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Summary
Chapter Thirty
After their encounter at the Plaza, Millie and Andrew avoid each other. Until one day, when he bumps into her and makes her drop and break a glass. He offers to help her clean it up, and she thinks Nina would never help her, but Andrew is different. Their hands touch when he takes the broom from her, and they have a moment of sexual tension, interrupted by Nina. Nina scolds Millie to be more careful, while Andrew whispers to her that they should talk later. Millie hopes he wants to revisit their encounter and start an affair.
When Millie serves dinner, Andrew and Nina are sitting on opposite ends on the couch in the living room and looking silently at their phones. Millie notices that they’ve started doing the same at dinnertime. Nina is eerily cheerful as Millie serves dinner, and her red lipstick is smeared, giving her a demonic clown appearance. Nina casually announces that the food must be better than the food Millie was given in prison, shocking Andrew. Millie is worried that the revelation of her secret will cause Andrew to only see her as a convict, not a potential love interest, and is resentful that Nina is determined to put her in her place. She also wonders whether Nina has known about her background the entire time and hired her because she knew Millie would be unable to quit. Nina scolds her for under-seasoning the meal, and Millie hopes she steps on broken glass.
Millie retreats to her room, only to find that the Playbill from the Broadway show is on her nightstand. She’s sure she left it in her purse, and she locked the door to her room, but Nina also has a key. She realizes that Nina knows she went to the play with Andrew, and she is afraid she’s made a dangerous enemy.
Chapter Thirty-One
After Nina revealed Millie’s criminal background, Andrew never found her to talk alone. Millie admits she’s in love with him, but gloomily thinks that although he deserves better than Nina, he will probably stay miserable with her forever.
Nina starts making grocery shopping incredibly difficult for Millie by requesting extremely specific items and forcing her to text her pictures of replacements. While Millie is shopping, a man starts watching Millie in the supermarket, and then stops her from leaving on suspicion of shoplifting. She’s terrified that they will call the police, which will violate her parole. He finds that the items in her cart match her receipt and lets her go. He apologizes and says they received a call that a customer with her description was shoplifting. Millie suspects the phone call came from Nina.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Millie wanders to the kitchen in the middle of the night and sees Andrew drinking a beer on the porch. She joins him, and he’s cold to her. He asks why she was in prison, then quickly says he doesn’t want to know. She apologizes for hiding her past, but she didn’t want him to think less of her. She tells him that regardless of what happens in the future, the night they spent together was one of the best nights she’s ever had. He admits he hadn’t been that happy in a long time, then kisses her. He pulls away, and she goes back in the house, but she’s elated, convinced that it won’t be the last time.
She sees a shadow in the upstairs hallway, and nearly falls down the stairs when she sees it’s Nina. Millie asks what she’s doing there, and Nina scoffs that it’s her house. Millie spitefully remembers that Andrew owns the home, and if Andrew chose Millie over Nina, it would be Millie’s house. Nina says Andrew isn’t in bed, and asks if Millie’s seen him. Millie hurriedly says he might be on the porch, but she didn’t talk to him. Nina is unconvinced. Millie thinks she’s made a terrible mistake crossing Nina, but can’t help herself.
Chapter Thirty-Three
After reading in the park, Millie comes back to the Winchester house just as a storm is gathering. She finds Nina sitting and staring into space and asks what’s wrong. Nina demands to know why she found her clothes in Millie’s room. Flabbergasted, Millie says Nina gave them to her. Nina says she would never give a maid thousands of dollars' worth of clothes. When Andrew comes running at the commotion, Nina accuses Millie of stealing from her. Andrew defends her, as he remembers Nina cleaning out her closet and saying she was going to donate the clothes. Andrew asks Millie to give them privacy, and Millie listens to their argument from the top of the stairs.
The storm rages outside as Andrew tells Nina she’s no longer the person he fell in love with, and he wants to separate. Nina asks if this has anything to do with Millie, and he admits his feelings, but also says he doesn’t love Nina anymore. She threatens to leave him penniless and homeless in divorce court, but he reminds her that he owns the house, and they have a prenup. She asks what they’ll do about Cece, and he says Cece isn’t his daughter, because Nina never wanted him to adopt her. Nina spits out that he’s divorcing her because he wants a younger woman who can give him a child. He insists that that’s not the case, but Millie thinks there may be some truth to it.
Andrew tells Nina to pack a bag and leave immediately. Nina sees Millie at the top of the stairs and is visibly angry. Millie is frozen from fear, and awkwardly asks Nina if she’d like help packing. Nina venomously declines. Ten minutes later, Nina struggles to get her bags out the door and refuses any help. Finally, Millie opens the door for her, and Nina whispers in her ear that she’ll never forget this. She leaves, and thunder cracks once again as Andrew brings Millie in for a kiss. She thinks she hears Nina’s engine, but Nina is gone.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Millie wakes up next to Andrew in the luxurious guest bedroom. She didn’t want to sleep in the master bedroom, which still smells like Nina, and the cot in the attic isn’t big enough for two people. She was so grateful for the cot, but now realizes she had a crick in her back and hadn’t even noticed until sleeping in a real bed. She tries to get up to clean and cook breakfast, but Andrew doesn’t let her. He wants to hire someone else to do the cleaning so they can give their relationship a chance, and tells her she can stay as long as she wants, indicating that the arrangement might be permanent. She is in disbelief that she may actually have Nina’s life, and resolves not to take it for granted like Nina did. She gets a call from a blocked number but, thinking it’s Nina, rejects the call.
Andrew goes outside to confront Enzo about how much time he spends at the house. He leaves a coffee cup on the windowsill, and Millie doesn’t clean it up, because it’s not her responsibility anymore. Andrew fires Enzo, and Enzo physically holds Millie back so hard that it leaves a mark. He tells her that she must get out of there and that she’s in terrible danger. While he usually speaks in broken, heavily accented English, he now speaks in full sentences with only a slight accent, and Millie realizes he speaks much better English than she originally thought. She tells Enzo she’s fine because Nina is gone, but Enzo says she’s wrong, and Andrew interrupts before he can explain himself.
Analysis: Chapters Thirty—Thirty-Four
These chapters mark a dramatic reversal in Millie's fortunes. Nina attempts to reassert control in various ways, particularly by exposing Millie’s criminal history. Millie even speculates that Nina knew about her background all along and chose her precisely because she wanted someone she could dominate. However, when Andrew orders Nina out of the house, everything shifts. As Millie notes, the house is in Andrew’s name, so Nina no longer has any claim to it. Where Nina was once condescendingly helpful towards Millie, the roles are now reversed: Millie finds herself condescendingly offering help to Nina by holding the door open and assisting with packing. What Millie had only fantasized about—replacing Nina—is now becoming a reality.
Andrew’s offer to hire someone else for cleaning tasks signifies a removal of the constant worry and pressure that Millie previously faced. Her newfound freedom from such responsibilities, symbolized by the coffee cup left on the windowsill, reflects a significant shift in her status. She no longer has to bear the mental load of daily minutiae—now that's someone else’s responsibility.
The storm raging outside as Nina is forced to leave mirrors the tumultuous nature of Millie’s shifting circumstances. As Nina departs, Millie experiences a mix of relief and conflict; the storm symbolizes the upheaval in her life, which comes with its own uncertainties and dangers. This newfound freedom is tinged with unease. Andrew’s willingness to expel Nina suggests a troubling readiness to exercise power over those in his life. Despite Nina having made the house her home for many years, Andrew feels entitled to unceremoniously kick her out. His readiness to cast aside both his wife and stepdaughter, despite previously claiming a deep connection to Cece, unsettlingly calls into question the authenticity of his attachments. The shifting power dynamics leave Millie in a precarious and uneasy position, questioning the true cost of her new life and the stability it may—or may not—bring.
Millie’s assumptions about Enzo and his role in the household reveal a misunderstanding of the dynamics at play. Initially believing Enzo to be a victim of Nina’s wrath, she is surprised to discover he might be more aware of the situation than she had assumed. The realization that Enzo speaks better English than she thought, coupled with his warning about danger, complicates Millie’s understanding of her new environment. Her initial belief that Enzo’s fear was solely due to Nina’s influence proves misguided, hinting at deeper layers of power and control within the household that Millie has yet to fully grasp.
