# Chapter 17: The Appointment That Changed Everything
Hello, everyone, it’s me again! How are you all doing? I hope you’re ready, because today we’re stepping back into the messy, tense, and emotionally charged world of Millie, Nina, Andrew, and little Cecelia. Chapter 17 is a roller coaster of small battles and heartbreaking news — a chapter that reminds us how fragile dreams can be, and how quickly a household can shift from hopeful chatter to suffocating silence. So grab a cup of tea, settle in, and let’s walk through every tense moment together.
All week, the atmosphere in the Winchesters’ house has been buzzing with nervous excitement. Andrew and Nina have been counting down the days to their appointment with the fertility specialist, and Millie has caught enough dinner-table whispers to know this is a big deal. Nina has already gone through a round of fertility tests, and today’s the day they’ll finally hear what the results mean. Nina has been muttering about IVF — expensive, complicated, but possible. And with their money, Millie thinks, they could probably buy their way through just about anything. It’s sweet, in a strange way, watching the two of them plan for this baby. They’ve talked about turning the guestroom into a nursery, and honestly, Millie can’t tell who’s more excited — the husband or the wife. For their sakes, she hopes it happens soon.
But while the grown-ups chase their dreams at the doctor’s office, Millie is left in the lion’s den: babysitting Cecelia.
Now, if you’ve been following along, you know that watching a nine-year-old is supposed to be easy. But Cecelia Winchester isn’t any ordinary nine-year-old. She’s a tiny hurricane of privilege, attitude, and boredom. Her friend’s mother drops her off after yet another extracurricular — karate, ballet, piano, soccer, gymnastics; Millie has honestly lost track. And in the span of about three seconds, Cecelia kicks one shoe off to the right, the second shoe to the left, and flings her backpack somewhere entirely different. Thank goodness it’s warm out, or that coat would have ended up in a fourth dimension.
Millie takes a breath and tries patience. “Cecelia, can you please put your shoes in the shoe rack?”
“Later,” Cecelia says without a care, flopping onto the sofa in her pale yellow dress. She grabs the remote, cranks up some obnoxiously loud cartoon — there’s an orange and a pear yelling at each other on screen — and announces, “I’m hungry.”
Here we go.
Millie braces herself for some ridiculous, impossible request. So when Cecelia says, “How about a bologna sandwich?” Millie practically melts with relief. They have everything in the house for it. No arguing, no demands, no drama. Millie doesn’t even insist on “please.” If Nina wants her daughter to be a brat, that’s Nina’s problem. Millie’s job isn’t to discipline her; it’s to keep her alive until the parents come home.
She heads to the kitchen, grabs bread and beef bologna from the overflowing fridge, and then has a genius thought: she’s not sure if Cecelia likes mayonnaise, and she definitely doesn’t want to put on too much or too little. So she grabs the whole mayonnaise bottle and sets it on the tray. Let Cecelia perfect her own sandwich. Ha! Millie has outsmarted the little princess.
But no. No, of course not.
Millie places the sandwich and mayonnaise on the coffee table. Cecelia looks down, crinkles her brow, and picks up the sandwich tentatively — then her face twists into pure disgust.
“Ew!” she shrieks. “I don’t want that.”
Millie feels her eye twitch. “You said you wanted a bologna sandwich. I made you a bologna sandwich.”
“I didn’t say bologna!” Cecelia whines. “I said I wanted an abalone sandwich!”
Millie stares, mouth hanging open. “An abalone sandwich? What is that?”
Cecelia grunts in frustration, throws the sandwich onto the floor, and the bread and meat separate into three sad piles on the carpet. The only silver lining? No mayonnaise. At least cleaning it up won’t be sticky.
Okay. That’s it. Millie has officially had enough. Maybe it’s not her place, but Cecelia is old enough to know better than to throw food on the floor. And with a baby possibly coming, somebody needs to teach this girl how to act her age.
“Cecelia.” Millie’s voice comes out through gritted teeth.
Cecelia lifts her slightly pointed chin, unbothered. “What?”
The showdown is about to begin. Millie isn’t sure what would have happened next — maybe she would have said something she regretted, maybe Cecelia would have burst into fake tears, who knows. But right then, the front door unlocks, interrupting everything. Andrew and Nina are home from the appointment.
Millie turns away from Cecelia and plasters a polite smile on her face. She expects Nina to walk in bursting with excitement, overflowing with good news about IVF and nursery colors and baby names.
But when they step into the living room, neither of them is smiling.
Not even close.
Nina’s blond hair is messy, wild, like she’s been running her hands through it. Her white blouse is wrinkled. Her eyes are bloodshot and puffy, rimmed with red. And Andrew doesn’t look much better. His tie is half undone, hanging crookedly — like he’d started to pull it off and then just gave up halfway. His eyes, too, are glassy and bloodshot.
Millie squeezes her hands together, heart starting to pound. “Everything okay?”
Oh no. She should have kept her mouth shut. She knows it instantly. Because that question, that tiny bit of nosiness, becomes the detonator.
Nina’s gaze snaps over to her, and her pale skin flushes bright red with fury. “For God’s sake, Millie,” she snaps. “Why do you have to be so nosy? This is none of your goddamn business.”
Millie swallows hard. “I’m so sorry, Nina.”
But Nina’s eyes have already drifted down to the disaster on the floor. Cecelia’s shoes tossed everywhere. The bread and baloney scattered near the coffee table. And where’s Cecelia? The little escape artist has already scurried out of the living room, vanishing like a ghost.
Nina’s face contorts. “Is this really what I have to come home to? This mess? What am I paying you for anyway? Maybe you should start looking for another job.”
Millie’s throat tightens. “I… I was going to clean that up…”
“Don’t do any work on my account.” Nina shoots Andrew a withering, furious look. “I’m going to go lie down. I have a pounding headache.”
She stomps up the staircase, every heel click like a tiny gunshot, and then their bedroom door slams shut with a thunderous bang.
And suddenly, the only sound left is Andrew letting out a long, defeated breath.
Something went very wrong at that appointment. Very wrong.
Andrew sinks onto the leather sofa and drops his head back against the cushion, staring at the ceiling. “Well, that sucked.”
Millie bites her lip. She knows she probably shouldn’t sit down next to him, that this is way too intimate, but she does it anyway. “Are you okay?”
He rubs his eyes with his fingertips. “Not really.”
“Do… do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.” He squeezes his eyes shut, then lets out another heavy sigh. “It’s not going to happen for us. Nina is not going to get pregnant.”
Millie’s first reaction is pure shock. She doesn’t know much about fertility, but with all the money the Winchesters have, she assumed they could pay their way out of anything. She swears she saw a news story about a sixty-year-old woman getting pregnant. But she doesn’t say that. She can’t. They just saw one of the leading fertility specialists in the country — what does she know that they don’t? If the specialist said it won’t happen, then it won’t happen. No baby. No nursery. No little brother or sister for Cecelia.
“I’m so sorry, Andrew,” Millie says, and she means it.
“Yeah…” He rakes a hand through his hair, his voice cracking. “I’m trying to be okay with this, but I can’t say I’m not disappointed. I mean, I love Cecelia like she’s my own, but… I wanted… I mean, I always dreamed of…”
He trails off. It’s the deepest conversation Millie and Andrew have ever had, and surprisingly, it feels kind of nice. He’s opening up to her, letting her in.
“I understand,” she murmurs. “It must be so hard… for both of you.”
He looks down at his lap, tracing a crease in the leather. “I need to be strong for Nina. She’s devastated about this.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
He’s quiet for a long moment, thinking. Then he looks up, with just a glimmer of purpose in his eyes. “There’s this show Nina wants to see in the city — she keeps mentioning it. Showdown. I know it would give her a lift if we got tickets. If you could ask her for some dates and book orchestra seats, that would be great.”
“Done,” Millie says. And she means it. She can’t stand Nina for a lot of reasons — the tantrums, the rudeness, the entitlement. But no woman deserves to hear that she can never have a baby. Millie’s heart genuinely goes out to her. “I’ll take care of it.”
Andrew rubs his bloodshot eyes again. “Thanks, Millie. I honestly don’t know what we would do without you. I’m sorry about the way Nina treats you sometimes. She’s just a little temperamental, but she really does like you and appreciates your help.”
Millie isn’t entirely sure that’s true. But she’s not going to argue. She still needs this job. She still needs to save up enough money to start over. So she’ll keep her head down, do her best, and try to make Nina happy — even if Nina makes it nearly impossible.
Because at the end of the day, this house is falling apart just a little more each day. And Millie can’t afford to be the one holding the pieces.
---
### Reader’s Impressions & Star Rating
This chapter was emotionally brutal in the best way. It starts with the amusing, infuriating chaos of Cecelia and her ridiculous "abalone sandwich," which gives us a moment of dark humor, then pulls the rug out from under us with the devastating fertility news. The switch in tone is sharp and gut-wrenching. You feel for Andrew — he’s trying so hard to hold it together while Nina takes her pain out on everyone around her, especially Millie. And Millie, poor Millie, keeps swallowing her pride just to survive. The depth of sadness simmering beneath the surface here is what makes this story so compelling.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rating: 4.8 / 5 Stars
### Next Chapter Prediction
I predict that the tension in this house is about to boil over. With Nina drowning in grief and Andrew trying to fix things with concert tickets, the cracks in their marriage will only grow wider. And Millie? She might just start digging deeper into the Winchesters’ secrets — because something about this household feels more and more dangerous the closer you look. Whatever happens next, it’s probably not going to be happy, sunny, or safe.
To listen free the next reviews chatpers, please access website novelsaudio.com and search keyword: The Housemaid or click the link in the description of this video or if you want to listen or read full the The Housemaid please access website novelsaudio.com