A Family to Call Mine

Prologue

Brooke laid quietly on her thin, small mattress, listening to the quiet sounds of the other kids sleeping around her. Biting her lip, she stared at the dark ceiling, unable to fall asleep. It seemed like it was getting harder and harder to get a good night's rest each night. Time was ticking by and before she knew it, she would be turning 18 and would be forced to leave the small, run down home for abandoned children that she had called home for over ten years now. The fear and the uncertainty of what she would do when that time came kept her up every single night. Tossing and turning, all the while trying not to wake anyone up.

She didn't remember much of her childhood before arriving at the Wedgewood Home for Children. The only clear memory that stuck in her mind was of her standing on the doorstep of the weathered old building, at the young age of six, and looking back to see her mom driving off in a blue, beat up Chevy truck with her latest boyfriend. She remembered the feeling of wetness on her cheeks as the truck faded out of sight. Not once did her mom look back. As the door opened, she turned to face the woman who ran the home, Mrs. Haven. A stern looking woman, she glared down at young Brooke, before glancing around to find no one else around. Looking back at the sad, forlorn child in front of her, Mrs. Haven peered over her glasses and then brusquely motioned for Brooke to enter. After being shown around the home and given the rules and guidelines for living there, Brooke was fed a small meal and shown to her new room. It was a small room with nothing more than thin, worn looking mattresses spread out on the floor, six to be exact. Barely any room left to walk around them. Only two other mattresses were being used at the time Brooke showed up. In the years following, it would be very rare for there to be an empty mattress.

The Wedgewood Home for Children is not your typical orphanage. All children brought in are either dropped off by parents who no longer want them or who are unable to care for them anymore but don't want to have to deal with the legal system. Even 'adoptions' of these same children are all done under the table. No paperwork. Cash only. Yet, somehow, they've managed to stay in business and stay under the radar of the government. No one quite knows how and no one seems to question it either.

That first week Brooke was at the home, she cried herself to sleep every single night. Once or twice, one of the other girls would get up and try to comfort her, to no avail. After that first week, Brooke finally admitted to herself that her mom was never coming back. She stopped crying herself to sleep and resolved to accept her new life. She vowed to make the best of what life had thrown her way and refused to ever let anyone have the ability to hurt her again.