All Characters Belong to Stephanie Meyers, I only borrowed them and the location.
Repairing Her Broken Soul
Shaila Lynne Langston
Renee was only eighteen when a small life began to make its impending presence known and upon telling her boyfriend Charlie, he stood to do right by both mother and unborn baby. He married Renee right out of high school and bought a two bedroom home for them. He applied to the Forks Police department upon finishing at Police Academy in Seattle and was able to get a decent paying job on the night patrol. Okay, the only job was for night patrol. The Chief of Police handled the day shift.
Renee worked as a bartender until she began to show and then took a job with the newspaper company answering phones. She worked until two days before Isabella Marie Swan made her first appearance in this world. Renee was driven mad with the life she felt she had to settle for. She had never wanted to stay in Forks, Washington. It was rainy and green and dull. She felt trapped and made this known every chance she got. She loved her daughter the best she could, but after two months of no sleep, fighting with Charlie for coddling the screaming beast of a child, she felt she needed more from life. She wanted a bigger house, a new car, and to be free. She wanted to be able to indulge herself and not try to make ends meet.
At first she settled for painting the house in cheery yellows, blues, purples, and any other color that would break the monotony of green. She went back to school to gain a teacher's certificate hoping that when completed she could get a job somewhere sunny and away from the lush forests and gray skies. She worked hard to earn her degree and took every chance to berate Charlie for not trying to improve his station in life. Charlie was happy with his hometown and his job though. Being only one of two police officer's in the town he would be promoted to chief when the old Chief Sanders retired in two years. It would come with a slight raise, but not much. The town was beginning to grow and his job was important to him.
Once Renee completed school, she took a job as a kindergarten teacher at Forks Elementary. She just needed to work a year or two to get experience then she could move on in life to sunny California. Bella was now at a toddler stage and was easier to handle. Renee grew to envy Bella and Charlie's loving bond. She thought she was in love with Charlie, but once the reality of life set in, she found him more convenient than anything. He provided an extra paycheck and that allowed Renee to buy more things. She slowly placed a dividing line between Charlie and his family, causing enough waves that Charlie began to distance himself from his parents. Bella was five and just beginning kindergarten herself, when Renee cut her ties from her grandmother and grandfather Swan. Bella became a lonely child. She woke up when her alarm went off, got dressed and fixed her breakfast cereal, then quietly waited for Renee so they could go to school. Once home from school the little girl would go to the backyard and complete her homework and then sit under the trees waiting for Renee to unlock the doors and let her in so she could take a bath before Charlie came home. She would eat dinner without speaking and then tell Charlie and Renee goodnight.
Bella became conditioned to Renee, but never felt any connection to her. She loved Charlie, but he too seemed so distant now. He once was a loving and caring father. Now she only saw him for thirty minutes during dinner. It hurt Bella to not have that once close connection to her father and grandparents.
Over the next year things began to get more painful and Bella's soul began to shy away from the world. The once happy, smiling child stopped laughing and her eyes lost their innocent shimmer. Bella did everything she was told, but Renee found new ways to have Bella punished. She became the victim of a loveless mother and a distraught and unhappy cop. Renee had lost her keys one day and Charlie and Renee sat her down on the couch and for three hours questioned Bella about where she had hidden them. Hungry and sleepy, Bella gave in and finally webbed a lie of how she took the keys and buried them in the forest. Renee smiled down at the girl before telling Charlie that he must whip the child before she became uncontrollable. That was the first time Charlie ever spanked Bella. After that the spankings became daily and over time more vicious. The interrogations lasted for no less than two hours until Bella finally gave in and took blame for whatever Renee had decided was Bella's fault that day. Charlie had always taught her to be truthful, but now she found herself having to lie in order to just accept punishment so she could eat or sleep. Bella had honestly never done half of the stuff Renee accused her of, but it was just easier to say she was guilty and to take her ten uninterrupted swats and go to bed.
When Bella was nine, she was allowed back in the house when Charlie wasn't home. Renee was 'working' with an after school program and Bella had to come home and clean the house. She started with Charlie and Renee's bathroom and bedroom, making sure to dust, wipe, and scrub all the counter and table tops. She made the bed and started their laundry. She then cleaned the only other bathroom and her room before moving down stairs. She dusted and straightened the tables and pillows, then Windexed the windows and glass surfaces. She did the same in the kitchen and dining room. Then she swept, mopped, and vacuumed the entire house. She would then put Renee and Charlie's laundry away before starting her own. She usually finished just minutes before Renee, who would run into the kitchen and start dinner. Charlie would come in a few minutes later and be greeted with all of Bella's 'wrong doings'. Bella would go to her room and try to complete her homework, coming down to eat dinner and find out what she had 'done' that day. Dinner was always followed by her spankings that now consisted of twenty slashes with a studded belt. Then she would be sent to shower and to bed.
Bella would fall asleep only to wake up an hour before necessary to finish her homework. She no longer ate breakfast at home, but at the school cafeteria. She was fine with that as she got more to eat at school than home anyways. She took relief in her hours at school and paid careful attention to her work, making sure she got all A's. She felt very accomplished and allowed herself the luxury of joy when at the end of the six weeks she would be awarded a small trinket. She would hide it in her pocket for days until it would be eventually found by Renee and tossed away. Renee would tell her that children as ugly as she was did not deserve toys and trinkets. Most of her weekends were spent sitting in the coat closet with only three crackers, a slice of cheese, and a slice of Bologna a day for food. Renee would always point out each morning and night that she was being kind by allowing her out for a two minutes for a drink of water and a bathroom break.
Bella didn't understand how Charlie would allow Renee to put this kind of punishment on her, but then Charlie did seem to take a liking to whipping her with his belt each evening. Unbeknownst to Bella, the weekends she spent in the closet were the weekends Charlie went on fishing trips. Bella became shy never speaking to anyone unless she was spoken too and in quiet she began to cry openly. When Renee would catch her crying, she always called her a cry baby and teased her relentlessly. Nothing Bella ever did was good enough and always ended with Bella being punished.
When Bella was ten, the beatings amplified in volume and were no longer just across her buttocks and her back. Bella finally arrived at her breaking point and broke down in uncontrollable sobs in class when a fellow student told her she was ugly and stupid. Those were things Renee called her. Her classmates had never called her names before. This was foreign to Bella and she felt the sanctuary that school offered her was now being poached and taken from her. The teacher pulled her from the classroom and into the hallway. Upon questioning Bella as to why she was so distraught, Bella let the facts of her home life pour from her. The teacher hugged her and told her it would be okay.
Bella put faith in her teacher's words and began to hope that things would get better. That afternoon when she got home, Renee was enraged and yelled every insult in tenfold at Bella that she had ever said. She slapped Bella repeatedly and made her scrub the kitchen floor with nothing but a toothbrush. When Charlie came home, Bella was told to lie across her bed, and then Charlie proceeded to beat her with his belt. The belt came down on Bella for what felt like eternity, hitting her across the neck, back, bottom, legs, and ending at her ankles, only to work its way back up her body repeatedly.
She returned to school the next day sore and barely able to move. She held back the tears, not wanting to let anyone find out about the shame she could have brought her parents. Renee had repeatedly told her that she was lucky the teacher felt it best to call her at work before attempting to report the 'lies' Bella had told. The teacher upon seeing Bella was mortified and immediately began to apologize and pulled Bella to the office. Bella waited with the principal, scared of what was to come.
She was shaking and feeling bile rise into her throat by the time a lady in a grey skirt and pretty pink blouse walked into the office carrying a large notebook and bag. The lady smiled down at Bella and lowered herself to eye level. She told Bella not to worry, that she was there to help. She hugged and repeated the words, 'It's all going to be okay' over and over as Bella felt the bizarre weight of arms hugging her once again for only the second time in her life. Once Bella's sobs had become small sniffles, the lady opened her notebook and asked Bella to show her where she was hurt. Bella answered the lady's questions honestly and as best as she could. Bella was taken from school by the woman with the pretty shirt and taken to an office building.
She was told she would never have to see Charlie or Renee again and that she would soon have a new home with people who would love and cherish her. Bella felt hope for the second time, and not wanting to have it ripped from her, she made sure she did everything she was told meticulously. When she was told what chair to sit in, she sat, keeping her legs still and her hands folded in her lap. She made sure she kept her eyes down watching her feet to make sure they made no movement. The lady in the pretty pink clothes quietly spoke on the phone before hanging up, telling Bella that she would be going to her new home soon, and then offering her a drink, before writing on some papers. Bella sat still and completely quiet until a knock sounded on the door. Bella never looked up until she heard the lady call to her.
"Bella, I would like you to meet….."