More Than My Own Life (Twilight Fanfiction)

Frustration

Edward's POV

We walked into the orphanage and explain to the woman who ran the place that we wanted to adopt Renesmee. Or rather, Carlisle and Esme explained since they were the only ones who could legally adopt.

The woman, miss Michelle, went upstairs to get Renesmee. Renesmee. Our daughter. Finally, finally she was coming home. Alice was jumping on the balls of her feet and Bella squeezed my hand tightly. We heard them coming down the stairs but it was obvious that our daughter was not coming willingly. Why not? Was she really so upset about being adopted?

They walked through the door with Renesmee struggling to get away from the woman. In Rosalie's mind, I could see that Rose was close to telling Michelle to get her hands off of Renesmee. But before she had the chance, Michelle screamed "enough!" And turned Renesmee sideways, spanking her several times.

I was shocked. We had never spanked Renesmee, and we never would have. But, by now, Renesmee was 14 years old... Which would have been an acceptable age to spank a child during my time period, but she was now about a decade too old for spanking in these times, by those who even still considered spanking acceptable. Michelle was furious that Renesmee would dare embarrass her in front of guests, and was spanking Renesmee to embarrass her. I knew that I couldn't intervene without making the situation worse, so I allowed my mind slips from Michelle's to my daughters. If Renesmee's mind indicated that she couldn't handle the pain, I would step between them, consequences be damned.

As the pain registered, Renesmee threw her hands behind her in an attempt to stop the assault. Michelle simply pushed her  hand away and continued to hit my daughter until a sob escapes her mouth. Renesmee immediately clamped her mouth shut, but we had all heard it.

I heard Rosalie's growl and Bella's low hiss. They were absolutely furious that anyone would dare touch Renesmee. Before I had time to settle on an emotion, I was pulled into Renesmee's flashback.

Flashback: (A/N, same as Renesmee's, but in Edward's POV, so if you skip this part you won't miss anything but his reaction)

Renesmee was so small. This couldn't have been long after she went missing. She called out the name Mark and when there was no answer, she was excited.

She remembered her feelings of feeling fat and ugly. The cruel words that were dealt out by her foster parents as they denied her food. She ran to the kitchen and started eating, desperate to escape the hunger pains. She reached for some bagels and suddenly,

A jar of pickles fell from the shelf.

Renesmee turned to see her foster father in the doorway. I felt her terror, but I didn't understand it. It had clearly just been an accident. Renesmee tried to get away from him, but he caught her and sat her down on the couch.

I didn't understand. Why was this so bad, did Renesmee really hate to be scolded so much?

She looked over to the stairway and saw another little girl crouched down. The child had several bruises on her face. She mouthed something to Renesmee. Renesmee didn't understand at first but I did. I knew exactly what she was saying, since I had spent a century learning to read lips, and it shocked me that someone so young could understand what was about to happen.

Renesmee stood to run away but her foster father dragged her across his legs. I watched in disbelief as my little girl struggled with all of her might, terror triggering her fight or flight reaction.

As the belt met it's target she let out a heart - wrenching scream.

A scream that never seem to end.

End Of Flashback

No. No! Why? Why her? Why my precious, innocent little girl? She had done nothing wrong! How could anybody be so cruel? She was so young, just a little girl. An innocent little girl who had been thrust into a horrible situation. But none of that was her fault.