TLS Special SNEAK PEEK Feature

The Lemonade Stand has spent so many years bringing you the best the Twilight fandom has to offer, and we are very excited to have the chance to offer you even MORE. We've watched stories grow and develop from first post through COMPLETE, and now we're lucky enough to share previews of the stories that will soon be your new addiction.

For this week's Sneak, we are happy to have Maplestyle, author of Love Hurts, Flipside, and Free Fallin'. Her upcoming fic, Divergence of Nature is sure to be a topic of fic discussions for weeks to come!

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Divergence of Nature by Maplestyle

Summary: There is a long-standing debate over nature versus nurture. For the Cullens and the McCartys, it’s one they discover changes their lives irrevocably.

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I have been writing this story on and off (mostly off, to be honest) since 2016. It started with a conversation with a friend about the nature of DNA and how our DNA can shape us as people. How a person who doesn’t drink alcohol can still crave it because they come from a long line of alcoholics, and that made me think of criminality. Violence. Are two people, created from the DNA of violent people, destined to be violent just because their biological ancestors were violent? What if they were raised in healthy, normal households? Would they still be violent? And so, my original story Nurture was born, pardon the pun. Lol But, over time and a lot of words and creative license, the story has morphed into a more complex tale, now aptly titled: Divergence of Nature.

I donated the prologue for this story to the Babies at the Border Compilation in October 2018, with the promise I would not post it on FF.net until the story was complete. I can finally announce that the story is completely written and I will start posting it! Read on for a special Sneak Peek.

After the prologue, the story begins with two families, the Cullens and the McCartys, trying their damnedest to have a family, despite all the obstacles in their ways..

Chapter 1

San Diego Fertility Center
San Diego, California
September 2014

Both Esme and Carlisle stood, smoothing the wrinkles out of their clothes in a nervous gesture, and followed the receptionist to the room.

Dr. Aro walked in less than a minute later and gave them the news. Carlisle’s sperm count was low, so low he was afraid they wouldn’t be able even to use his sperm for the IVF treatments they were enquiring about. Carlisle and Esme had discussed the possibility of that happening, and what they would do if either of them were unable to contribute to the IVF. They had decided in either case they would use a donor, be that eggs or sperm, and that would be okay. So, they informed the doctor of their decision.

Dr. Aro wrote Esme a prescription to prepare her body for the IVF, and sent them on their way with an appointment the following week for the implantation process to be done.

Then, several months later and halfway across the country, the other family enters the story:

Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
January 2015

Rosalie and Emmett McCarty were nervous. This was their last shot at being parents in the most natural way they could. They’d tried IVF twice now, and the doctors had told them it was their last chance at attempting that way. They didn’t want to put too much strain on her body, they said, and she could understand that. She was exhausted already, and the procedure hadn’t even been done yet.

This time, they had been encouraged to use donor eggs.  ...

When they were called to the back, Rosalie’s heart pounded nervously. She was desperate to have a child.

So the divergence of nature begins, and two new lives are created. But little do these families know, that when those dreams become a reality, they will get a lot more than they bargained for.

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The prologue will post tomorrow (Sunday, June 28th), with the new chapters posting weekly every Sunday. So, put Maplestyle on alert, and find out what happens when nature battles nurture.