The Housemaid's Secret

“Now I have to search for something else. Maybe multiple jobs to replace that one. And it’s not as easy for me as most people. I can’t exactly put an ad up on the popular childcare apps because they all require a background check. And as soon as that happens, any job prospects are off the table. Nobody wants somebody like me working in their home.”

Millie suggests for the first time that she has a past that does not make her desirable as a housemaid or a babysitter. The reason is not explored at this point, but the idea that she has a “past” or a secret is mentioned on multiple occasions in connection to her relationship with Brock. By not revealing the secret until later, McFadden gives her readers a change to judge Millie on her character rather than her past.

“I’m just…I’m shaken from the lecture I just had. We were learning about this woman in the ‘60s who was raped in front of thirty-eight bystanders, who did nothing. How could something like that happen?”

Millie learns about Kitty Genovese and she cannot shake the idea of so many people watching a crime and doing nothing to stop it. Although the truth of what happened to Kitty Genovese was largely misreported by an article in the New York Times, the story continues to influence people’s idea that people could possibly see a crime and ignore it. Millie uses this incident as an excuse to force her attention on Wendy Garrick when she becomes convinced Wendy is a survivor of domestic violence, insisting that she cannot ignore a crime. At the same time, the misinformation in the famous article about Kitty Genovese foreshadows the misdirection Wendy uses to set Millie up for murder.

“Sometimes I wonder why he’s even dating me, other than because he says he thinks I’m pretty. He acts like he’s so lucky to be with me. But that’s crazy. I’m not the catch—he is.”

Millie’s reflections on Brock show that she doesn’t feel as though she is capable of being loved by a man like him. This is part of the tension between them. She also reflects that he is a catch, not her. This shows why she continues to date him, believing him to be someone worthy of love, despite her actual feelings.

“And now I am performing the most normal task there is. Going grocery shopping. Although to be fair, there’s nothing normal about the list of items that Douglas has tasked me to obtain. As I check out the first few items on the list Douglas Garrick texted me this morning, I cringe at the scavenger hunt he is sending me on: buddha’s hand, fiddleheads, cucamelon, poha berries.”

The oddness of Douglas’s grocery list shows him to be a man of unique tastes, and a man who takes full advantage of his wealth in that he can afford odd ingredients and can send an employee to buy them. This goes hand in hand with the strict menu and list of recipes Douglas leaves for Millie on the days she is to cook for him and Wendy. Douglas is displaying a level of control that is common in men who abuse their partners, creating a warning sign that Millie will recognize.

“Impulsively, I pull back my foot and then kick him as hard as I can in the ribs. He moans louder this time. Definitely still alive. I kick him one more time for good measure. And then a third for the road. Every time my sneaker makes contact with his ribs, I smile to myself.”

This moment takes place after Xavier attacks Millie on the stairs of her apartment building and she pushes him down the stairs. Millie is angry about the attack, so she takes out revenge on his body in the form of kicks. However, this moment comes back to haunt Millie when it turns out to be the only part of the event witnessed by a neighbor. At the same time, it foreshadows Millie’s drive for vengeance, a fact that allows for some hint to Millie’s part in the cabin scene that was foreshadowed in the Prologue.

“It’s painfully obvious what is going on. Douglas has a mistress on the side who lives in this building. It’s still early enough that he could tell Wendy that he’s been working late tonight when he gets home.

But why were they arguing?”

Millie witnesses Douglas walking into an apartment building with a blonde woman and jumps to the conclusion that he’s having an affair. However, she will later discover that this man is not Douglas Garrick and the woman with him is not his mistress, but his wife. If Millie had followed up, maybe asked the neighbors a few questions, she might have learned the truth in time to stop the sequence of events that led to Douglas’s murder.

“Except when I walk into the bathroom now, there’s something I’ve never seen before. Something that makes me feel like I just got punched in the gut.

It’s a bloody handprint on the bathroom sink.”

Millie finds what she believes to be the first indisputable proof that Wendy is being abused by Douglas when she sees a bloody handprint in the bathroom. This moment is a turning point in the plot as Millie’s doubts about Douglas and Wendy finally prove themselves to be true.

“I have seen a lot of bad things in my lifetime, but Wendy Garrick’s face is one of those things that will haunt me for years to come. That woman had been pummeled, and from the looks of her, it didn’t happen all at once. The bruises covering her face are in various stages of healing. One on her left cheekbone looks fresh, but others have a yellow appearance that makes it look like they were formed from a blow that came much earlier.”

The bruises on Wendy’s face are clearly what convince Millie that Wendy has been beaten. However, it is revealed later in the plot that the bruises were painted on with makeup. This brings up the question of experience, suggesting Wendy’s makeup skills are incredible as Millie could believe them although her face lacks swelling or other signs of trauma that Millie should be aware of because of her experience helping women in Wendy’s position. The story of Kitty Genovese comes into play here as well as it is clear that Millie’s perceptions are blurred by her determination to be one who helps and not just a bystander, touching on the theme of Bystander Effect Versus the Everyday Hero.

“I did save that bracelet she forced on me the other day, and I could probably hock it for a month’s rent. Plus, I have a feeling after my conversation happens with Brock tomorrow, we might be moving in together after all. (Or breaking up forever. One or the other.).”

Millie took a bracelet offered to her by Wendy with an inscription that could be for Wendy or Millie (Wilhelmina) with an underestimated understanding of its value. She doesn’t appreciate the implications that can be drawn by her possession of the bracelet should the police become interested. At the same time, Millie once again thinks of the secret she needs to reveal to Brock, showing her insecurity in their relationship and her reluctance to be honest that continues throughout their relationship and leads to trouble toward the end of the novel.

“I keep the Mazda in my sight as I change lanes, trying to see if it will change lanes with me. It doesn’t always, but every time I look in my mirrors, it’s behind me.”

Millie is convinced she is being followed, and this Mazda with a broken headlight is her prime suspect. As she drives Wendy out of town, she believes the car is following them and she plans to lose it, afraid it is Douglas or Xander. When she loses the car at the highway, Millie feels safe, but the car returns later that night, and Millie learns the truth, that she wasn’t being stalked by a dangerous stranger, but by her former boyfriend. This situation allows McFadden to insert tension into the plot and imply danger that could be foreshadowing the moment in the cabin discussed in the Prologue, but learning that it is Enzo destroys that idea.

“But I still feel safe handing over my driver’s license. It won’t be entered in the system—probably just the hard drive of this one computer. Not that Douglas would necessarily be searching for me, but you never know. If he is as smart as Wendy thinks, he might put it together.”

Millie uses her own identification to rent a motel room in Albany for Wendy, leaving a paper trail of herself with this rental and the car rental while keeping Wendy completely off. This is for Wendy’s safety, but it also makes it appear as though Millie were alone in Albany. Later, when Millie is questioned in Douglas’s death, this moment comes back to haunt her as Detective Ramirez reveals that Douglas was in Albany for a meeting that same night, not across the country as Wendy told Millie. This moment is part of the evidence that supports the idea that Millie and Douglas were having an affair.

“This is getting crazy. I have kept this from him long enough. And if I told Enzo that this guy is The Guy, then that means I’m serious about him. That means being completely honest.”

The fact that Millie has to talk herself into admitting she is serious about Brock marks a serious flaw in their relationship. Millie is clearly not in love with Brock and the fact that she told Enzo that Brock is “The Guy” is more likely because she wanted to hurt Enzo for hurting her, not because it’s the truth.

“She pulls what appears to be a dictionary out of the bookcase and lowers it down onto an empty shelf. She flips it open and that’s when I realize that the dictionary has been completely hollowed out.

And inside is a gun.”

Wendy shows Millie a gun she found hidden in the penthouse apartment. This gun will play a pivotal role in what comes next, but for the moment it only represents Wendy’s desire to end her own pain and Millie’s drive to protect her from what she’s afraid will come next. This is another turning point in the plot where Millie has a choice to walk away and due to her desire to not be a bystander, she refuses.

“But Douglas somehow isn’t hearing what I’m telling him. His eyes are wild, and he seems determined to end this—right here and now. Wendy has stopped clawing at him and her body has gone limp. The time for negotiating has passed. If I don’t do something in the next few seconds, he is going to kill her.

And I will have let it happen.”

This moment goes back to the Kitty Genovese story and Millie’s refusal to be one of the bystanders. Millie is witnessing what she believes to be Douglas strangling Wendy, and she decides to do something about it. However, like the article about Kitty Genovese’s death, the scene Millie witnesses is based on misrepresentation. Millie plays right into Wendy’s hands and soon finds herself a suspect for murder.

“‘It was self-defense,’ I say, which isn’t entirely true. ‘This man was attacking my friend and I stopped him. I was a teenager at the time.’

He gives me a look. ‘You don’t go to prison for self-defense.’

‘Some people do.’”

More than halfway through the novel, Millie finally reveals to Brock and the reader the reason why she went to prison. This event clearly isn’t one that haunts Millie because she doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the event. In fact, the only thought she gives to this event is the impact her prison record has on her employment and her relationships. This shows a side of Millie’s character that foreshadows her part in the death of Wendy Garrick at the end of the novel. This moment also shows that Millie’s concern about revealing the truth to Brock wasn’t as warranted as she might have believed as he seems to take it pretty well even as he doubts how truthful she is when she defines her actions as self-defense.

“I sneak a look at the papers on the coffee table in front of me. It’s a stack two inches thick. But Joe has highlighted the main points for me. It says in black and white that if we get divorced, I will get ten million dollars. That’s nowhere near half of what Douglas is worth, but it’s nothing to sneeze at. It will keep me comfortable for the rest of my life if things don’t work out here.”

Wendy reveals here that the prenuptial agreement was too long to read herself, but she trusted Joe to highlight the important parts despite the fact that she is well aware that Joe is loyal to Douglas and doesn’t much like her.

“Douglas gives me a sad look, but he doesn’t stop. He leaves the house, gets in his car, and drives off, presumably to get a sandwich with a bun made out of fried chicken.

It’s at that moment I know that I can no longer be faithful to my husband, because I no longer respect him.”

Wendy tends to blame all her problems on Douglas. In this instance, Wendy has been attempting to mold Douglas into the man she wants him to be by changing his reputation, his sense of fashion, and his appearance. When she fails to convince him to lose weight, she loses respect for him. In this way, she blames Douglas for her decision to have an affair with Russell Simonds.

“Douglas isn’t terrible in the same way as Ginger’s husband was—he’s not physically abusive. But he’s evil and manipulative nonetheless. Abuse isn’t necessarily only physical—isn’t my husband throwing me out of my own home and leaving me penniless just as abusive as breaking a bone?”

Wendy reveals her own character in her assessment of Douglas as an abuser. Douglas is clearly in love with Wendy as seen through his multiple attempts to fix their marriage despite her lies and the affairs she has been conducting for months. However, Wendy sees his attempts to take his money back in the face of a divorce as abuse, illustrating the theme of Wealth as a Motivator very clearly.

“And this is why Douglas and I will never be happy together. He just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t know what it’s like to have the other girls laugh at you and ask if you found your coat in the garbage bin. He doesn’t know what it’s like for your father to hurt his back so he goes on disability, but the payments aren’t quite enough to keep the lights on, so every so often you have to do everything in the dark, with flashlights. And even though your sisters act like it’s an adventure, it’s not. It’s not an adventure. It’s being dirt poor and having nothing.”

Touching again on the theme of wealth as a motivator, Wendy reflects on her poor childhood as she prepares to shoot Douglas. Wendy would rather kill a good man than go back to living with nothing. Wendy feels as though murder is the only way out, and she uses this memory of living in darkness as a good reason to end a kind man’s life.

“He’s alive. I didn’t kill anyone after all. The relief I feel is somewhat tempered by the fact that even though I didn’t kill anyone, the police definitely think I did.”

Millie expresses relief that Russell Simonds is still alive despite having shot him a few days before. This moment is ironic in the fact that Millie will have an active part in arranging Russell’s murder that very night. Yet, this moment is about Millie and her future. Millie’s focus on her own freedom is similar to the selfishness Wendy displays in her motives for killing Douglas in the first place, revealing that even people who try to do the right thing can be self-centered in times of crisis.

“A few months after we got married, Douglas had a will drawn up that left everything to me. I went with him to the attorney to make sure he did it, especially since Douglas was a master procrastinator. It hadn’t even occurred to me that he might have changed his will in the short time since we separated.”

Another of Wendy’s mistakes was underestimating Douglas. It is already clear that Wendy doesn’t know Douglas as well as she believes because he reveals to her that the prenup had always been his idea. If Douglas could pull off that kind of deception, it’s possible he could make Wendy think that he procrastinates over important things like wills but doesn’t. Clearly, Douglas understood that wealth was Wendy’s primary motivation, and he acted to be sure she didn’t get what she wanted after he learned of her infidelity. This change in his will simply follows that logic.

“My husband’s secretary—who also happens to be Russell’s wife—is standing only a few feet away from me now, her eyes boring into me. I’ve never been frightened of Marybeth before. Even when I was sleeping with her husband, I never gave her a second thought. She seemed nice enough, and Russell never told me otherwise.

I have underestimated her. Russell’s slashed throat is proof of that.”

Wendy’s surprise at learning Marybeth is her attacker rather than Millie is clear in her assessment of Marybeth’s character. As intelligent as Wendy clearly is in planning the murder, she seems to be too arrogant to truly consider all the possible obstacles to getting what she wants, and that leaves her not only a suspect in her husband’s murder, as well as penniless, but it has placed her directly in the sights of Marybeth, her murderer.

“This whole time there was a camera. All the panic and stress of the last two days…and all along, the proof of my innocence was right there.”

Millie learns that even if Wendy had not confessed, she would have been exonerated thanks to the camera Douglas arranged to have installed on the back door of his apartment building. This touches on irony as it shows that Millie did not have to give Marybeth the information and pills to kill Russell and Wendy because they would have gone to jail anyway. This is a parallel to Wendy’s choice to shoot Douglas when she could have simply poisoned him with his own pills.