Opening
A gnawing sense of surveillance pushes Millie Calloway to make rash choices with her “perfect” boyfriend, Brock Cunningham—until one glimpse of her boss, Douglas Garrick, snaps the story into darker focus. Behind the Garricks’ polished façade, Wendy Garrick hides a brutal truth that Millie can’t unsee, and won’t ignore.
What Happens
Chapter 16: The Man Watching
On a dinner date, Millie can’t shake the feeling that someone is watching her. She assumes it’s her neighbor, Xavier, who recently attacked her, and the fear presses on her even across borough lines. Sitting across from Brock—handsome, kind, and trusting—she feels the weight of her secrets: a criminal record, a derailed legal career, and a relationship sustained by half-truths.
Needing safety, Millie blurts out that they should move in together. Brock, elated, tells her he loves her. Millie can’t say it back. As the sensation of being watched spikes, she spins around—expecting Xavier—and instead spots Douglas across the street. The sight shifts Millie’s dread from the violent neighbor to the wealthy, inscrutable man whose home she cleans.
Chapter 17: The Black Mazda
Millie abandons Brock at the table and tails Douglas. He walks with a blonde woman who is not Wendy, and the pair bicker as they enter a brownstone. Millie concludes he’s having an affair, shattering the polished image and sharpening the theme of Appearance vs. Reality.
Heading back, Millie notices a black Mazda with a cracked headlight—the same car that has loitered near her apartment and the Garricks’ building. Cold dread settles in. The watcher isn’t Xavier; it’s likely Douglas—and he may have started following her even before she worked for him. The black Mazda becomes a haunting emblem of a calculated, pervasive threat.
Chapter 18: A Short Reprieve
Despite second thoughts, Millie packs to move in with Brock. As they arrive at her Bronx building, flashing lights and shouting stop them: police are arresting Xavier Marin. An officer announces they found a “shitload of heroin,” Xavier yells his innocence, and then bolts—only to be tackled.
The quick hit of Justice and Revenge makes Millie feel briefly safe again. She pulls back from the move-in, telling Brock she isn’t ready and needs her own space. He’s hurt and baffled. Millie buys time from both the truth and domesticity—without realizing the real danger never left.
Chapter 19: The Trail of Blood
Back in the Garricks’ penthouse, Millie tries to rationalize the bloody nightgown she found earlier. Then she enters the upstairs bathroom and freezes: a bloody handprint stains the sink. Drops stipple the floor in a thin red line—out of the bathroom, down the hall, straight to the locked guest room where Wendy stays.
Millie knocks. Silence. She threatens to call the police. A strangled voice on the other side says not to, insists everything is fine. Millie refuses to leave until she sees Wendy. The immaculate penthouse curdles into a crime scene, every polished surface a screen for concealed violence.
Chapter 20: The Warning
Wendy finally opens the door a crack. Millie stifles a scream. Wendy’s face is a patchwork of bruises in different stages of healing—evidence of repeated, severe beatings. Wendy fumbles for excuses—a fall, blood thinners—leaning into the hollow comfort of Deception and Manipulation.
Millie urges her to go to a hospital and report the assault. Panic flares in Wendy’s eyes. In a low, urgent warning, she begs Millie to walk away and mind her own business, insisting that Millie doesn’t understand what she’s dealing with. The door slams. Instead of deterring Millie, the terror in Wendy’s voice hardens her resolve to uncover the truth and help her.
Character Development
Millie’s fear narrows into focus as she realizes she misidentifies the threat. Her instinct shifts from self-protection to intervention, even at personal cost.
- Millie: Moves from panic-driven impulsivity (suggesting cohabitation) to determined action. She rejects the safety net with Brock, embraces risk, and adopts a protector’s role for Wendy.
- Douglas: Drops the mask of perfect husband; emerges as adulterer, possible stalker, and likely abuser—an antagonist with reach and planning.
- Wendy: From mysterious recluse to battered, traumatized woman using lies as survival tactics. Her warning shows the depth of her fear and the power her abuser holds.
- Brock: His stability and trust highlight Millie’s secrecy. Her reversal on moving in creates their first major fissure.
Themes & Symbols
Millie’s world splits between glossy surfaces and hidden rot, making Appearance vs. Reality the engine of tension. The Garricks’ wealth camouflages brutality; Douglas’s public virtue covers infidelity and predation; Millie’s “normal” romance masks past and present dangers. Deception and Manipulation become coping tools and weapons—Millie lies to survive; Douglas lies to control; Wendy lies to avoid escalation.
Justice and Revenge flickers when Xavier is arrested, offering a false resolution. That fleeting “win” exposes the story’s moral core: the urgent, risky pursuit of justice for someone who can’t safely seek it herself.
Symbols:
- The Black Mazda: A mobile, anonymous menace. Its cracked headlight marks the watcher’s persistence and proximity—and ties the threat to Douglas.
- The Blood Trail: Visual proof that pierces the penthouse’s perfection. It literally leads Millie to the truth and figuratively charts the path from suspicion to action.
Key Quotes
“You have no idea what you’re dealing with here.” Wendy’s warning crystallizes the power imbalance. It signals a threat larger than a single assault and reframes Millie’s involvement as potentially catastrophic—for both of them—while also galvanizing Millie’s resolve.
A cop says they found a “shitload of heroin.” The crude phrasing underscores the chaotic spectacle of Xavier’s arrest and delivers a quick, visceral sense of justice. It also functions as misdirection: Millie’s immediate fear lifts, making Douglas’s stalking and Wendy’s abuse hit harder.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters pivot the novel from a personal survival story to a moral confrontation. Xavier’s arrest proves a red herring; the real antagonist is Douglas. The core questions shift from who is watching Millie to why he targeted her and what he’s doing to Wendy behind a locked door.
Wendy’s injuries and plea ignite Millie’s defining trait—she won’t stand by. The stakes rise from private fear to ethical obligation, binding Millie to a dangerous course against a powerful abuser and setting the stage for a reckoning that exposes the rot beneath luxury.