By
Elena Matthews
The birth of your firstborn child is supposed to be the best day of your
life, a joyous occasion. Well that’s what twenty-eight year old Ava Jacobson
thought. That is until her life takes a drastic turn for the worse and her
daughter is born three months earlier than planned, weighing only two pounds,
two ounces.
A distraught Ava is thrown into the deep end of motherhood and instead
of being able to hold her baby like other moms, she has to sit back and watch
her daughter fight for her life in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit,
while her fiancé, Sebastian Gilbert is in the midst of a messy war in
Afghanistan. Ava is left to pick up the pieces with the help of her only
friend, Caleb Summers.
When her vulnerable state hits an all time low, she finds solace in an
unexpected pair of intense green eyes. Eyes that belong to her daughter's doctor,
Ashton Bailey, and she falls, like she has never fallen before. However, for
the sake of Sebastian she desperately tries to fight against her newfound
feelings for Ashton, but eventually the pull between the two is so strong that
it is impossible for her to stay away.
Then when Ava is convinced things can't possibly get any worse, a cloud
of blackness closes in on her as the secret demons of her past come back to
haunt her, with news that will irreversibly shake her entire world
forever.
As Ava’s roller coaster ride she calls life begins to circle the drain,
she quickly learns that even through the darkness of evil, there is always that
one person who will look after you and have the ability to pull you away from
the brink of no return, when nobody else can.
Excerpt
I feel as though I
am drowning in the deepest of waters, without a life jacket, with no way of
survival. I abruptly pull my hand out of his and bury my face deep into my
hands. I angrily bite against my hand as I mumble, “I don’t how much more I can
cope with.”
“Hey.”
My eyes water at his sympathy and that only makes me feel worse.
I cry hysterically, wishing for just one moment that I wasn’t the poor girl
with the preemie baby daughter. That I wasn’t the poor girl whose fiancé, was
in Afghanistan, that I wasn’t the poor girl who was being tormented by her
demons and fears. I want to be a girl, a normal girl without a worry in the
world.
Of course, the perfect life doesn’t exist for me. It never has.
Suddenly I feel a dip beside me on the sofa, and when a pair of
strong arms wrap around my shaking body, I accept them and bury my face into
the incredible warmth of Ashton’s chest. I cry hysterically into the spot where
his heart sits. After a few deep breaths, the steady beat of his heart begins
to create a calming effect, and I don’t ever want to let go.
Ashton rocks me back and forth as I grip hold of his white coat,
pain ricocheting through my body, causing me to wail through my ugly cries. I feel a comforting tingle move down my spine as he
lightly strokes his hand through my long hair. Somehow I must have lost my ponytail
holder from its messy bun during my hysteria. He doesn’t utter a word as I lose
control of my emotions. He just lets me break down into his arms. I know how
inappropriate this would look to an outsider, how bad this would seem to
Sebastian, but right now Ashton’s arms are all I have, and whether it is right
or wrong, I like how he is making me feel. I finally realize how much I have
missed him, how much I missed the friendship that we developed during the
confined environment of this hospital. He made my day that little bit brighter.
I could do with a pick me up, especially after the past week. I hate to admit
it, but I love the way his arms feel around me, it feels natural. It feels perfect.
The room is silent when my tears eventually dry up. The only
thing I can hear is the drumming of his heartbeat and the soft sound of light
breathing coming from Ashton. I know, now that I have stopped crying that I
should let go of him, but for some reason I don’t. I just keep locked into his
embrace, and for the first time in a long time I finally feel content, and I
don’t have the weight of my demons hovering over me. I finally feel safe.
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About the author
Independent author
Elena Matthews was born in Manchester, United Kingdom, where she lives with her
other half, but even after eight wonderful years, she is still waiting for that
epic proposal. Elena enjoys spending
quality time with her friends and family, especially her four-year-old niece,
Caitlin, who is the apple of her eye (She’s a little monkey too!). Elena is
positive Caitlin is the love child of Jekyll and Hyde. Thankfully, the
joys of being an auntie, means she can hand Caitlin back over to her mum and
dad when she’s all tired out!
Elena spent three
years of her life at Salford University studying media production, to decide at
the end of her degree she no longer wanted to pursue a career in the media.
Instead, it took her another two and half years to realise her calling.
Writing. Now she lives and breathes her writing. She even had to tell her
colleagues at work whenever she is found daydreaming at her desk, it’s because she
is conversing with her characters.
Author notes
Title
– Look After You
Genre
– New Adult
Published
– 5th April 2014
Authors
notes –
Warning: Recommended for ages 18+ due to
heavy subject matters of rape and suicide. Also includes violence, explicit
language and sexual situations.
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