venice, Italy. She had a wealthy diplomat father and a housewife mother, both of whom she cared for greatly.

* Her parents were never named, so I'll name them:

* Her dad was Baldassare di Angelo while her mother was Piera Fanucci

* Let's say Hades met her when she was in her late teens, seventeen or eighteen maybe

* Maria can't see through the Mist so when she first saw Hades, she just thought he was just a very, very sad looking dude... (but he was hot tho 👀)

* Since she couldn't sense anything off about him, Hades decided to not tell him that he was actually a god (and conveniently forgot to mention that he was married too  💀 💀 💀)

* I feel like Hades has a thing for soft girls??? Complete opposites of him possibly cuz like... look at how he felt about Persephone back then. He took one look at her and was like "that's the kinda woman I wanna simp for", then proceeded to fucking kidnap her :)

* So yes, Hades was probably attracted to Maria's kind and gentle nature, and probably even her bravery too cuz remember in the last chapter? She was told Zeus wanted to kill her and she was like "lol, what an imbecile"

* But I think what REALLY got him into her was how much she valued family, cuz we all know how he felt abandoned by his own.

* This is evidenced when Hades tried offering her a fucking palace in the Underworld, but she turned him down because she didn't want her kids to be raised in there surrounded by all the dead (who could blame her), she wanted them to be raised in a more healthy environment and surrounded by family.

* But anyways, Hades fell hard for this woman. So hard, that he secured two babies with her lmao :D

* Now, at first I struggled to think of how old Maria was when she first had Bianca but I recently began watching this Netflix show called Murder Maps which is about killers in Britain back in the 1900s (IT'S AMAZING) and wooooow, was everyone a young parent.......

* So I did some research and yeah, turns out it was pretty damn normal to marry and get pregnant young haha...

* So I headcanon that Maria was first pregnant with Bianca at 18!

* And THAT was probably when Hades decided to tell her the truth

Hades: I'm a god

Maria: Oh

Hades: I'm also married 

Maria: Oh

* The wiki never specified when Bianca was born other then the year being 1930, so I'll say her date of birth is November 4, 1930!!

* Now, because of how conservative everyone was back then, people were probably scandalized when they found out Maria di Angelo, daughter from a prominent family, had ended up pregnant at eighteen WHILE ALSO BEING UNMARRIED

* :)

* Italy was a majorly Catholic country back then so what she had done would be considered very sinful, especially since she goes and gets pregnant A SECOND TIME, by the same man, while ALSO remaining unmarried :)

* But anyways, Nico's date of birth is January 28, 1932 (make it a national holiday ppl)

* So now Maria's a single mother of two cute lil babies 🥺

* I also feel like Hades tried his best to be around often despite the Ancient Laws, which probably really pissed Zeus off but whatever

* Anyways, if you remember from HOO, the di Angelos visited Diocletian's Palace in Split, Croatia. Nico said he was around six at that time, so I'll say the vacation took place in 1938.

* September 1st, 1939, WW2 begins with Germany invading Poland

* Fast-forward to one year later on 1940, where Mussolini declares war on Britain and France and joins the Axis alliance. That was probably when Baldassare di Angelo went "uhhhh, yeah, let's dip". So the whole family fled to Washington DC

* They're safer there, but America was very distrustful towards Italians. So not only did Maria have to deal with people giving her shit because she was a single mother of two kids, but also because she was very clearly Italian (her last name's literally 'di Angelo' and she was noted to have an Italian accent too).

* (but she didn't experience as much racism as the Japanese did because she was still considered white and America's racist as fuck smh)

* Unfortunately, I don't think it was ever mentioned what hotel they were in when it was blown up, but I like to believe the di Angelos lived in the penthouse suite of that hotel cuz they're ✨rich✨

* But anyways... here comes the tragic day...

* September 18, 1942. Zeus blows up the hotel and kills everyone there, including Maria :(

* FUCK YOU ZEUS

* Also, I'll say that Maria's parents were killed in that too, just to make everything sadder :)

* So Maria was only thirty when she died, while Nico was 10 and Bianca was 12

* As you all know, the only people to survive the attack was Hades and his kids. He then has Alecto wipe the kids' memories in the River Lethe and hides them in the Lotus Casino where they barely age because of how slow time moves

* oh and he also curses the Oracle too, let's not forget about that :)

* Maria ends up in Elysium but rather than staying there to wait for her kids to die and show up, she's like "screw heaven, I'm going back to h̶e̶l̶l̶ the living world to find my fucking kids"

* Hades: But Maria, don't you want to stay here with me—

Maria: —I WANT MY KIDS!!!!! >:(

Hades: Yes, dear...

* Aaaaaaand she's finally reincarnated several decades later. Her new identity? Esmerelda Adhafera Black :)

And that's that! I pretty much only did this because I desperately wanted to figure out what Maria's backstory was and I was disappointed when I realized there was so little information :(

I wanted to publish this chapter yesterday, but my psycho nephew dropped a bookshelf on my foot.......... It was an accident though, he was aiming for my sister (his mom), but my dumb ass got in the way. He's grounded for the entire week and his Switch was taken away at least, but my foot's in paaaaainnnnnn.... my toes are crushed, and the nails are..... I don't even wanna describe it. 

We didn't go to the hospital because we're Americans and we are NOT gonna pay thousands of dollars to get my foot checked, hell fucking no. I just doped myself up on pain killers and decided that was good enough :D

But anyways, if you got any questions about my opinion on the di Angelos, feel free to ask!