The Perfect Child

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, and child abuse.

Piper Goldstein, who worked as a social worker for the Bauer family, sits with a police officer being questioned about a woman’s (later revealed to be Allison) murder. The whole situation is extremely upsetting to Piper, who became close to the family and was optimistic about the couple, Hannah and Christopher, as foster parents because they genuinely cared. She wonders if anything she did influenced the final outcome of this case. Piper also hates being questioned by the police and is used to working alongside them instead. She admits that her coworker didn’t have to tell her what happened; Piper could tell by the look on her face. The police officer finds this suspicious and asks Piper to start from the very beginning, when she met the Bauers two years before.

Two years prior to the Prologue, Hannah Bauer sits in the break room at the hospital where she works as a nurse. Her coworker and friend Stephanie complains about her husband’s lack of concern for cleanliness and how he always manages to turn her complaints against her in some way.