Millie walks from the train station to her one-bedroom apartment in the South Bronx on high alert, clutching her purse and keeping mace ready. She is newly desperate for money after losing her childcare job with Amber Degraw, who fired her without offering a reference.

As Millie nears her building, she becomes convinced someone is following her. At the door, a man in his mid-twenties with a scar over his left eyebrow catches up and claims he lives in apartment Two-C, showing keys that match the building’s locks. Millie lets him in cautiously and hurries upstairs, unsettled when he casually demonstrates he knows more than he should, including implying he knows where she lives.

Inside her apartment, Millie double-locks the door, trying to dismiss her fear while thinking about rent and how quickly she needs new work. She reflects that she cannot use standard childcare apps because background checks would expose her history, and she admits her past included providing “another service” to families she cleaned for—something she no longer does.

Millie takes a brief, unreliable shower, then starts preparing a cheap dinner. Before she can eat, pounding erupts at her door, and a muffled voice urgently calls her name, insisting she let them in and saying they know she is inside.