Abandoned

Mary was taught to be afraid of monsters. She just never thought they'd be human. A timid five-year-old living in poverty, Mary spends most of her days in the attic, where her mother insists she'll be safe from the "ghosts and monsters" that haunt the rest of the house. Her father disappeared, and so did someone named Laura who no one likes to talk about. Mary used to be content with being kept in the dark, until an abandoned rabbit gives her a reason to ask questions. The rabbit becomes her secret companion--her first pet, her first friend, and the first thing she ever tries to protect. But in a home full of locked doors, whispered tragedies, and an older brother whose cruelty grows sharper by the day, nothing stays safe for long. When a holiday trip exposes cracks in her family's carefully constructed stories, Mary gains the courage to defy them. Courage, however, has consequences. Her brother sells her to a "pirate" disguised as Santa Claus. Believing herself to be abandoned like her rabbit, Mary has no choice but to start a new life under a new name. Although her new name is based on a fairy tale, her new life is nothing like one. The places that should provide love and guidance offer nothing but more cruelty. Instead she finds comfort in an alley, where she gets counseled by a "talking cat," the last bit of magic she clings to believing in. For one precious week, he fills her with sage advice more valuable than anything she'd learn in school. Then he too disappears from her life, leaving her to fend for herself in a dark world that threatens to swallow her whole. Will Mary survive--or will she too disappear?