Rose was a young lady with her own standards. After all, she was raised in a governor's family and her mom made sure she understood the difference in ranks between them and other people. Besides, her father Eric Matasi, was the first and the most powerful black governor in the country. He wasn't always around that much but whenever he came from wherever he carried out his duties, he'd bring lots of goodies for her. She was his most precious possession. Once every month he'd organise these functions where prominent leaders and merchants would come together and she would be next to him most of the time. All his friends knew her and some of them had asked in prior to marry her, but that didn't go well for most of them. One time when Rose was twelve he punched a rich Arab who asked if she could marry his twenty-one-year-old son, who happened to be at the occasion. They became enemies from then on.
Richard was a jack of all trades who'd travelled countries in the quest for wealth. His parents died when in a train accident when he was five and the little wealth that they had, which happened to be a lot at that time, was took over by his uncle. They weren't best of friends with his uncle and he was forced to flee his home and moved to a differnt country. He started off as an auto spares dealer with the lot he stole from his uncle and realised that that was his niche. He made temporary friends along the way and by the time he was fifteen, he was well off. Eventually he began buying stock and a year later he was rich. He moved to another country when competition got stiffer and started selling oil. He had some Arab friends so importing oil wasn't hard. A year on he heard from pne of his Arab friends about how prifitable slave trade was. Eventually he gained interest and his Arab friend connected him with Eric, who was much older than him. This wasn't a surprise because most of his business deals were between him and older people, hence tricking him was not a walk in the path. He had known all the parterns in business and he was quite good at making deals go through.
Eric found him interesting for many reasons, the main one being, he was rich and was willing to pay a lot of money. Normally, if anyone wanted to trade, Eric was the man to go to for connections and protection. They became friends quite quickly and he became closer to him more than how his Arabic friends were.
Rose on the other hand saw him from a lady's perspective, and to be fair, he was quite attractive. He loved how calm and composed he was and more often she could talk to him, only him. He also acknowledged how beautiful she was and not long after they'd been friends with Eric, he became good friends with her to. Eric realised the connection between them and this didn't bug him at all, after all, if he dared hurt her he would pay dearly, he made sure he knew that.
With time Richard made it official that he loved her and no one was happier about this than Eric. He even managed to convince Richard to stay in the country full time rather than traveling every two weeks to trade. And so the story of Richard Johnson, a humble white man, and Rose Matasi, a black woman from a prominent African family, begun after Richard built a beautiful home far from his father-in-law's place.
***
Back at home, Rose was still healiing after a successful delivery. How happy she was! She knew how badly his husband had longed for a son. She knew he'd be proud of her and their love would grow stronger, just as he had been when she gave him Charlotte, their daughter.
Just when her nurse walked into the room with the baby, a ground shaking explosion was heard. In this case, the explosion was followed by a shriek louder than the one at the boarder. Gunshots followed after a while and screams filled the air. The nurse looked through thw window and it was clear to her that the rebelion were looking for the Johnsons. She quickly handed the baby to Helen, Rose's maid and fled the room. Helen freezed with the baby in hee arms as she looked at Rose who was struggling to get up. She couldn't just flee like the nurse, Rose and Charlotte were like her family. She held Rose with one arm and placed it around her shouoder to try to help her walk out of the room. A guard stormed into the room before they could get out, carried Rose without saying much as they headed for the back exit, Charlotte between him and Helen.
The guard was so fast even Charlotte was struggling to keep up. Not that they could use them, but all the cars were on fire, the perimeter wall was crumbling and the fountains had been destroyed, making the ground muddy. The guard headed for a hole on the wall and as soon as he had crossed quickly with Rose, it crumbled leaving Charlotte and Helen behind. Helen wanted to make her way on top of the ruins but Charlotte slipped to the ground even before they could. Her face was covered in mud and she almost cried. Helen helped her up as Rose and the guard stared on, urging them to hurry.
Just when they were making their way on top, a man shouted in the local dialect, "Where do you think you're going?" Helen's heart pounded like never before. The guard moved to hide Rose, much to her annoyance. She wanted to protect her children and started resisting the guard's effort to hide her.
The man looked at Helen then at Charlotte who was still covered with mud, then at the baby then said, "We don't have a problem with slaves like us. No need to scare your children, let's go." Rose wanted to join them but the guard tried to talk some sense into her. He argued that if she tried to show her face and claim that those were her children, the slaves would've killed them. She cried in dispair as the guard made his way into the bushes with her. Eventually she fainted.
"Okay, let me talk to my daughter first. She fears you," Helen replied. The man slowly walked away from them. "Play along Charlotte," she whispered to her as she wiped her face. "Unless you want the guard to harm little master. Do you want him to get hurt?" "No," she replied as her eyes filled with tears. Helen comforted her and promised her everything would be fine. She just had to keep up with the act and hope Charlotte's light skin would not be a problem.
She followed the man who later introduced himself as Mubasi. She knew that it wasn't permanent refuge but at least it was safer, or was it? They walked for a while before suddenly, the police ambushed them. Their weapons were apparently not good enough and they were thoroughly beaten. The women were spared. Charlotte was not a common face so they were all carried in a lorry and were taken to an Arab dealer.