"It's time for your baptism, girl! C'mon now!" The mouth that those utterly frightening words came from was scowled up in a frown with harshly gritted teeth. The tone wasn't godly at all; it was more devilish than anything.

"But daddy, please, I don't w—,"

"You don't get to choose when you want to serve the Lord, girl! You come when called, you hear!" The large man who stood taller than six feet and weighed well over two hundred pounds yanked nine-year-old Nina towards the bathtub despite her imploring to be let go.

Nina screamed from the scorching hot water that her head became submerged in, and a few seconds later, she could feel the burning sensation all over her body as her father, Abraham, dunked her inside the bathtub completely.

When she was let up, she inhaled a large amount of air which caused her to choke on the water that clearly went down the wrong pipe. She wasn't allowed much time to adjust before she was thrown back under the water by her neck, all the while Abraham continued screaming at her.

"Amen!" The church spoke together as the small girl emerged from the water with the help of two men and a wide, overly enthusiastic smile rested on her face.

She was so happy to give her life to the Lord, and she was the youngest girl of the church to do it so far—at the mere age of seven. Her old self was crucified with Christ through the waters of 'death', and now she'd risen with him from the water in a 'newness of life'.

Nina couldn't hold back her tears as she watched the little girl, Jesse, be embraced by her parents with a towel, taking her up in a hug together. It was such a beautiful moment, especially with all of the members of the church clapping and cheering for her in the background.

She could see so much of herself in Jesse. She only hoped that the world was much more welcoming and the path of life was far more easier and peaceful than it was for Nina as a growing adolescent. The thought caused her to go into a small solo prayer for the young girl, and tears dropped onto her open Bible as she prayed.

"Amen." She spoke quietly to herself before reaching up to wipe her wet cheek with a Kleenex napkin.

Her left leg repeatedly bounced in place as a closing prayer was said; a prayer she was all too familiar with. When her father was a pastor, he used the same prayer to close out every service. 9am, 11:30am, 1:30pm services on Sunday, and 6:00pm service on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

Best believe Nina was forced to stay and sit through every service, too. The days were mildly tolerable when her parents had a good day that resulted in a good mood, but oh, Nina painfully dreaded the days when it was the opposite.

Even after all of the therapy she'd been through over the years, Nina still often wondered how two so called Christians—the Bishop and First Lady of the Church, at that—could treat a child the way that her parents did.

It was still affecting her many, many years later.

What she'd give to go back and love herself as a little girl the way that she should've been loved by the people who brought her into this world in the first place.

"And we can't wait until the future Pastor, Tyler, and First Lady, Nina, perform their first baptism as the new owners of the church." Nina was taken from her thoughts once her husband pulled her up by her hand to stand with him at the same time that the church erupted with claps.

Tyler waved to the right and left side of him at the crowd, as well as behind him; and Nina just forced a small smile on her face, still not entirely focused. She lived in her head a lot more often than most.

She internally wondered how could she be the woman in lead of a church that hosted hundreds of people every week when her life was in shambles; or, at least it felt that way. Some would assume that she lived a great life, and honestly, in some ways, she did.

Nina lived in a three bedroom home that she and her husband of two years owned, she hadn't worked as an employee of an actual job in almost four years and spent most of her days gardening and exploring new hobbies. She didn't have to lift a finger to do anything besides cooking and cleaning. A good life if you were on the outside looking in.

That's why she tried hard not to complain much or allow depression to suffocate her the way it used to when she was younger. She often ended up mad at herself whenever her emotions happened to get the best of her because she knew there were others who had it way worse than her.

Slowly but surely, she was teaching herself to count her current blessings rather than putting her energy into the bad things that happened in the past.

"You're not even listening to me, are you?" Tyler's voice pulled her from her thoughts again, making her refocus for the second time. She couldn't tell how much time had passed, but people were standing up and getting ready to leave so it must've been a quite a while.

"I'm sorry..this just made me think about w—,"

"This is supposed to be about the both of us and you're only thinking about yourself, like always. Just forget it Nina." He cut her off in a shushed tone as his father approached them, and she turned her head to look at him with a small frown. She hated when he spoke to her like that, especially since that was a bold faced lie.

Instead of turning it into an argument like she wanted to, she grabbed her purse from the cushioned bench they previously sat on and walked down the aisle toward the nearest exit door without saying anything else to him or even acknowledging his father.

When she made it to Tyler's Tesla, she used the app on her phone to unlock the doors since she didn't have his key fob, then she got inside and relocked them.

Hopefully his conversation didn't last too long because she was ready to go home. Her husband was the only person—living—that could get under her skin with small things. He could piss her off so easily, she assumed he did it on purpose at this point.

She unlocked her phone to keep herself busy until he came, and she clicked on the first green circle she saw on Instagram. The sound of Get In With Me by Bossman Dlow played from her phone as she watched her friend swing a bottle of Don Julio around her head before tilting her head back to drink from it.

The next story was a video of the same friend dancing with more of their friends, and Nina let out a quiet sigh after pressing the transparent heart at the bottom of her screen to like the story. She missed her friends so much.

As badly as she wished she could be with them, she knew that she couldn't be caught dead in a scenery like that. She could already hear her husband and both of their families fussing at her about how unholy and embarrassing it was.

Then, since Tyler had a slightly outstanding following of almost three hundred thousand people, things would escalate quickly and she'd have his fans down her back in the blink of an eye. That was one of the main things she hated about being married to an influencer.

Yet still, seeing her friends having fun had her desperately craving a night out. It didn't even have to be at a party or anything like that, she'd settle for just going out for drinks.

She doubted they'd be down for that though, especially with how last time went. Let's just say, she should've turned her location off so that Tyler wouldn't have been able to pull up and see what they were doing.

They hadn't invited her out since. Only one friend, her closest and best friend, Zyriah, reached out every now and then to beg her to come out. The others knew that Nina would decline the invitation out every time, and if she didn't, they knew Tyler would tag along to make sure she wasn't embarrassing him or the image he had.

"Nina, hi sweetheart!" A knock on the window snapped her out of her thoughts for the umpteenth time, and the voice belong to Tyler's mother, Veronica.

"Heyyy, how are you?" Nina opened the door and leaned over to give her a hug just as Tyler approached the vehicle.

"Doing just fine. I was feeling a little down today but that word from the Lord brought me right back! It's always good to be in His presence."

"Definitely. Jameson always brings it good." Nina smiled, referring to Tyler's older brother.

"And that, he does." She paused to cough into the napkin in her hand, and Nina watched it turn red from blood splatter. She could hear Tyler sigh from behind her after closing his door.

"Before we head home, I just wanted to ask, how is Britney doing? Is the child alright?" Veronica asked.

"Yes. We're actually meeting her for lunch in a little while. She has new ultrasounds for us; she says he's as healthy as could be." Nina's smile returned.

"I'm always so happy to hear that! Well, I'm going to let y'all go. Send me pictures of the little one. Y'all be safe now." Veronica gave Nina one more hug before waving at her son, who blew a kiss in her direction.

Nina's smile immediately disappeared once Veronica turned away, and she pulled her seatbelt on just as Tyler shifted the gear into drive. She loved his mom, really, she was actually a very sweet lady. Nina just wasn't in the mood right now.

"You got an attitude?" Tyler asked after seeing the expression on her face.

"So you not ta—,"

"Obviously not. Stop trying to force it." She cut him off the same way he did a while ago.

"You're too grown to be acting like a child. We have this conversation too much."

"How am I acting like a child? Because I don't want to talk to you after you were being rude to me? You think I'm just supposed to take that?" She frowned over at him.

"Oh, I was being rude? You ignored me while I was trying to talk to you after servic—,"

"And while I was trying to explain why I wasn't paying attention, you accused me of thinking about myself when I was just trying to tell you why I was crying! As my husband you should've just knew that watching someone be baptized would remind me of my own." She raised her voice louder than her prior tone.

"It happened years ago Nina. Move on and get over it. Your life is way better now but it won't ever move all the way forward if you don't." He brushed it off like it meant nothing, and her face fell flat almost instantly.

Telling her to get over something that he couldn't even imagine happening to himself was so incredibly insulting, she didn't even know how to respond. So, she didn't.

Nina wiped away a tear that threatened to fall from her eyelid, turning her gaze to the front windshield again. She refused to cry over this. She was so tired of the way he always disregarded her feelings about her past, knowing that she had post traumatic stress disorder. She was used to him brushing her off at this point.

The car ride to the small, mom and pop owned deli spot in downtown Houston was quiet for the most part. The only thing that could be heard was the gospel station on the radio, the only station Tyler ever played.

When they parked, Nina opened her door to get out, putting the strap of her Chanel purse over her shoulder. She briefly glanced down at her phone as it buzzed with a notification from the Messages app, but didn't look long enough to see what it was before she slipped her phone into her purse.

Tyler attempted to grab her hand, but she moved out of his reach and walked ahead of him so that he couldn't touch her. He was just like her father; doing or saying insensitive things and expecting it to be taken as nothing, and thinking all would be forgiven or forgotten without even apologizing.

She hated men. Even the one she married at times.

"Nina! And Tyler, how good to see you." Britney wrapped her arms around Nina for a hug, causing a genuine smile to grace her face.

"You look so pretty Brit. He has you glowing, girl." Nina rubbed Britney's six month belly after releasing her from the hug.

"Me? You! As fine as always." Britney smiled, giving Tyler a side hug next.

"I ordered something already. I tried to wait, but I was craving one of them turkey legs, chile." She sat back down in the chair she previously sat in while Nina and Tyler sat across from her.

"Maybe I'll get one of those too. I haven't had one in a minute." Tyler picked up a menu from the table while passing the other to Nina, and although she wanted to be petty and pretend she didn't notice him holding it out for her, she just took it and opened it to the display of entrees.

"Oh, and I got that transfer y'all sent last night, too. I was already half sleep when I saw it, so I forgot to text back. But I got it. Thank y'all." Britney sipped from the straw in her cup of orange Fanta while expressing her gratitude.

"No, thank you. I know we say it a lot, but we appreciate you. There's not a lot of women that could do what you're doing." Tyler said to her, and she smiled in response while Nina glanced over at him.

Unfortunately, after so many failed attempts at her own pregnancy, the couple were told by Nina's gynecologist about a year after their marriage that she was most likely infertile. It saddened the both of them because Tyler wanted nothing more than to be a father, and Nina wanted so badly to make that happen for him.

Nina had been pregnant three times, but neither pregnancy lasted more than a few weeks after conception. Three miscarriages over the course of a year of trying, so instead of continuing to try to have a biological child when it was clearly taking a toll on Nina's—well, both of theirs, really—mental health, they looked into other options.

Adoption was on the table for a brief moment, but not for long because Tyler wanted a child that had his DNA. His own child, not technically someone else's.

That's when they moved on to the next alternative and ended up being educated on traditional surrogacy, which was where a relative of the intended mother carried a child after being medically inseminated with the father's sperm.

That way, while being the direct offspring of the father or sperm donor, the child would also have genetic traits from the intended mother's family even though the baby wouldn't actually be born from her eggs.

Which is how they landed in their current situation where Nina's second cousin, Britney, was carrying a child for the couple, and of course it came with a price. Tyler—holding the main and sometimes only source of income between the two—was paying $87,000 in total for the surrogacy. That was just $60,000 short of his entire salary.

So, that's why Nina was side-eyeing him after he stated that not all women could do what Britney was doing. It kind of felt like subtle shade towards her infertility, but maybe she was just overthinking. It still slightly offended her though, whether there was malicious intent behind his words or not.

She remained quiet for most of the time that they were there, which was just a little over half an hour. They were supposed to stay longer, but Nina's silence had the air a bit awkward so they left earlier than planned.

"What? I know you not still mad from church?" Tyler held a small frown on his face when Nina dodged his kiss before crawling into her spot on the bed.

"Nah. I'm fine. Just tired, that's all." Her voice was calm and condescending at the same time.

"Your husband can't get a kiss before you go to sleep?" He chuckled, lying down next to her. He leaned over to kiss her again, and this time she let him, but didn't allow him to intensify the kiss.

"I'm tired, Tyler." She mumbled, grabbing his arm when he moved to be on top of her. She wasn't in the mood for below average sex tonight. That would probably make her even madder.

"Ok?" He said as if he was confused on the reason behind her mentioning that.

"As in I don't wanna have sex. Move, please." She gave him a light push, and he sucked his teeth before moving off of her. He laid down against his pillows with a childish huff, making her eyes irritably roll.

The sex wasn't even good. It never was, especially when she wasn't in the mood for it because she typically did all of the work. A woman, doing all of the work for mediocre dick. She wasn't up to it tonight.

She grabbed her phone from the pillow to text Britney and apologize for her attitude from earlier because it definitely wasn't aimed towards her. Then, she saw the message she was notified of earlier when they first arrived at the deli shop, and she realized she never responded.

It was an ironic invite to come out from her best friend, Zyriah. How coincidental that she'd texted when Nina was literally just thinking about her.

She didn't even hesitate to respond this time.

She needed a night out, bad!

Omg guys hey omg 😜 y'all bitches missed me or whattttt???????