In Chap­ter 57, we are thrust deep into Millie’s psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ment and the dis­turb­ing com­plex­i­ty of her rela­tion­ship with Andrew. The chap­ter opens with Mil­lie wak­ing up in a state of unease, her thoughts imme­di­ate­ly drawn to the cam­era feed she set up to keep watch over Andrew, who remains trapped in the attic. She’s gripped with a sud­den wave of pan­ic, fear­ing that he has escaped, only to feel a chill­ing com­bi­na­tion of relief and dread when she con­firms that he’s still there, hid­den under the cov­ers. This mix­ture of emotions—relief that he has­n’t escaped but fear of what he represents—sets the stage for the ten­sion that will unfold between them, reveal­ing the pow­er dynam­ics at play in their tox­ic rela­tion­ship.

Millie’s thoughts drift back to the five hours that Andrew has already endured, trapped beneath heavy books, a pun­ish­ment that, in her mind, feels jus­ti­fied but also deeply manip­u­la­tive. Her mind is at war as she con­tem­plates the odd sense of con­trol she now holds over him, remind­ing her­self of the twist­ed bond they share and the deal they made. Before she pro­ceeds with releas­ing him, Mil­lie choos­es to focus on her­self, indulging in a rare moment of respite with a long show­er, savor­ing the act as an escape from the grim real­i­ty she is steeped in. When she final­ly emerges and dress­es her­self, she does so with qui­et deter­mi­na­tion, hav­ing tucked away both Andrew’s phone and a mys­te­ri­ous object she found in the garage—tools of con­trol, of manip­u­la­tion, that she car­ries with her as part of her psy­cho­log­i­cal arse­nal. Her cal­cu­lat­ed actions under­score her cold detach­ment, prepar­ing her for the next phase of their inter­ac­tion, where she will main­tain her iron grip on him.

As she approach­es the attic, the pal­pa­ble ten­sion grows. Andrew, weak and des­per­ate from his hours of entrap­ment, stands as a stark con­trast to Millie’s cal­cu­lat­ed com­po­sure and cold indif­fer­ence. His attempts to nego­ti­ate his release fall on deaf ears as Mil­lie slides pli­ers under the door and demands that he pull out one of his own teeth—a demand both phys­i­cal­ly excru­ci­at­ing and deeply sym­bol­ic. His imme­di­ate refusal, cou­pled with fran­tic attempts to break free, high­lights his vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, the full extent of his pow­er­less­ness laid bare before Mil­lie. She remains unmoved by his pleas, her detach­ment deep­en­ing as she con­tin­ues to manip­u­late the sit­u­a­tion, using Andrew’s des­per­a­tion as a means of rein­forc­ing her dom­i­nance. She con­trols the terms of their inter­ac­tion, push­ing him to his phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al break­ing point with each demand, each moment of silence from her that extends his agony.

The psy­cho­log­i­cal and phys­i­cal pow­er strug­gle between Mil­lie and Andrew forms the crux of this chap­ter, with every word and action car­ry­ing a heav­ier weight than the last. The attic, with its cold, oppres­sive atmos­phere, sym­bol­izes not just Andrew’s con­fine­ment but Millie’s own psy­cho­log­i­cal imprisonment—a prison of her mak­ing, one that thrives on con­trol and dom­i­nance. While Andrew’s cap­tiv­i­ty is phys­i­cal, Millie’s is emo­tion­al and men­tal, teth­ered to her need to assert pow­er over some­one who once held pow­er over her. The more we wit­ness Millie’s actions, the clear­er it becomes that her need for con­trol is dri­ven by her own deep inse­cu­ri­ties, her belief that only through dom­i­na­tion can she feel secure in her place. The final moments of this chap­ter leave the read­er grap­pling with the impli­ca­tions of pow­er, sub­mis­sion, and the dark under­cur­rents of human rela­tion­ships that often go unno­ticed. It’s a chill­ing explo­ration of the depths of manip­u­la­tion, with Mil­lie and Andrew’s fates inter­twined in a web of con­trol, emo­tion­al vio­lence, and unre­lent­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ment.