Prologue
Part one:
It was warm, but the wind blew with a tragic force and caused the new mother to stumble as she tried to navigate the dark forest floor. She clutched the mewling newborn to her chest and silently cursed whoever tried to give her this life. She knew she was not cut out for this - her? A mother? - This was the only option. Find a house- any one would do- and play a fateful game of ding-dong-ditch with chance. Hopefully the child would end up in a good home. Hopefully.
But she was lost. How she could get out of the forest she had no idea. She had chosen to run when she felt the baby coming. She hadn’t wanted anyone’s help with this. This child, at least until she was able to hand it off, was hers to decide for. It would be born in the forest. Hopefully she and it would not die there too.
With her free hand she reached up to brush the fallen strands of hair that the wind had blown in front of her eyes. As she did this she saw the bright light of a house. The bright light stood for her freedom and the fate of the child. This light caused her to quicken her pace. Her only hope now was that she wouldn’t get caught.
Minutes later she reached the door, trembling she took the child, made sure its pink swaddling was in place and tucked the note that she had written weeks ago, as soon as she had been told the gender of the baby and had made up her mind that YES she would carry the baby, but NO, she could not keep it.
She paused, briefly to admire her little creation, at the little girl that was until just recently, a part of her. Shouldn’t this make her want to keep the baby? Her entire being screamed no. So she only could linger for a moment until she took this house’s driveway to the main road.
The little girl had a shock of hair so pale that it was practically white and eyes that were an icy, clear blue. These were obviously from her father. The thought of the child’s father caused a deep feeling of disgust towards both the child and the father that she suddenly became revolted with the idea of affection towards this helpless creature. She was tired of staring at this pitiless….thing…she felt that the need to hesitate had passed and without any more second thoughts she left and made sure that she didn’t ring the bell.
There was no need to ring the bell. Not ten minutes after the mother had reached the end of the driveway, the previously quiet little girl began to scream.
Her rescue party within the chosen house, this family of fate, came to her aid immediately.
Part Two:

“I want to keep her.”
“But is it wise? Think of how the Volturi would react!”
“I. Don’t. Care. This is the first time that the opportunity has presented itself, Alice! This is something that both Emmett and I have wanted for the longest time. Seeing how Renesmee has completely managed to turn so many things around, well, it just made my undead maternal clock just start ticking again. And, it’s not exactly like we can just make a child ourselves!”

“If you guys could hear the way she talks about children…Rose I want this baby too… But have we even looked at this letter that she came with? Anybody?”

Seven heads turned to look down at the two pieces of paper in Emmett’s hands. He looked up “Should I read it aloud?”

Nods came from all around.

He cleared his throat and began to read:


“First I just wan to say that I am sorry. Especially if having a child was not in your future. That was how it was for me and I just wanted I just thought that this could be a way out. Hopefully you will be able to keep what I was unable to.

I just also wanted to say that it wasn’t me being selfish. I just didn’t think that I could properly raise a child. I wanted it to have a better life than the one I could give it.

I suppose that I should stop calling the child inside of me an ‘it’ though, it’s not fair. I found out the gender today so I guess now is as good of a time to pick a name as any, right?

In case you haven’t checked, the baby is a girl. Or, well, she should be. That is, after all what I was told at the doctors office today…however this child isn’t really mine is it? Not if I am giving it to you. So how about I think of some names, write them down here, and then you pick the one that you like to best. Or you can just name her whatever you want. It’s not like I’d know anyway…but just for the fun of it... I like the names: •Rhine• Ever• Rebel•…Isolde• they are strange but then again, me leaving a child on your doorstep is just as strange….

There aren’t many things left that you should know….her birth certificate is in this letter as well, but you’re going to have to fill it out. I left all the spaces blank since everything about her life is so unsure right now…”

Emmet stopped and cleared his throat. “The writing changes here. I think that she might have written this last part near the end…

My pregnancy is almost over and I’m actually scared of what I will soon be going through. I don’t even have a plan or anything. But I just want this to be over with… a few more weeks …and then I will be free. I’m sorry if that sounded mean but I just can’t take the stares anymore! Just get this over with! I'm sorry to the future family for burdening you with my mistake but this is the only way both the baby and I can survive. I only hope that one day I will be able to look back on this decision and know that it was for the best. Please provide for the baby as much as you are able to. You don’t even have to tell her that she was adopted if you don’t want to. Please make sure that you love her and that she loves herself. I hope that you raise her so that she will never make the mistakes that I did.



-Sarah

Rosalie paused and while trying to hide a smile she said, “Well…then I guess that that’s that then right? That means that she – she’s ours? To keep?”

Emmett looked at her and smiled, “Yeah. I guess so…”

Carlisle looked at his two adopted children in admiration, “If the Volturi find out well… we will find a way. I don’t want to deny you two this opportunity.”

“So what’s her name going to be then!” all of Alice’s pessimism vanished at the thought of getting to keep the child. “Personally, I like the one suggestion made by the mother…Where is it…?” she tugged the letter from Emmett’s hands and began to peruse the letter at top speed, “Here it is! I like the name Rhine! Because just like the river itself, she will be a little river of life!”

“Way to get cheesy Alice!” Edward laughed and moved to hug Bella from behind, “But that is a very pretty name though. I like Rhine too.”

Everyone around began to nod as they too began to fully appreciate the name.
Chapter 1:
I was woken up by the soft thumps of my roommate’s pillow upon my head who was punctuating each of her words with a thump, “Get. Up. It’s. Parents. Day.”

“ Since when? What time is it?” my words were muffled as I lifted my head from my pillow that until recently I had been enjoying. I turned to face her roommate, “Please tell me that it is after 10:00?”

Drea giggled and nodded. “Only it’s hard to tell because it’s raining… such a shame, really, because I wanted to show my parent the new outdoor picnic area….”

“My parents are definitely coming then. That means that I had better get up…” I groaned as I shifted myself from the warmth of my sheets and my body hit the less than warm air in the room. I stared at Drea, who was already dressed and made up for the day. But Drea was wearing her winter school uniform.

“We have to wear them today?”

“Yes. Since it’s the first day that the cold weather has started, the school would like us to quote, unquote ‘Parade the new styling of the winter attire.’

I shuddered. “They did not say parade! Really?! Wow. They have really got to get a new publicist.”

Drea’s eyes opened wide as she solemnly nodded. There was nothing worse to her than a bad fashion choice and a poor use of a campaigning ad.

“But I’m gonna go eat breakfast now so… I mean, just don’t stay up here too long okay? I don’t want to get the whole dorm in trouble because my roommate was up late last night listening to my boy troubles. ..”

That’s right. In my peaceful sleep I had managed to forget the drama that Drea had experienced with boyfriend number six this year. Apparently, him cheating on her for the seventh time wasn’t enough for her to break up with him. Good thing she had me though, because I managed to convince her to find a better guy and to break things off with the cheater.

“Good luck!” I call after her as her heads out the door.

“Oh you mean with Drake? Yeah… I guess we’ll have to see how thing go with that one wont we…?” she shrugs and closes the door behind her.

Alone time is something that I treasure. I see it as a beautiful moment in which I can be completely alone with my thoughts. Unfortunately this was not one of those moments; not two seconds after the door closed my cell phone chirped that I had a new message. I grabbed it as I walked to my closet and read it in the gloom of the room:
We are twenty minutes away.
So excited to see you!

It was from my Aunt Alice. Considering her love of speedy cars I was surprised that I even had twenty minutes to get ready. I was expecting more like five. Faced with this fact, I shrugged out of my pajamas and turned to my closet to pull out the uniform that I had altered and reworked countless times.
I had made the Mormon looking skirt shorter and more attractive, my tie became slimmer, my blazer had been reworked to be a bit less preppy and a tad bit more punk. I managed to make myself stand out in a crowd of bland, dead eyed people.

My phone lit up again, this time with a message from my mother:
Five minutes away! Where should
We meet you?

I punched out a quick reply saying that I’d meet them at the gates. I’d be the one beneath the oversized black umbrella.
That’s when I realized that I hadn’t even fixed my face or my hair and spent the remainder of my time making my self look presentable.
With a minute to spare, I tugged on my baggy thigh high socks and my knee high designer combat boots, grabbed my umbrella, and headed out the door.