Into the Abyss (The Beautiful-Ugly Trilogy)

Her parents are dead. Her only sibling, her brother Eric, has been taken from her. And after her first experience with a foster family goes horribly wrong, nine-year-old Connelly Pierce doesn't know who, if anyone, she can trust. Her caseworker, a ditzy ex-actress named Lillian, tries her best to help. But an ever-wiser Connelly sees that Lillian can barely take care of herself, let alone help her with her ever-worsening situation. Then, a chance encounter with her brother at a San Francisco emergency room changes everything. Eric tells her that his own foster parents have divorced, kicking him back into "the system" just like her. When she later learns that Eric has disappeared, running away to New York City, now fourteen-year-old Connelly knows what she has to do. She's going to run away as well. She's going to New York to find Eric. And then, together, the both of them will have the family that the system could never provide. But what she doesn't know, but begins to understand the deeper she descends into her darkening journey, is that quests of this magnitude, often come with consequences to match. Book Two of the BEAUTIFUL-UGLY TRILOGY