# Chapter 20: The Truth About Nina Winchester
Hello everyone, it's me again! How are you all doing? Today I will continue to walk with you and review Chapter 20 of "The Housemaid." And oh, what a chapter this is—one that takes us deep into the shadows of the Winchester household, where a rumor becomes a horrifying truth, and where Millie's world tilts just a little further off its axis.
Let's step right back into Millie's shoes, shall we?
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The humiliation was still burning inside her. Enzo—the gorgeous, mysterious Italian handyman—had just turned her down flat. Rejected her. And now here she was, sitting in a waiting room like a wounded dog, listening to a dozen tiny feet tap-dancing in perfect, infuriating unison. Every tap seemed to pound directly into her skull.
Her head throbbed. The noise grated. And all she wanted was to disappear.
But then, a kindred spirit appeared.
A woman about Millie's age, with naturally smooth skin and no telltale signs of plastic surgery, gave her a sympathetic look from the seat beside her. It was the look of someone who understood pain. Millie knew then: this woman wasn't a wealthy mother. She was staff. A servant. Just like Millie.
"Advil?" the woman asked, as if she had a sixth sense for suffering.
Millie hesitated, then nodded. A painkiller wouldn't cure the sting of Enzo's rejection, but it might dull the pounding in her head. The woman dug into her black purse and shook two little red pills into Millie's palm. Millie swallowed them dry, grimacing at the bitter taste and wondering how long they'd take to work.
"I'm Amanda, by the way," the woman said with a grin. "I'm your official tap-dancing waiting-room drug dealer."
Despite everything, Millie laughed. She had to. "Who are you here to pick up?"
Amanda flipped her brown ponytail over her shoulder. "The Bernstein twins. You should see them tap dance in unison. It's something to behold—speaking of pounding headaches. How about you?"
"Cecelia Winchester."
Amanda let out a low whistle. "You work for the Winchesters? Good luck with that."
Millie squeezed her knees. "What do you mean?"
Amanda lifted a shoulder, then made the universal "cuckoo" sign with her index finger circling beside her temple. "Nina Winchester. You know. She's... right?"
"How do you know?"
"Oh, everyone knows." Amanda shot her a knowing look. "Also, I get the feeling Nina is the jealous type. And her husband is really hot—don't you think?"
Millie averted her eyes. "He's okay, I guess."
But her heart was racing. This was it. The opportunity she'd been waiting for—a stranger who might actually tell her the truth about Nina Winchester. She licked her lips and dove in carefully.
"So... why do people say Nina is crazy?"
Amanda looked up. For a moment, Millie feared she'd been too obvious. But Amanda simply grinned, clearly delighted to share the gossip.
"You know she was locked up in a loony bin, right? Everyone talks about it."
Millie winced at the phrase. "Loony bin." She knew all too well what people called places like that—she'd spent the last ten years of her life in one. But she needed to hear this. Her heart beat faster, pulsing in rhythm with the tapping feet in the other room.
"I did hear something about that..."
Amanda clucked her tongue. "Cecelia was a baby then. Poor thing—if the police had arrived a second later..."
"What?"
Amanda dropped her voice, glancing around the room as if the walls themselves might be listening. "You know what she did, don't you?"
Millie shook her head, speechless.
"It was horrible..." Amanda sucked in a breath. "She tried to drown Cecelia in the bathtub."
Millie clasped a hand over her mouth. "She... what?"
Amanda nodded solemnly. "Nina drugged her, threw her in the tub with running water, then took a bunch of pills herself."
Millie's mouth opened, but no sound came out. She had expected something dramatic—maybe a screaming match with another mother, or a meltdown over the wrong color of tutus, or a manicurist retiring too soon. Something small, silly, maybe even tragic in a harmless way. But this? A woman trying to murder her own child? Millie couldn't think of anything more horrible than that.
Amanda continued, "Andrew Winchester was apparently in the city at his office. But he got worried when he couldn't get through to her. Thank God he called the police when he did."
Millie's headache had worsened, despite the Advil. She felt genuinely sick. Nina tried to kill her daughter. To kill herself. No wonder she was on antipsychotics.
Yet it didn't make any sense. Millie had seen Nina with Cecelia. She had seen the love, the tenderness, the fierce protectiveness. You couldn't fake that kind of bond. And still, Amanda's story matched the rumors she'd heard from enough people in town. Everyone couldn't be wrong. Nina really had tried to kill her daughter.
But maybe there was context. Millie thought of postpartum depression, how it could darken a mother's mind, twist her thoughts until she didn't know what she was doing. Maybe Nina hadn't plotted anything. Maybe she was simply lost in a fog of madness. If she had truly planned to kill, she'd be in prison right now, forever.
Still. It changed things. Millie had worried about Nina's mental state before, but she had never truly believed Nina was capable of real violence. Now she knew. Nina was capable of much more than Millie had ever imagined.
And for the first time since Enzo's rejection, Millie's mind drifted back to another memory: the panic in his eyes as he hurried toward the front door. *"You get out, Millie. It's... dangerous."* He was scared for her. He was scared of Nina Winchester.
If only he spoke English. If he did, Millie had a feeling she might have moved out by now.
But what could she really do? The Winchesters paid her well—well enough to keep her afloat, but not well enough to strike out on her own without a few more paychecks in the bank. If she quit, they'd never give her a decent recommendation. She'd be back to searching the want ads, facing rejection after rejection when employers discovered her prison record.
No. She just had to hang in there a little longer. And do her absolute best not to piss off Nina Winchester.
Because now, more than ever, Millie knew the truth.
Her life might depend on it.
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## Reader's Impressions & Star Rating
Wow. This chapter hit like a freight train. The way Millie's casual conversation with Amanda spirals into a revelation about Nina's past is masterfully unnerving. I could feel Millie's shock, her nausea, her growing fear. The contrast between the mundane setting—a tap-dancing waiting room—and the horrifying truth about Nina was brilliantly done. It makes Nina a far more terrifying presence going forward, because now we know: she is not just odd, not just fragile. She is capable of the unthinkable. And Millie is trapped in her house. My heart is pounding.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.9 / 5 Stars
## Next Chapter Prediction
Now that Millie knows the full truth about Nina's violent past, I predict she'll start walking on eggshells more than ever—but that won't be enough. Something is bound to trigger Nina soon. Maybe Millie gets too close to Andrew, or maybe Nina notices Millie's fear and grows suspicious. I also think Enzo's warning will weigh heavily on Millie's mind, pushing her to dig deeper into the secrets of the Winchester house... and possibly uncover the truth behind Nina's "daughter s"—or whatever else is hidden in the attic. Danger is coming, and Millie may not see it until it's too late.
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