For all the right reasons

The story of Nia Edwards began with a single word.

Love.

To Some People, it was the most secure feeling. It was avid, a sentiment unable to be characterized by words-something pure, painful, sweet, and dreadful all at once. To others, it was constraining. It was Shakespearean and delusional-a possibility full of drama-limiting as it was expensive. But Nia never saw it as any of these. To her, loving meant giving her body, heart, and soul-it meant giving her all and It might have been ideally delusional but she'd always been the sort to love naively.

Who could blame her?

Growing up as a colored girl in a white man's city wasn't as lenient as one would think it was and after being thrown out into the streets by her foster father who had constantly tried but failed to get between her thighs, she'd been left stranded, with nothing but her persistence, strong will, and high hopes for a better tomorrow.

Life became hard and living was a daily struggle but somehow, when Vincent came into the picture, things changed.

She remembered the rain falling heavily that day. It was a Sunday evening and the icy grey sky grumbled restlessly, turning the light 'pitter-patter' of water into loud gregarious booms of thunder. She remembered the smell of moist earth and rotting food tossed by the side of the road where the flies hummed. She remembered shivering to a cold so potent that it felt as though her bloodstream had turned ice.

She had curled herself up behind the vegetable store, bone-deep exhaustion and grief overtaking her as her sobs muffled into wet tears that mixed with the roaring rain. All night, she'd sat there chanting a silent prayer, wishing for some kind of dues ex Machina- for a savior and then, as if sent by God himself, Vincent showed up, covering her with his umbrella and looking down at her with those bright green eyes that set fire to the ice in her heart.

She hadn't met this man before but he'd taken her home, given her fresh clothes, and fed her with a tasty meal. At that moment of vulnerability, he'd become her savior, her haven, her lifeline. she'd fallen in love with him, vowed her soul to him. But the thing is... You never really know a man's true nature until he gains total control over you and for young and beautiful Nia, it took her, four miscarriages, a damaged rib, and three long years of servitude to realize she had loved the wrong person for all the right reasons.

But, there is hope...