The Brother I Could Never Call Again Novel – Chapter 1 “The Whitfields are adopting a girl!” The news spread through the orphanage in no time. Years ago, the Whitfields’ daughter had been kidnapped. They had searched for her for years without success. A fortune teller finally told them that if they adopted a little girl, she would lead them back to their real daughter. Scout grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the crowd. He had been born deaf and mute. Someone had abandoned him outside the orphanage when he was just a baby. Out of everyone there, he was my closest friend. I looked up. A little boy stood in the middle of the room, dressed in a tailored suit. His skin was pale. His clothes were immaculate. He was nothing like the rest of us—dirty, desperate orphans fighting for scraps.
That was young Grant Whitfield. Scout couldn’t see him. But he’d heard that the young master was looking for a little sister. He hurriedly signed to me. [Call him brother!] [He’ll feel sorry for you. He’ll pick you.] My thoughts drifted back to my previous life. I had been squeezed into the crowd of children. Someone suddenly shoved me from behind. As I stumbled forward, the word slipped out instinctively. “Brother…” That single word made Grant choose me. He wrapped his hand around my neck and screamed, “Go on, call me brother again! Would you call any man ‘brother’ if it got you what you wanted?” “If you hadn’t called me that, I would have found Nora!” Grant hated that I’d called him brother. My throat burned as though it had been sliced open. He crushed my voice with his own hands. So when Grant was drugged and pulled me into his room, I couldn’t tell him who I was. I couldn’t say a word.
One reckless night changed everything. He had no choice but to marry me. Everyone said I’d done it on purpose—that I couldn’t bear losing my place as the adopted daughter, so I seduced him to stay in the family. After we got married, he was hardly ever home. He went back to the orphanage where he’d found me, searching for any trace of his real sister. He never found Nora. But he did find another girl. She looked vaguely like the little girl in Nora’s childhood photos. One day she came to me. “Don’t you feel guilty? Stealing a life that was never yours?” Then she threw herself into the pool and screamed that I’d pushed her. It was so obvious she was lying. But Grant wouldn’t listen to my explanation. “Sabrina Whitfield. This is what you deserve.” He threw me into the pool too. I’d been sick for weeks. The freezing water in early spring felt colder than the dead of winter. Pain exploded through my abdomen.
It felt as if someone had stuffed rocks inside me. I begged for help. Grant thought I was putting on an act. “You know how to swim. How long are you planning to keep pretending?” The water slowly turned crimson. Through my blurred vision, I saw someone jump into the pool. That was the day I learned I had been pregnant. And… the very same day… I lost my baby. The bleeding never stopped. By the time I reached the hospital, it was too late. Both my child and I died.