The Housemaid Is Watching

An unnamed narrator opens the story in a blood-soaked living room, standing near a corpse and realizing discovery is imminent as a familiar woman approaches the unlocked door. With no time to clean away the evidence, the narrator flees.

Millie Accardi soon narrates her family’s fresh start: she and her husband, Enzo Accardi, have bought a house at 11 Locust Street on Long Island for the sake of their children, Ada and Nico. The move is meant to provide stability after Millie’s hard-won second chance, but their first interactions in the cul-de-sac immediately feel off. Their next-door neighbor Suzette Lowell greets them with performative warmth that lands like insults, flirts openly with Enzo, and pressures Millie into a dinner meant to initiate them into local “normal.” Across the street, Janice Archer is described as unfriendly and watchful—an impression Millie shares after noticing the family’s windows lack blinds.

As Millie and Enzo settle in, tensions surface inside the household. Ada is anxious about changing schools midyear, while Nico is eager to make friends and pushes for an unusual pet, eventually bringing home a praying mantis he names Little Kiwi. Millie’s sense of safety erodes further when she hears an intermittent scraping sound inside the house at night. Enzo dismisses it as the house settling, but Janice’s ominous hint that their home was priced low because of “something on the inside” makes Millie fear the noise has intent.

Neighborhood social life becomes its own pressure cooker. At dinner at the Lowells’, Suzette orchestrates seating to place herself beside Enzo and isolates the Accardi children at a separate table, then mocks Millie’s manners. Suzette also pushes Enzo into agreeing to a private landscaping “demonstration,” with Jonathan Lowell—Suzette’s husband—remaining passive and oddly compliant. The Lowells’ maid, Martha, adds to Millie’s unease by staring silently and pushing herself into Millie’s life; soon after, Enzo hires Martha to clean the Accardi home without asking Millie first and even gives her a key so she can come early.

Millie’s fear sharpens into something more concrete when she walks Ada and Nico to the bus stop and meets Janice Archer and her son, Spencer. Spencer is frail and kept on a leash clipped to his backpack, and Janice interrogates Millie about parenting choices, predatory danger, and Suzette’s trustworthiness—warning Millie to “watch” her handsome husband. Meanwhile, Millie’s own life carries an old vulnerability: a hospital incident triggers her panic over her past manslaughter conviction and prison time, and a doctor later confirms her blood pressure is dangerously high, requiring medication and further tests.

As Millie’s anxiety about Enzo and Suzette grows, the scraping sound gains a frightening explanation. One afternoon Millie returns home to find Enzo’s truck outside but Enzo and the children missing. Enzo is discovered in Suzette’s backyard, and the parents realize each assumed the other had Ada and Nico. While searching the house, Enzo finds wallpaper torn in the outline of a small door under the stairs; he forces it open, and inside is a cramped, insulated room. Ada and Nico are found there, and Nico admits he has been using the hidden space as a “clubhouse,” explaining the night noises. Though the immediate panic ends, Millie notices Ada appears to have been crying before they were found, and the room’s soundproof insulation makes Millie realize how easily someone could be trapped without being heard.

Millie and Enzo wallpaper the hidden door shut, but their domestic troubles escalate. Nico’s behavior turns violent—first in a school fight that gets him suspended, then in a Little League game where he punches another boy and is kicked off the team. Millie grows terrified by Nico’s emotional flatness and searches online for signs of psychopathy in children. Enzo insists fighting is normal boy behavior and refuses the idea of therapy, revealing his own history with violence and revenge.

At the same time, money problems and mistrust intensify. A plumber confronts Millie about a bounced check, and Suzette pays the bill in cash, creating a new power imbalance. Millie discovers a $1,000 cash withdrawal from their account and learns Enzo made it without telling her. She also catches Martha stealing a sentimental necklace; when Millie forces its return, Martha blackmails her with knowledge of Millie’s prison past. Millie fires Martha anyway but hides the blackmail from Enzo.

A promised beach meeting with Suzette’s wealthy “clients” becomes another manipulation: Suzette reveals the meeting is canceled, needles Millie, flirts physically with Enzo, and controls Jonathan’s movements. During the outing, Suzette nearly drowns; Enzo rescues her, and Suzette clings to him with intimate gratitude while Jonathan appears pleased. Millie also notices Nico in the water near Suzette shortly before the incident, and when she raises it, Enzo denies Nico was anywhere close—making Millie suspect Enzo is lying to protect their son.

Millie’s suspicion peaks after Enzo returns home at 3 a.m. smelling of another woman’s perfume. Soon after, Millie storms to Suzette’s house and discovers Jonathan Lowell dead on the living-room floor with his throat slit. She flees home for help and finds Enzo in their kitchen washing blood down the sink, his shirt spattered. Police arrive even though Millie hasn’t called 911, and Detective Willard begins questioning, fueled by Janice Archer’s observations that Millie entered the Lowells’ house and that Enzo had been there earlier.

At the station, Willard separates Millie from Enzo and presents a damning narrative: Enzo bought an illegal gun with cash, checked into a motel with Suzette, and had motive tied to the Lowells’ life insurance payout. Millie stops answering questions and demands a lawyer. Enzo later claims the motel stay was actually with Martha, whom he says he was helping escape an abusive husband, and that he bought the gun to protect her. Millie verifies Martha has indeed “taken off,” lending credibility to Enzo’s explanation, but the case tightens anyway.

Benito Ramirez, an NYPD detective friend and Ada’s godfather, brings a public defender, Cecelia Winchester, who both Millie and Enzo recognize from their past. Cecelia warns police are close to arresting Enzo and pushes him to be honest about vulnerabilities. Under pressure, Enzo admits he once worked for mob-connected Dario Fontana and participated in violent collections, though he denies ever killing anyone.

Police then execute a search warrant at the Accardi home. Cecelia calls Millie privately with a grim update: investigators found something they believe will be a “slam dunk” once tested. The next morning Cecelia arrives soaked from the rain and confirms it—police recovered Enzo’s engraved pocketknife, “EA,” with Jonathan Lowell’s blood on it. Cornered, Enzo confesses he killed Jonathan, and Detective Willard arrests him. Millie’s life immediately collapses into survival math—mortgage, children, and the fear of losing everything.

Upstairs, however, Ada reveals the confession is false: she says she killed Jonathan. A later section shifts into Ada’s perspective to show what Millie did not know. Ada’s anxiety in the new house never truly eased; she was harassed by a boy at school, and Enzo gave her his inherited pocketknife as a last-resort means of protection. Ada later discovered Nico repeatedly sneaking into a hidden room under their stairs—the same kind of concealed space that exists at the Lowells’—and learned Nico had also been coerced into visiting a secret “toy room” inside the Lowells’ house after breaking their stained-glass window. According to Nico, Jonathan Lowell trapped him there behind a closed door, filmed him with a ceiling camera, used shame and financial threats to force repeated visits, and ultimately threatened to kill Nico’s entire family if he ever told anyone.

Determined to stop Jonathan from ever touching Nico again, Ada sneaks into the Lowells’ hidden room herself and finds evidence that suggests something even worse has happened there, including a child-sized bed with sheets stained like old blood. Jonathan catches her, closes the door, and refuses to let her leave. Terrified she is about to become another missing child, Ada uses Enzo’s knife to stab Jonathan in the belly and escape. In the present, Millie learns Ada’s actions went further: Ada also slit Jonathan’s throat, a detail that makes a simple self-defense story difficult and explains the brutal scene Millie found.

With Enzo jailed and ready to sacrifice himself to protect Ada, Millie faces an impossible choice: tell the truth and risk her daughter’s future, or let Enzo take the fall. Ramirez then delivers a critical development: investigators found Suzette Lowell’s fingerprints in the hidden room, and they found evidence tied to Braden Lundie, a boy who disappeared years earlier. Millie and Ramirez confront Suzette at her hotel and force her to understand that police can now treat her as complicit in Jonathan’s crimes. They offer Suzette a bargain—confess to Jonathan’s murder and explain the evidence, or face far worse prosecution connected to the hidden room and Braden. With Detective Willard en route, Millie and Ramirez leave, betting Suzette will choose self-preservation.

Two weeks later, Suzette has confessed, and all charges against Enzo are dropped. The Accardis share a fragile calm, but nothing is truly over: Millie plans to sell the house and start again somewhere cheaper, aware Nico will need serious therapy and that Ada’s violence—however defensive—has changed the family forever. Ramirez checks in and reassures Millie that Ada did what she had to do, then reveals he is moving forward too, dating Nina Winchester. The family remains together, but Millie’s final stance is clear: she may relocate, but she will keep watching—because she has learned how much can be hidden in plain sight.