Esme Anne Cullen considered herself to be one of the luckiest women - err, vampire? - in the world. She had a near perfect husband, despite his own humble objections. She was the adoptive mother of five wonderful teenage children. She never had to worry about finances, illness, or even death. She and her family were blessed beyond measure in almost every regard, save for one.
For the rest of eternity, they could all do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to; except have children of their own. The very thing that Esme had wanted for as long as she could remember, the first thing she ever wanted, in fact.
Once, she did have a child. It had been the happiest day of her life.
She risked everything in order to give him everything. She named him Collin after the kindest man she had ever met, a doctor from her youth.
He died two days later. It was the saddest day of her life.
Alas, everyone has their troubles. All in all, she couldn't complain. Not one bit. Three days after throwing herself off a cliff in the midst of her grief, she awoke to the face of the kind doctor she had named her son after. The doctor whose face she had been seeing in her dreams every night since meeting him. It wasn't long after that until she and Carlisle fell in love and Edward accepted her as a mother. She had no idea her life would only get better from there.
Carlisle and Edward and Rosalie and Emmett and Jasper and Alice were her family now. And Esme loved each one of them dearly. So yes, Esme considered herself a very lucky woman, indeed. She had just about everything she could ever want and an eternity with her family to look forward to.
And yet….the universe did not seem to be satisfied with the fate of Carlisle and Esme Cullen. Because on the evening of Wednesday, April 14th, 1999 - they were given the greatest blessing of all...and so was the world.