CHAPTER ONE

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CHAPTER ONE

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CHAPTER ONE.

Phoenix was standing in her studio, a pallette in her hand as she looked over the mid-sized canvas in front of her. She had been working on the picnic scene for weeks and it never seemed to look right. Which is why she stood painting it despite the presence of her father in the studio. A place she usually forbade him from entering.

He was sitting in the plush red armchair only a few feet away from the easel. He was a tall and rough-looking man. A scraggly beard, his features made up of sharp and blunt lines. They simultaneously made him look soft but also cruel in the same instant. A fact that made Phoenix, as a child, fear her father but now she thought it added to his charm.

He had decided to accompany Phoenix to her studio and although Phoenix was hesitant to let her father into her safe space, she allowed it. Just this once. Her father had never really been interested in her paintings, only what she could do in other areas. Phoenix was intelligent but creative and that intelligence and her own willpower is what led to Phoenix becoming a Senator for her home world of Mith. That's what her father was here to discuss. Not the most recent painting.

"Your mother would be proud of you," Brandaen spoke up after a long silence between the father and daughter. His words brought a smile to her face but it was hidden behind the canvas. Her mother had died during childbirth and she never knew her but she felt like she did with how much her father would talk about her whenever Phoenix asked. It was rare, however, that Phoenix would ask.

"And that's all I've ever wanted. I'm going to make the world better for her even if she can't experience it," Phoenix responded, her voice as poised and formal as ever. Speaking to her father was like speaking to someone high in power. Formality was of the utmost importance especially now they had a reputation to uphold. Phoenix didn't mind the formality, not when they had moments where they sat together in the library of their home, and read and talked for hours.

"Jax was speaking of your return to Coruscant. He would like to accompany you this time," Brendaen added as he watched his daughter. Her talent was always something that confused him. He didn't have a single creative bone in his body and yet, his daughter was wonderfully creative. Phoenix lifted her head to look up at him. A small smile tugged on the corners of her lips at the mention of Jax.

"I'll be returning in a few days and Jax coming would be lovely. He has not seen Coruscant in a long time," Phoenix said. Jax was her husband-to-be. A man that she had come to in some ways adore but there was always that nagging feeling that maybe she didn't love him, not like she should. 

Phoenix wanted to marry for love, not just status. Jax would give her both if she could simply allow herself to feel that love again. It was something she hadn't felt since she was a teenager and part of her knew, she was still mourning that long-lost teenage romance. But with Jax, she knew she had to love him. She did not want to marry without being in love. A loveless marriage would be a cruel fate to resign herself to.

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