Leaving Eva (The Eva Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

and nuzzled those round cheeks, she could smell her sweet fresh innocence. Ellie prayed she would always be that way. She breathed the baby in, enjoying her daughter’s newness and reveling in the beauty that was somehow created in her own body.
    Ellie was in love.
    She shyly pulled off the little hat and tentatively touched the soft dark billowy hair. “Wow!” she whispered. There was so much of it! She ran her fingers through each curl, and she smiled as the entire world fell away.
    “It will probably fall out,” Ellie’s nurse said, startling her. She forgot that she was still in the room. Her world had shrunk to the tiny being in her arms.
    Ellie’s eyes got big. “Fall out?”
    “It’s supposed to,” her nurse said quickly, trying to reassure her. “It happens with most babies. It will grow back.” She has so much to learn, and no one to teach her. Ellie was completely alone in the world now, no longer speaking to her parents and no father of the baby anymore. There was nobody to take care of her now, she had confided to her nurse in between contractions.
    Her nurse had no idea how Ellie would take care of her baby, and she feared for both her and the child.
    Instead, she pushed those thoughts aside and decided to think positive. Ellie seemed smart and if a social worker from the hospital could point her in the right direction, maybe she would have a chance.
    “Do you have a name for her?” She forced a smile as she asked Ellie.
    Ellie thought hard, her pretty dark brows furrowed in thought. Even after eighteen hours of hard labor, her beauty was evident. She had the smooth untarnished face of a young girl, but her eyes told a different story. Big, dark and brown, the color of rich coffee, they had a depth that girls at her age didn’t usually have. Most girls at her age were going to sleepovers and hanging out at the mall with their girlfriends but the nurse could tell this girl had chosen a different path.
    As the girl thought hard for a name, she looked exactly as the child that she was
    “What is your name?” Ellie asked her almost shyly, her voice pretty, and almost musical.
    “Eva,” the nurse said quickly surprised at the question.
    “Then I will name her Eva. Eva Elizabeth. You have been so nice to me and…” Ellie’s voice trailed off as though she couldn’t finish the sentence.
    Nurse Eva blinked back tears, overwhelmed by the gesture. She was saddened that Ellie had nobody else in her life to name her precious baby after.
    “Well, naming your baby is a big decision, and you should give that some thought dear. I would be honored, but you’ll want to be sure. She will have that name for the rest of her life.”
    “I’m sure,” Ellie said without hesitation. “Eva Elizabeth.”
    She smiled for the first time, and she was beautiful.
    Nurse Eva nodded at Ellie, and left the room before the girl could see her tears. Eva walked down the quiet sanitary hall to the supply room. She knew that Ellie’s life was about to become a great deal more difficult and that there was nothing that she could do. Take care of her while she is here, steer her in the right direction. That is all you can do. Eva busied herself organizing the supplies, filling out charts and checking on the rest of the babies.
    It was time for her to go back and check on Ellie and as she got closer, she heard yelling from inside the room. Ellie had barely spoken above a whisper since entering the hospital, but Eva knew that it was her voice. Then Eva heard a man’s voice coming from the room yelling just as loudly. Eva rushed into the room and was surprised to see a young man standing over Ellie’s bed. As she got closer, she realized that he wasn’t all that young, at least not as young as he should be.
    He looked to be about twenty-seven, and this girl was barely fifteen.
    “I’m Eva. I’m the nurse. Is everything okay in here?” She said to the man realizing that her voice sounded brittle, nervous.
    “Yep,” he