The Housemaid's Secret

Wilhelmina “Millie” Calloway is working for Amber Degraw as a housemaid and occasional babysitter. Amber comes into the kitchen and asks Millie to stay because she has an appointment to get a pedicure and needs a babysitter for her nine-month-old daughter, Olive. Millie debates briefly with herself, struggling with her need to go to class and her desire to earn the large amount of money she knows Amber will pay her to babysit. Millie initially tries to tell Amber no, but Amber insists Millie stay. Olive wakes as they talk, so Millie goes to retrieve the baby from her playpen. As Amber prepares to leave, Olive calls Millie mama, due to the fact that Millie often spends more time with Olive than Amber. Amber hears and becomes angry, accusing Millie of teaching the baby to call her mama.

Millie is sullen as she walks to her Bronx apartment from the train station. Amber fired her, and now Millie is unsure how she will pay next month’s rent. As she walks, Millie feels as though someone is watching her. When she arrives at her building, she pulls her key out to open the door, becoming aware of a man moving up behind her. When she looks over her shoulder, he introduces himself as the tenant in the apartment directly below Millie’s. The man attempts to make casual conversation, but Millie brushes him off as she goes up to her apartment. Once inside, she locks the door and wonders how the man knows she lives in the apartment directly above him. Millie takes a shower and begins searching the kitchen for something to eat. As she does, someone pounds on the door.

Millie opens the door to find her boyfriend, lawyer Brock Cunningham, standing in the doorway. Millie was supposed to meet Brock for dinner, but skipped out because she was upset about losing her job. Millie tells Brock what happened, and they both laugh over the audacity of it. Millie considers Brock to be an ideal boyfriend, someone with no red flags, but he does have a heart condition that causes him to be in more of a hurry to get married and have children than the average man. Otherwise, theirs is the most successful relationship Millie has ever had with the exception of her most recent ex-boyfriend. Brock is pushing Millie to move in with him, but she refuses because he does not know she spent a decade in prison, and she is afraid to tell him.

Millie goes on nine interviews in three weeks, but none of them pan out. She believes her failure is due to the background checks that prospective employers do on her which reveals her past, and causing them to discount her as an employee. Millie arrives at a building on the Upper West Side for her 10th interview with a man named Douglas Garrick.

The doorman opens the door for Millie, but she again feels as though she is being watched and turns to check the street. No one appears to be paying attention to her, but she notices a black Mazda with a cracked headlight parked on the road that she believes was outside her apartment as well. Millie notes the license plate before going inside.

Millie rides the elevator directly to the penthouse apartment. Douglas meets her in the foyer and directs her into the living room. It is unusual for Millie to be approached by men, but Douglas explains that his wife has been ill, and he is looking for help to ease her burden. Douglas tells Millie she will be required to do light housework and cook meals several times a week. Douglas gives her a tour of the apartment, pointing out that his wife is staying in the guest bedroom due to a chronic illness and that Millie should never bother her, especially if the bedroom door is closed.

Millie learns the story of Kitty Genovese in her psychology class. The professor uses it as an example of the bystander effect, a phenomenon that leads people to believe that somebody else will handle a dangerous situation when something immoral or violent happens in public, thus disempowering the individual from acting to save somebody in distress. When Millie leaves class, she is still thinking about Kitty, shocked by how more than 38 people saw her being attacked and didn’t do anything. However, Brock—who was waiting for her outside—tells her that the story was sensationalized by the New York Times, and in reality, multiple people called the police, and a neighbor was with Kitty when she died.

Brock changes the subject, asking Millie about her new job. When Millie tells him Douglas’s name, he identifies him as the CEO of Coinstock. Brock points out that Douglas’s apartment building is only a few blocks from his own, pushing the idea of moving in together again. Millie thinks of her past and how she doesn’t want to tell Brock because it might inspire him to break up with her. She puts him off again even though he confesses that he’s falling in love with her.

Millie arrives at Douglas’s apartment and calls out, but no one answers. She looks around, studying some photographs of Douglas and a blonde woman she assumes is his wife, Wendy. Millie hears a sound upstairs and steps back from the photographs, worried about being caught snooping. Millie goes upstairs to retrieve the laundry, surprised to find all the dirty laundry folded inside the hamper. As Millie heads downstairs with the basket, she notices the guest bedroom door is cracked. She calls out to Wendy, but the door quickly closes.

Millie starts the laundry, and then reviews the shopping list and menu hanging on the refrigerator. She is surprised by how precise and complicated it is. Today’s menu calls for Cornish game hens, something Millie has never cooked. She follows the recipe and two hours later, as Douglas arrives home, it is nearly ready. Millie offers to get Wendy for dinner, or to take her food, but Douglas refuses. When dinner is ready, Millie offers again to take a plate to Wendy, but Douglas becomes annoyed by her persistence and sends her home.

Millie and Brock discuss Douglas and Wendy over drinks at Brock’s apartment. Brock jokes that Wendy might be a vampire or werewolf, but Millie honestly believes there is something wrong between the Garricks.

Millie is at work when she hears crying inside the guest bedroom. Millie knocks on the door even though Douglas told her not to bother Wendy. She calls to her, asking if she is okay. Wendy opens the door a crack to curtly tell Millie she is fine and wants to rest. Millie goes about her work, chastising herself for putting her nose where it doesn’t belong. Douglas comes home and Millie tells him she heard Wendy crying but lies when he asks if she talked to Wendy. Douglas shows her an inscribed bracelet he has brought home for Wendy, visibly excited to give it to her. Millie watches him go upstairs, still convinced there is something wrong between them.

Millie thinks about her former boyfriend as she prepares to go shopping for Douglas. Enzo Accardi was someone Millie worked with to help free women from their abusers. One night they became romantic. For six months, the relationship was perfect, but then Enzo got word his mother had a stroke. Enzo rushes home to Italy to care for his mother, promising to return to Millie. However, after a year, they decide to end their relationship. Enzo was the opposite of Brock, the kind of guy who could get a passport for someone in less than a day. Enzo knew all about Millie, including that she spent a decade in jail.

Millie looks at the grocery list Douglas gave her as she walks out the door, not sure where to get half of what’s on it because she doesn’t know what it is. In the lobby, she runs into the guy from the apartment under hers. He introduces himself as Xavier Marin. He offers to go with her, but she blows him off.

Millie arrives at Douglas’s apartment and drops the grocery bags in the living room because they are so heavy. She hears shouting upstairs and heads to the stairs to listen, but Douglas comes down and confronts her, demanding to know why she is there. Millie explains about the groceries and Douglas says he’ll put them away, telling Millie to leave. Before she goes, however, Douglas hands Millie a small bag containing a dress and tells her to return it for him. She asks about the receipt, and he becomes annoyed, but says he will email it to her. As he speaks, Millie notices a small rip above the pocket of his shirt.

Millie walks home from the train station and again feels as though she is being watched. In the lobby of her building, she pauses to check the mail, worrying about the number of bills she has received. Xavier approaches Millie, suggesting she come over to watch a movie. Millie refuses, saying she’s tired and going to bed. Xavier makes a comment about joining her, and Millie brushes him off. However, Xavier continues to follow Millie up the stairs even as she passes his floor. Just steps from her door, Xavier grabs her arm.

Xavier pushes Millie up against the wall, pressing his body against hers. He makes a crude comment. Millie sprays mace in his eyes and pushes him down the stairs. She is initially concerned she killed him when he doesn’t move. Millie goes down to check on Xavier and he groans. Relieved he is alive, but angry at his actions, Millie kicks Xavier in the ribs three times before calling the police.

The police arrive, and the first officer Millie speaks to is supportive. However, after sending Millie to wait in her apartment, a second officer, Scavo, comes and tells Millie that a witness saw her attack Xavier in the stairwell. Scavo claims that Xavier might press charges. Scavo also mentions Millie’s arrest record, suggesting she has a problem with violence. Brock arrives as Scavo is leaving. He tells Millie to pack a bag and come stay with him.

Millie is in the master bedroom of Douglas’s apartment, putting away the laundry, when she notices blood on the collar of one of Wendy’s nightgowns. As she studies it, wondering how it got there, her cell phone rings. The call is from Scavo informing her that Xavier has decided not to press charges. Scavo tells her she is lucky she is not on parole because he could have violated her and recommends that she straighten out her life. As Millie wraps up the call, Douglas comes into the room. He removes his suit jacket and tosses it on the dresser, suggesting Millie deal with it. As she hangs it up, Douglas asks if Millie has a man in her life as he looks at her in a suggestive way. Millie grabs the nightgown and rushes downstairs, saying she needs to figure out how to get tomato sauce out of fabric.

Millie and Brock are eating on an outdoor patio at a restaurant when Millie once again feels as though she is being watched. She knows Xavier is free and wonders if he is stalking her. For this reason, Millie suggests to Brock that she move in with him. Brock quickly agrees, again confessing to love her. Before Millie can answer, the sense of being watched becomes overwhelming and she turns to view the street. Millie is shocked to see Douglas cross the street.

Millie leaves the restaurant to follow Douglas and an unknown woman to a building a few blocks away. At first, she thinks Douglas is spying on her, but then she guesses this woman is Douglas’s mistress. As Millie makes her way back toward the restaurant, Brock calls. She tells him she thought she saw an old friend and ran off to catch up with her. Millie stops midsentence when she spots the same black Mazda she has seen outside her apartment building and outside Douglas’s building. She wonders if it belongs to Douglas and if Douglas is the one following her.

Millie rides with Brock to her apartment in order to pack so she can move in with him. Most of her stuff is small because the apartment came furnished, so can easily be transported in Brock’s Audi. As they pull up to the building, they see Xavier getting arrested. Millie rolls down the window and overhears Xavier claiming drugs found in his apartment aren’t his. Millie becomes excited and blurts out that she doesn’t need to move in with Brock now. As Brock becomes annoyed, Millie once again reminds herself that she has to tell him the truth about her past eventually.

Millie is cleaning Douglas’s apartment when she finds a bloody handprint in the guest bathroom. She also sees a trail of blood leading to the guest bedroom she hadn’t noticed before. Millie goes to the guest bedroom door and knocks. Wendy doesn’t initially respond, but Millie tells her through the door that she saw the blood and will call the police if Wendy doesn’t open the door. Wendy claims she broke a tooth and that’s the source of the blood. Millie insists on seeing her face and is shocked when Wendy opens the door.

Wendy’s face is covered in bruises, some old and some new, while her lip is split. Wendy initially attempts to claim that her medication makes her unsteady on her feet and she fell, but Millie doesn’t believe her. Millie insists that Wendy needs to leave Douglas, but Wendy is insistent that Millie doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and she needs to keep her nose out of things.

In her class, Millie learns about Josh Bell, an accomplished violinist who sold out a concert in Boston. Yet, when Josh Bell played in a Washington, DC, subway, hardly anyone stopped to listen. The professor asks why and Millie suggests it is because he was asking for help in the form of money and no one wanted to help him.

After class, Millie runs into her previous employer, Amber DeGraw, who implies that there is something nefarious going on between Millie and Douglas Garrick. However, when Olive again begins calling Millie mama, Amber quickly walks away. Millie’s cellphone rings and it is the woman from the online service Millie used to place the ad that got her the job with the Garricks. However, the woman informs Millie that the ad never went live because Millie’s payment failed.

Millie is confused about how Douglas happened to call her for the job if her ad never went live, so she calls him. Douglas claims that Wendy gave him Millie’s number, and that Wendy got it from a friend. Millie thanks him and agrees to work that night.

After arriving at the Garricks’, Millie asks how Wendy got her number, and Wendy admits that she got the number from Ginger Howell, one of the women Millie and Enzo helped leave her abusive partner. Wendy confesses that the abuse was getting bad, and she’d had Douglas hire Millie in hopes that Millie could help her escape like she did Ginger. However, once Millie arrived, Wendy changed her mind. Wendy insists that Douglas knows everything and there’s no way to outsmart him. Millie suggests that Wendy find a friend with no connection to her current life, or to Douglas, that she can trust to run to. However, Wendy continues to insist she can’t leave.

Wendy gives Millie the expensive bracelet Douglas gave her as a gift and shows her the inscription from D to W that suggests Douglas looks at Wendy as a possession, not a person. Wendy insists she can’t stand to have the bracelet around her and begs Millie to take it away. Millie agrees.