A good man for a good woman
Rose was lucky to have a happy marriage, not everyone had the luck to marry a good man, at least not in the current situation of the Galaxy and the perfect example was a few meters away from her at the same table where they were having dinner.
With a dark dress and loose hair, the young brunette looked to no specific place inside the table, her bulging stomach made her stand out from the crowd of guests they received that night. The girl was called Rey or at least Rose had heard that from those close to Emperor Kylo Ren.
Not everyone was destined to find happiness, she said as she watched him caress her belly and automatically see Rey squeeze the fork tightly with the clear intention of stabbing him at any time but that did not happen, she could not, no while he continues to maintain that strange power over her.
"Poor" Rose sighed, not everyone could have her same luck. But it was not always like that, there was a time, she does not remember exactly, but there was a time when everything was different even before her marriage with General Hux.
She had another family, a completely different last name, Tico, and she had a sister too. Rose feels a strange sensation in the pit of her stomach, it must be because she has not liked dinner at all.
She looks at her husband next to her, his red hair makes him stand out from other men, he is tall, imposing and even though it is a common dinner, he still brings his uniform, she is surprised by the fact that, in this time of the postwar period, he is still ordered to interrogate alleged suspects of vandalism against the reborn empire.
Rose is happy because he is a good man, one that risks his own security in order to continue peace and protect the other inhabitants. She feels proud of him every time she sees him return even if she looks sideways at some drops of blood on his boots. "It is the blood of traitors," he says every time, Hux caresses her cheek and she decides to believe him.
However, this happiness did not always have it, there was a time where everything could have been different. Rose has vague memories of her previous life, one she prefers to ignore completely.
During her childhood, she and her sister Paige lived in the mining lands of Hays Minor. A land exploited by a group of people who had rebelled against the peace of the system and who had enslaved her planet in order to obtain resources to continue the rebellion. Fortunately for her and a handful of children, they were saved from their impending fate as slaves by the first order. Unfortunately, her sister had not obtained the same destiny.
They were difficult times, she decides the words with caution before raising her glass before an unexpected toast that makes one of the closest subordinates to her husband, Mitaka, Rose is almost certain that that is his name.
After years of hard training, her effort paid off as she ended up being a very recognized mechanics within the first order. However, like the others, she was accustomed to obeying orders from the superiors.
That's why Rose did not question to anyone when she was introduced at the time to Commander Hux in an informal conversation, something very strange due to the difference of positions between both. It was during those days that she also met a stormtrooper who would later become famous in the order, FN-2187.
Or as he was most remembered within the order, The traitor, one of the lines on her face moves with contempt. She still remembers him, even after being present at his execution. Even perhaps at some point, she might have considered him handsome, Rose remembers that they only spoke once and never heard from him again, only months later when rumors indicated him as one of the culprits of the destruction of the Starkiller base.
She scoffs with contempt, those times where the famous resistance was a problem had ended, and along with its ideal the followers of this absurd idea had also been killed and from among them, was her sister.
It had been a difficult decision, but it was for the best, the news that Paige had been caught among the last survivors, it had been presented to Rose on the eve of her nuptials. She could not afford to endanger her new life, that was why Rose had sent for her and to get rid of her, before word got out that, in the empire, the wife of one of the high commands was related to a scum rebel.
Rose takes Hux's hand when he extends her to dance, she does not dislike music, much less the presence of her husband near her, but the memory of her sister's loss still hurts her. She had seen General Hux many times before being formally introduced, prowling near her work area, but she would not have believed she would be one of General Hux's options when he was advised to take a wife.
Hux always said he was proud of her, that he did not care about her provenance, nobody even the emperor himself questioned him when Hux announced his intention to marry a simple mechanic of the first order, instead of electing a daughter of high officials or of the nobility of other planets that had wished to maintain a close alliance with the reborn empire.
She thanked him every day for having chosen her over the other women, but they did not all think the same way as her. Most believe that their marriage should be hell because he is very strict, she knows it is true. There are two things that Hux loves in the whole universe, one is her and the other was the first order, now the Empire.
However, despite what they think, she takes pride in some of the indiscretions that Hux had with her during their short courtship, as, for example, she remembers the first time he invited her to sit next to him in the dining rooms, although they were in different hierarchical levels within the order and in spite of the first uncomfortable glances, none of his companions said a word.
She remembers the times Hux pushed her to a corner of the base and he kissed her until she had to push him for lack of oxygen; She was not used to being kissed back then and her first kisses with Hux, she can only describe them as uncomfortable.
Rose even remembers the time she admitted in front of Hux that she feared to reject his advances and later his marriage proposal because Hux was powerful and surely would not take a rejection in the best way. Of course, that was before he found out about her little secret.
She does not want to remember that, but she does. Hux is in front of her, watching her read the newspaper, she suspects he knows it. Rose wants to lie, but she can not, she confesses and says everything she did. He forgives her and helps her get rid of the evidences and of the witnesses so no one knows of her horrible sin.
He forgave her every time and she loves him more because of that, he forgave her when she admitted that she did not love him at the beginning of their marriage, he did it when she lost his son in her first pregnancy, he even forgave her for having orchestrated the death of her sister.
Hux was smiling at her. Now they are happy, Rose said to herself and she leaned her head against his shoulder as they continue to dance.
A few days after their wedding, the first rumors of their early separation began to spread, some people said that they could never know love and be happy.
They were so wrong.