The Housemaid by Freida McFadden - Recaptains

The basics

Title: The Housemaid

Author: Freida McFadden

Series: The Housemaid #1

- The Housemaid (2022)
- The Housemaid's Secret (2023)
- The Housemaid is Watching (2024)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of…

Here is a spoiler summary of what happened in The Housemaid by Freida McFadden to help refresh your memory before you read the sequel. If you need help remembering what happened in The Housemaid then you’re in the right place.

What happened in The Housemaid?

• In the prologue, we learn that someone is about to be arrested because the cops have found a body in an attic. Then we skip to three months earlier.
• Millie attends an interview for a housekeeping position for a rich family – the Winchesters. Mrs Nina Winchester is the one to interview Millie, and she would like Millie to cook, clean, and occasionally look after her child Cecelia.
• Millie is offered the job and she accepts because she is pretty desperate after having spent the past ten years in prison. She doesn’t even mind sleeping in the creepy little attic room, which only has a lock on the outside.
• Millie starts her new job and moves into the Winchester house. She meets Enzo, the Italian gardener, who doesn’t seem to speak much English but he does tell her that she is in danger.
• Millie finds the house to be in a bit of a state, so she spends a lot of time cleaning it. 
• Nina gives Millie a new phone to use for work purposes.
• Andrew Winchester is introduced to Millie by Nina.
• Nina asks Millie why she is no longer wearing glasses, and Millie doesn’t want to admit that they were fake and she was trying to look smarter and more reliable, so she tells Nina that she’s now wearing contacts.
• Millie asks for the key to the lock on her attic room door. Nina agrees to find it for her. Millie finds that her bedroom window is sealed shut, and she thinks she can see scratch marks on the door.
• Millie gets Cecelia a snack of peanut butter, and Cecelia freaks out and thinks Millie is trying to kill her. Cecelia says that she’s allergic to peanut butter. Nina insists that she did tell Millie this, but Millie knows that’s not the case, and wonders why the peanut butter was in the cupboard if Cecelia is allergic.
• Nina asks Millie when dinner is going to be ready, because she apparently asked Millie to prepare good as well. 
• Andrew gets home from work and asks Millie to join them for dinner. Nina doesn’t look happy, especially as Andrew called her a bad cook, so Millie declines to join them.
• Millie heads downstairs the following morning to find that the kitchen is a mess. Nina is freaking out because she thinks Millie has thrown out the notes that she made for her PTA meeting.
• Nina tells Andrew that Millie destroyed the kitchen and leaves them together. Millie insists it was Nina, and Andrew agrees that he knows it was Nina.
• Millie goes grocery shopping. She returns with all the food and Enzo helps her bring the food in. He leaves quickly when he hears Nina approaching. Nina asks Millie who was in the house, and Millie admits it was Enzo. Nina becomes angry about Enzo dirtying the floors.
• Nina questions Millie about the glasses, and Millie has to admit that she doesn’t need them.
• Nina heads to her PTA meeting, leaving Cecelia and Andrew at home with Millie.
• Millie starts thinking that Andrew is really quite attractive and that she hasn’t been with a man since she was seventeen. Millie considers Enzo too, and thinks he might be a good choice as he’s likely single.
• Cecelia refuses to eat her food.
• Nina offers Millie some of her old clothes which she was planning on donating as they are now too small for her. Millie accepts.
• Nina gives Millie the key to her room.
• Nina tells Millie that she and Andrew are trying for a baby.
• Nina asks Millie to pick Cecelia up from school. Realising that the school day ends in fifteen minutes, Millie rushes over there. She talks to a couple of the mothers and they tell her that Nina is crazy.
• Cecelia comes out and is meant to be going with her friend’s mother to karate lessons. The friend’s mother called Nina to ask what’s going on, and Nina says that Millie must be confused. Nina texts Millie saying that she doesn’t know why Millie thought she should pick Cecelia up from school.
• Millie cleans the bathroom and finds lots of Nina’s medicines. Some of them seem to be antipsychotics. 
• Millie asks Enzo what he thinks of Nina but he doesn’t want to give anything away.
• Millie is required to meet with Pam, her parole officer. Millie hadn’t told Pam that she had been fired from her waitressing job, but is glad to be able to tell Pam about this maid job.
• Millie goes downstairs to watch TV in the living room. Andrew joins her and they chat. Millie mentions Cecelia’s peanut allergy, which Andrew insists isn’t a thing.
• Nina catches them laughing together, and tells Millie to stay in the attic at night.
• Millie breaks a glass in anger.
• Nina hosts a PTA meeting in her back garden. Millie needs to prepare food for it and gets stressed. Andrew offers to help, and reveals that Cecelia isn’t his biological daughter.
• Millie needs to wait on the PTA members. Nina is really horrible towards Millie, and when she leaves the garden for a bit, the other mothers bitch about Nina’s weight and appearance. They talk about Nina’s stint in the psychiatric hospital, and her and Andrew’s prenup.
• Nina and Andrew go to see a fertility doctor and are very upset when they return. Nina gets angry with Millie for making a mess again and leaves the room.
• Andrew tells Millie that Nina is unable to conceive. Andrew plans to cheer Nina up by taking her to a Broadway show and he asks Millie to buy them tickets.
• Millie overhears an argument between Nina and Andrew. After hearing a crash, Millie goes to check they’re both okay. Millie notices blood on Nina’s nightgown. Nina tells Millie to stay upstairs.
• The following morning, Millie asks Nina which dates she should look at for booking the show. Nina suggests the following Sunday. 
• A package from Evelyn Winchester, Andrew’s mother, is delivered. Enzo brings it inside, and Millie invites Enzo in for a drink of water. Millie flirts with Enzo but he shouts at her and once again tells her it’s dangerous here.
• Millie goes to pick Cecelia up from her dance class. She talks to another mother called Amanda, who also thinks that Nina is crazy. Amanda reveals that Nina tried to drown Cecelia in the bath and then tried to take her own life. Andrew called the police in time.
• Andrew returns home and finds the package from his mother. He gets upset when he opens the box to find baby items. He tells Millie he’s disappointed that they can’t have another baby.
• Millie tells Nina that she has booked the tickets for Sunday, and Nina tells Millie that she got the date wrong and is quite angry. Andrew says he’ll try to get a refund.
• Nina drives Cecelia to camp.
• Andrew reveals that he couldn’t get a refund for the tickets, and offers to take Millie instead. This will be their secret, and the timing works perfectly because Nina will be away for the night.
• Millie wears an outfit from Nina’s donation clothes. They head to the show, and have dinner afterwards. Nina calls briefly.
• Andrew tells Millie that when he met Nina she was a single mother and was a lot nicer than she is now. He admits that he was engaged to someone else before he married Nina.
• Andrew suggests they stay at a hotel because he’s too drunk to drive. He and Millie kiss in the taxi and sleep together at the hotel.
• The next day, Enzo spots Millie and Andrew as they pull up to the house. He doesn’t look impressed. 
• Andrew pays Enzo two hundred dollars to take the trash to the dump, as Millie forgot to sort it before she left.
• Andrew tells Millie he doesn’t like Enzo but only hired him because Nina insisted that he’s the best at his job.
• Nina returns. She says she called the house the previous night and no one answered the phone. Millie says she didn’t hear the phone when she was upstairs.
• Nina brings up Millie’s past at dinner. Andrew is shocked to learn that Millie was in prison. Millie rushes to her room, and finds the playbill from the Broadway show on her nightstand. Millie realises Nina must have put it there and that she knows what happened in the city.
• Millie goes grocery shopping and is accused of shoplifting. Security check her receipt and find nothing wrong. They tell Millie that someone called them with a tip. It was obviously Nina.
• Millie kisses Andrew on the porch after she tries to talk to him about her past. She bumps into Nina on the way back into the house.
• Nina accuses Millie of being a thief and stealing her clothes. Andrew sticks up for Millie. He admits he has feelings for Millie and that he doesn’t love Nina any more. He tells Nina to leave. 
• Nina threatens Millie as she packs her bag and leaves.
• Millie and Andrew sleep together in the guest room.
• Millie receives two calls from a blocked number, although she doesn’t answer.
• Andrew fires Enzo. Enzo tells Millie that she’s in danger and needs to leave.
• Millie bumps into one of the PTA mothers, Patrice, at the grocery store. She tells Millie that she’s unable to reach Nina. Millie ensures her that everything is okay.
• Patrice points out that Nina has likely been tracking Millie with her work phone.
• Millie receives another call, and this time she answers. There’s a weird voice telling her to stay away from Andrew.
• Andrew works late. When he gets home, he and Millie have sex in her attic room. They fall asleep together.
• Millie wakes up to find her door locked from the outside.
• Nina is currently staying in a hotel. She notices that Millie has disabled the tracker on the phone that Nina gave her.
• We learn Nina’s backstory. She fell pregnant after a one night stand and had to drop out of her PhD course. She got a receptionist job at Andrew’s company and met him there. He took her to lunch, and then asked her out.
• We learn that Andrew was engaged to someone called Kathleen, but they broke up a year prior to him and Nina getting together.
• Three months into their marriage, Andrew started abusing Nina. He started by verbally insulting her and her appearance. Then he locked her in the attic room.
• Nina was locked in the room for several hours. Andrew says this is because Nina wasn’t taking care of her roots and looked like a slob.
• Andrew makes Nina pull out a hundred strands of her own hair. Nina does so, but he tells her some of them weren’t suitable so she needs to start again. Then he lets her out.
• Nina takes a nap. She wakes up to the sound of running water and finds Cecelia in the bath. A policeman arrives and Nina is taken to the psychiatric hospital because they assume that Nina tried to overdose. 
• Nina has to stay at the hospital for eight months. She tries telling the doctors that her husband is abusing her, but they put her on medicine.
• Nina is discharged. She tries to confide in a new doctor, who tells Nina to go back to the attic to address her delusions. 
• Andrew drives Nina home. His mother is at the house waiting for them. Evelyn belittles Andrew for leaving the lights on. Nina takes the blame instead.
• Nina heads to the attic and Andrew locks her in again. 
• This time he says it’s because she left the lights on.
• Years later, Nina is desperate to leave Andrew but he refuses to divorce her. Nina worries that Andrew will do something to Cecelia.
• Nina plans to gain weight and be mean to Andrew. He tries to starve her but gives up after a while.
• Nina tries to look for Kathleen but is unable to find her.
• Andrew keeps the peanut butter in the kitchen even though Cecelia is allergic, as a threat.
• Andrew tells Nina’s friends about her mental health issues.
• Nina starts confiding in Enzo, thinking that he can’t speak English. He actually understands everything though and tries to let Nina out of the attic room. Nina tells Enzo he must leave her alone.
• Enzo tells Nina that he’s originally from Sicily, but he had to leave because he got on the wrong side of his sister’s murderer.
• Enzo gets hold of passports and plane tickets for Nina and Cecelia. He’s unable to get enough money for her to leave immediately.
• Andrew finds out about this and locks her in the attic room again. Andrew found one of the safe deposit boxes where the items had been stored, but not the second one.
• Enzo tells Nina he will kill Andrew for her, but Nina comes up with a different plan.
• Nina orchestrated the entire thing to get Millie hired and closer to Andrew. Nina hired Millie because she needed someone desperate to be a replacement for her.
• Andrew didn’t like the idea of hiring help, and he didn’t like having Millie in the attic room. Nina points out they need to keep the guest room free for Evelyn when she visits.
• Nina made Millie hate her so that Millie wouldn’t feel guilty about sleeping with Andrew.
• Now, in the hotel room, Enzo shows up and he and Nina have sex.
• Enzo insists they can’t leave Millie with Andrew.
• Meanwhile, back at the house, Millie realises what is happening – that Andrew has locked her in there on purpose and is punishing her. Andrew tells Millie to place some heavy books on her stomach for three hours. Millie does this, but Andrew tells her she took the books off too early and to start again.
• Nina is aware that Millie was arrested when a football player assaulted her friend at a party, and so Millie attacked him and killed him.
• Millie recalls the pepper spray that’s in the drawers in the attic room. This was left there by Nina.
• Millie attacks Andrew with the spray and locks him inside. Millie tells Andrew to place the books on his genitals for three hours. He does so. Millie tells him to do it for five hours because he misheard her before. She doesn’t give him any water.
• Nina picks Cecelia up from camp and tells her they’re going to Disneyland without Andrew. Cecelia is relieved.
• Enzo calls Nina and tells her that Millie hasn’t left the house in three days. There must be something wrong.
• Millie checks in on Andrew and this time tells him to pull out his teeth.
• Nina heads to the house. She opens the door to the attic room, and finds Millie inside. Andrew is dead, and has been for five days.
• Millie is upset about going back to prison. Nina tells Millie that they’ll tell the police that she had the week off and that Andrew was home alone. Nina says she’ll go back to the hospital if needed.
• Nina calls the police, and then Enzo. Enzo offers to defend her to the police.
• The police tell Nina that Andrew’s body had severe bruising. They question Nina’s story about Andrew accidentally locking himself in while she was staying at the hotel.
• The detective mentions his daughter, Kathleen. He says that he knows Andrew, and that Kathleen was traumatised by her relationship with him. The detective agrees that Andrew likely got locked inside the room.
• A funeral for Andrew is held. Andrew’s parents obviously attend. Robert offers his condolences. Evelyn mentions Andrew’s missing teeth, and said that when Andrew was a child he was terrible at brushing his teeth, so she had to pull out one of them to teach him a lesson. Evelyn congratulates Nina for teaching Andrew a lesson.
• Millie gets another cleaning job for a woman called Lisa. Lisa tells Millie that Nina Winchester recommended Millie’s services. Millie notices that Lisa has bruises on her, and accepts the job.

That’s what happened in The Housemaid! Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!