Summary: Abused all through her childhood and gone through a bad relationship, Rosalie Hale Doesn't believe in love anymore. She is given a new home in a new town with a kind and caring woman to act as her gaurdian. All seems well but she can't open up afraid of being hurt again. She meets Emmett McCarty and falls for him, but can he make her believe in love?
I do not own Twilight.
Rosalie's POV
The rain poured down on top of me. I sat on a bench in the middle of the park staring at my shoes. I wasn't worried about being caught. No one would be around to find me in this rain.
It's going to be better, a part of my brain was screaming at me. You're going to leave and start again. You are going to be loved by your new mother.
I shuddered at the word love. It meant nothing to me. The word left a hollow sound in my head. Love had betrayed me in every possible way. I didn't believe it existed anymore.
The thunder began to rumble over head shaking the ground slightly. I looked up at the sky and let my tears blend in with the large drops sprinkling my face. I scooped my legs up onto the bench and wrapped my arms around my legs. I buried my face in my knees and remembered why I was crying.
***
A then seven year old Rosalie was playing in her room quietly. She danced and played with her favourite dolls. Soon she could hear her parents shouting down stairs. It didn't worry her too much, as they almost always shouted at each other, but she still didn't like it when they yelled.
She crawled to her door and pressed her ear against it straining to her the conversation.
After a minute of listening she had heard the gist of it.
They were fighting about money. The family never seemed to have enough money. Rosalie thought maybe it might be because they both drank so much beer.
After Rosalie would come home from school she would come in to find mommy on the sofa with a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. She would say hello but she would never ask about her day like other mommies did. It didn't bother Rosalie too much, but she wished her mother would care a little bit more.
Daddy was worse than mommy. He would come home from work in a terrible mood every day. He didn't say hello or ask about either mommy's day or Rosalie's. He went straight to the fridge and opened a bottle of beer. He would return to the fridge multiple times before he went to bed. Rosalie was a little bit frightened of her father. He liked to yell a lot, and when he had beer he liked to yell even more. She didn't speak to him often. She didn't mind mommy as much, but she still avoided them as often as possible.
On this particular night Rosalie was called down to the family room by her father's large booming voice. Not wanting to get in trouble she did as she was told.
"Get me another beer." Her father barked from the couch, his speech slurred.
Rosalie eyed the three bottles of beer on the table beside him and the one that was half finished in his hands.
"Steve, go get one yourself." The girl's mother yelled at him not taking her eyes away from the television screen.
"I think she can handle it Sharon." Her dad spat back.
He turned his gaze to Rosalie waiting for her to do something.
"I- I don't think you should h-have anymore." She stuttered terrified that she would get in trouble.
"What did you say to me?" He shrieked his voice rising in volume.
Her mother turned to look at the two, but she didn't say anything.
"I said, I don't think you should have anymore beer. I can get you a water or some-" She didn't have time to finish. Her father reached up and slapped her in the face. Pain shot through Rosalie's face as she whimpered.
He shoved past Rosalie into the kitchen to get a beer for himself.
He had never hit her before. Rosalie looked to her mother with wide eyes hoping she would do something. Hoping that she would hold her and make it better.
Her mother simply turned back to the T.V screen and pretended to not have seen anything.
***
Rosalie sat crying on the bench in the park, her boyfriend Royce beside her.
Fresh bruises could be seen surfacing on her cheek. Her father had hit her again after work because he didn't get the promotion they needed to pay for the new car. Her mother continued to pretend that she had no idea what was happening even after nine years. He never did anything more than a slap or a punch to the face. It wasn't the worst thing in the world.
Royce sat beside her, comforting her numbly. He had always been the person she came to first after an incident. These happened nearly every day.
"Thanks for being here." She sniffled into his shoulder.
"Yeah." He sighed and lifted her head off of his shoulder.
"This is why I love you." She smiled at him through her tears.
"Ugh." He got up off of the bench with a jerk. "I can't do this anymore. All you do is cry and complain. You seriously need to get help or something."
"Royce!" she screamed to his back as he left her alone in the park.
It never occurred to her that he had never once tried to help her with her situation. Never once suggested telling somebody. He never cared.
She truly was alone in the world after all. Maybe no one cared.
***
Rosalie beamed with pride as she read her mother the acceptance letter that the college of her dreams had sent her. Her mother smiled and nodded with her listening carefully over a glass of wine.
When she was done two thirds of the letter her father burst through the door. He stalked off to the fridge for his preferred after work snack.
Her mother stopped him.
"Steve! Come listen to this. Rosalie got into that college she wanted."
Steve grunted from the kitchen not really caring about what either of the two had to say.
"Go read it to him." Rosalie's mother pushed her into the kitchen.
Reluctantly, she turned the corner into the kitchen and began reading with a shaky voice. When she got down to the part about how much everything would cost he ripped the letter from her hands and tore it into shreds.
"You think you can get away with something that will cost us this much money. You are truly an ungrateful little-" He stopped. He couldn't find a nasty enough word.
He stormed around the island to one of the drawers and emerged with a kitchen knife.
"I don't have to go." Rosalie shook her head terrified.
"That you would even think we would consider it!" Her father screamed suddenly right behind her. She had her eyes closed from fear so she wouldn't have seen him coming. She felt the blade pressing against her right cheek.
She had to get away, had to fight. She opened her eyes looking for anything that could help her get away. She spotted the phone and jerked free. She cried out in pain as the knife cut into the flesh on her cheek. It didn't stop her. She grabbed the phone and sprinted up the stairs. Her father roared behind her not bothering to chase her.
Once she was upstairs and locked into her room, she dialled 911 with shaking hands.
"911, state your emergency." The calm voice asked on the other end.
Blood running down her face, voice shaky she replied, "You have to help me."
***
I was jerked to the present when I felt someone shaking my shoulder. Valerie stood in front of me with an umbrella smiling warmly. She was the social worker who was assigned to find me a home.
"You need some rest Rose. Tomorrow is the big day."
This made the tears flow faster down my cheeks and loud sobs ripped through my chest.
"I don't want to be alone anymore." I whispered over a sob.
"It's all over now honey. Everything is going to be okay." She sat down next to me and wrapped her arms around my wet body.
I could only hope she was right.
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