Chapter 4: Choosing a Name

At some point Eve must have drifted off to sleep because the next thing she knew she was waking up. Stretching her stiff limbs Eve then looked at the clock. It was around 3am Eva was still tired but because of the kink in her neck she couldn't get comfortable and go back to sleep.

Feeling something gouging her thigh Eve stuck her hand down the side of the seat and found her pen and notebook wedged between the carseat and her leg. Realizing that she must have fell asleep while going over her notes, Eve opened it to the last page she had been going over.

At the top of the page sat a large empty box. Next to the rectangular box was the word "name:" She had started on this page over a month ago yet the box had remained empty. This page had been dedicated to her daughter and over the last month the bottom of the page had slowly filled up with names ,that she liked, but she still had not decided on a name. She wanted the perfect name. Sadly, the name she wanted to write in the box was a name that they already knew. If she used it his family could easily use it to locate them.

Originally when Eve was pregnant she had found the most beautiful name, Elleana Brielle Reece, and wanted to name her it. But her husband and his parents rejected the name simply because she came up with it. She was given no say in the matter as they forced her into compliance with various methods. Thus her daughter was named Elizabeth Jane Reece. A family name. A name picked out by his mother.

Her life with them was full of incidences like this, were they forced her to comply. It was like she was no more then a mere puppet with no will of her own. She had no rights and no voice. She was not their blood therefore she was not part of the family. Her job was to breed the next generation of Reece's and raise them under the guidance of her mother-in-law.

The mental, emotional, and even instances of physical abuse weighed on her. This was not the life she wanted for her daughter. This was why she started to plan their escape even before her daughter was one month old.

This is why for the last four and a half months she had been diligently working in secret to this end. She had slowly gathered money without her husband noticing. Even going as far as to steal money out of his wallet in the middle of the night when she got up to breastfeed.

But she didn't stop there. She had gotten their passports and visas by forging his signature, as both parents had to sign for a child. The day before she left she had mailed out four boxes of her things. She only got them out of the house,under her in-laws watchful eyes, by claiming that she was taking some of her old things and the too small baby clothes to the thrift store. Luckily for her, they did not detect her lie and look through the boxes.

The biggest and riskiest move she made though was buying the airline tickets, and getting the money for the down payment on the new apartment. Both were rather large payments and could not be bought with stolen money from a wallet. So the evening before she left she went to the bank right before they closed to drain their joint savings account. This way when he did find out that night he couldn't contact the bank until the next day. Plus the time stamp on the transaction was after hours so it looked like a glitch in the bank's system. Of course, he questioned her about it blaming her for the lack of funds but she made sure to cover her tracks. She was able to deflect the blame by asking why she would need to go to the bank again she since she had already went that morning to do everything. After that she was left hoping and praying that he wouldn't find out the truth about her second visit to the bank until after she disappeared.

Everything had been calculated and done with precision so they could escape. Now the only thing left was choosing a name for her daughter. From the beginning it had been hard to call her daughter Elizabeth. So once she started coming up with a plan to escape she, in rebellion, had chosen not to call her daughter by her given name. She had instead addressed her as "baby girl", "daughter of mine", or "my baby"; along with many other generic terms. Since her daughter didn't truly understand, is was more for Eve's mindset as a constant reminder then for her daughters. But once they stepped off the plane she was going to need a name.

She had around twenty names written down in the notebook originally but before boarding the plane she had already narrowed it down to three names. Right before she fell asleep earlier she had narrowed it down to one name. It was the one name Eve felt matched her daughter the best and portrayed her own feelings for her daughter.

However finding a middle name to flow with the first and last name was where she was stuck.

Eve had already gone over all the names on the page thinking maybe she could pair one with the first name but it just didn't flow. So she started to web search for one. She had found that she liked the French names the most when previously looking at names. There was something about how they rolled off the tongue that was just beautiful. So she started there. Scrolling through all these names she started to feel tired again. Knowing she needed to quit and get some rest before her daughter woke up, she decided to do one last search: "Beautiful rare baby girl names". As the search results popped up she scrolled through them. There were many pretty names and even some beautiful ones but none that she thought would fit her precious baby girl. Feeling discouraged and about ready to call it quits she saw a names that caught her attention. The name was unique, different, something she had not seen in any of her searches. Clicking on it she read the information about it. Pronunciation, origin, definition and popularity all were listed in the facts below the name. Testing out the pronunciation of the name to see if it would flow with the first name she picked Eva found that she absolutely loved the ebb and flow of the two names together. They complimented each other quite nicely.

Turning her head Eve looked at her sleeping daughter and whispered the name to her, testing it out. Seemingly hearing her mother's voice even in sleep the baby turned her head and smiled. Taking this as a sign, and feeling that it fit her to a tee, Eve too broke out in a smile. Grabbing the pen Eve began filling in the box on the page that had been empty for over a month.

Name:

Gemma Marcelle Kennedy