Avianna and Nana are fond of Mrs. Byrd, but they sense danger in the house. They do not know the details: that Mrs. Byrd’s thirty-one-year-old son was arrested three weeks ago and charged with possession of cocaine, while Mrs. Byrd’s husband, according to a complaint his wife will later file, has physically and emotionally abused her for “many years.” Nor do they know the most chilling secret of all—that eighteen months ago, a child drowned on the premises. The victim, a three-year-old boy, had been enrolled in Mrs. Byrd’s on-site daycare center. Among Mrs. Byrd’s employees was the boy’s
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