The Wife Upstairs

Sylvia realizes that she has 15 minutes before she arrives in Montauk. Her potential employer, Adam Barnett, will pick her up, as Ubers are spotty in the area. Sylvia checks her phone and sees texts from her ex-boyfriend, Freddy, begging for her back. She keeps changing her number to avoid him, as she credits him with ruining her life, but her friends keep giving him her new number. She blocks Freddy again before arriving at the train platform. Adam waves her over, and Sylvia notices how handsome he is. Adam gives her his scarf to keep warm, and she likes the smell of his aftershave. He takes her to his BMW and begins to drive her to his house. He mentions his wife, which Sylvia finds disappointing.

Sylvia then realizes that she misunderstood the job post: She’s not caring for Adam’s mother but his wife, Victoria. She has nurses in the morning, and Adam takes care of her during the evening. He wants Sylvia to keep Victoria company during the day. He also reveals that he works as a writer. When Sylvia wonders what happened to Victoria, Adam senses her question and tells her that Victoria fell down their long, winding staircase and got a head injury. Adam blames himself because he wasn’t home, and Sylvia wonders if Victoria blames him, too.

After a 20-minute drive in silence, Adam pulls the car up to a wrought iron gate with a long driveway leading to a big house. Sylvia is astounded by the size of the house, and Adam tells her that real estate is cheap in Montauk and that he and Victoria wanted a large house after living in a tiny apartment back in the city. Inside the house, Sylvia finds a picture of Adam and Victoria. Victoria is blonde and beautiful. Adam takes Sylvia upstairs to Victoria’s room and introduces her to Victoria and her nurse, Eva. Eva is friendly and guides Sylvia to meet Victoria, who is sitting in a wheelchair and staring out the window. Sylvia approaches her and is startled when she sees Victoria’s face.

Victoria no longer looks like the photograph downstairs. Her golden hair is limp and faded, her blue eyes struggle to focus on anything, and she has a large scar across her cheek. Adam introduces Sylvia to Victoria, and Sylvia awkwardly speaks loudly to Victoria after Adam tells her that she’s mostly nonverbal. Adam tells Sylvia that he wants her to keep Victoria company. Victoria likes to stare out the window and watch TV. Sylvia offers to take her on a walk, but Adam explains that she’d have to be carried downstairs. She struggles with mobility and cannot move the right side of her body. He keeps her on the second floor because the bathroom is big enough for her wheelchair and because she likes to look out the window.

Adam seems desperate for Sylvia to take the job even though Sylvia was fired from her last job caring for an elderly woman named Esther after Esther’s daughter framed Sylvia for stealing Esther’s jewelry. Sylvia looks at Victoria and feels bad that the previously fashionable woman is trapped in T-shirts and sweatpants. She notices Victoria’s necklace and compliments her on it, prompting Victoria to verbally thank her, which is unusual for her. Adams shows Sylvia to her room, which feels bigger than Sylvia’s entire apartment. The secluded house makes Sylvia nervous, but Adam reassures her that she can use Victoria’s car. Sylvia has no choice other than to take the job, as she’s out of money and her landlord is evicting her at the end of the week. The job offers a place to live, as well as good pay and benefits, which Sylvia can’t turn away.

At her apartment in Brooklyn, Sylvia struggles to sleep in her cheap bed, thinking back to the luxurious bed in her future room in Montauk. She receives a number of texts from an unknown number that turns out to be Freddy, and she finds him outside her window recreating the iconic scene from the 1989 teen romantic comedy film Say Anything in which protagonist Lloyd Dobler stands outside the bedroom window of his love interest, Diane Court, while playing music from a boombox that he holds above his head. Sylvia tells Freddy to leave her alone and slams her window shut, ignoring his shouts.

Adam picks Sylvia up to drive her to Montauk with all her belongings and is shocked that all she has is two suitcases and a backpack. In the car, Sylvia asks him about Victoria. Adam tells her that Victoria used to be a nurse practitioner at a hospital in Manhattan, where they met when he was a patient after he cut his hand while slicing an avocado. For him, it was love at first sight. Victoria was smart and vibrant before her accident. The conversation fades, and Adam puts on music. He and Sylvia sing along until they arrive in Montauk. He carries her bags to her room for her and introduces her to Maggie, the housekeeper. Maggie is friendly to Sylvia and is glad to have another younger person around the house. Sylvia asks Maggie about Victoria since Maggie has worked at the house since before the accident. Maggie gives a vague answer, but Sylvia is suspicious.

One of Sylvia’s jobs is helping Victoria with her meals. Adam explains that Victoria can only consume purees, so Sylvia must puree any food she eats in a food processor. If there is no freshly pureed food, Adam advises Sylvia to give Victoria premade baby food, which he has many jars of in the kitchen. If Victoria refuses to eat, she has a feeding tube that Sylvia or Adam can use to force-feed her. Sylvia is horrified, but Adam tells her that there’s only so many foods that can be pureed. He shows her how to make mashed potatoes for Victoria, along with pureed ground beef. Sylvia takes the food upstairs to Victoria and attempts to feed her, though Victoria is uninterested in the food. She clearly asks Sylvia, “Laptop?” (41). Sylvia confirms that Adam gave her Victoria’s laptop. She asks Victoria if there’s something she wants from the laptop. Victoria then stumbles while trying to say a word until Sylvia realizes that she’s saying “avocado.” She asks Victoria if she wants guacamole, which is pureed enough for her to eat.

Victoria gets frustrated, and Sylvia asks if she should get Adam. Victoria refuses and says “you” vehemently to Sylvia. Adam interrupts and gives Victoria her medication through her feeding tube as Victoria tries to scratch at his arm to stop him. Adam expresses empathy for how strange the feeding tube must feel and asks Sylvia to keep Victoria’s nails short so that she doesn’t scratch him badly. He leaves, and Sylvia wonders what Victoria meant about an avocado and why that message was for her specifically.

In her room in Montauk, Sylvia puzzles over the conversation with Victoria while she checks her emails on Victoria’s laptop. She searches the word “avocado” in the laptop’s files and finds a document. When she opens it, she realizes that it’s Victoria’s diary.

Victoria’s diary, dated June 20, 2016, details the day that she met Adam. She addresses her diary entry to her future children, seeking to describe the moment she fell in love with their father. After nursing school, Victoria worked in the emergency room in Manhattan. She was attracted to her fellow paramedic and friend Mack, but he had a girlfriend. One night at work, Victoria went into a room to tend to a patient who cut his hand while slicing an avocado, and she was stunned by how attractive he was. He was also charming as she carefully sutured his hand. Victoria was shocked to discover that he was Adam Barnett, the New York Times best-selling author. She complimented his writing effusively, and he blushed.

After Victoria finished sewing his cut, Adam left. She was shocked that he didn’t ask her out after she told him when her shift finished. Victoria finished working and made tentative plans to get a drink with Mack when he finished working at midnight, but when she left the hospital, she found Adam sitting on a bench holding a rose. He asked her out on a date, and they had a late dinner and then walked around the city, talking all night, before they had their first kiss. Victoria never believed in love at first sight until she met Adam.

Sylvia finds this meet-cute cloyingly sentimental. She knows that Victoria wants her to read the diary, but she’s not sure how much of it she can stomach. She leaves her room and sees Adam leaving after finishing Victoria’s night routine. He’s hungry and offers Sylvia fettuccine alfredo. In the kitchen, Sylvia is disappointed to see that Adam is reheating TV dinners, as she thought he would cook for her. He offers her a glass of wine, and Sylvia takes it, though she feels strange drinking expensive wine that Victoria bought in Victoria’s house with Victoria’s husband. She also feels inferior to Adam and Victoria, as both of them are educated and professionally successful, while Sylvia dropped out of high school and barely finished her GED. Sylvia notices a dent in the wall, and Adam says that the fridge dented it when it was installed. Adam reveals that Victoria was pregnant when she fell and that they lost the baby. Sylvia feels Adam’s pain, as she and Freddy grieved when Sylvia lost her pregnancy with their baby. She doesn’t tell Adam, as she feels like his pain is worse than hers. They eat their dinners in front of the TV when the alfredo is finished.

Sylvia wakes up before eight o’clock in the morning to start Victoria’s morning routine. She finds Eva getting Victoria out of bed, so she goes to make Victoria’s breakfast. She’s unsure of what to make, but Maggie is cleaning the kitchen and shows her where the oatmeal is, advising her to serve it with pureed apple baby food. Sylvia again feels bad about giving Victoria the baby food, but Maggie assures her that she’s personally tried it and it’s not bad, just bland. Adam returns from his run covered in sweat, and Sylvia can’t help but stare. Maggie notices Sylvia staring and agrees that Adam is attractive, expressing sympathy for his inability to have a real human connection with Victoria in her current state. Sylvia takes the food to Victoria, but she’s groggy and cannot eat it. Adam enters the room and tells her that Victoria is usually too groggy in the morning to eat, so they often must use her feeding tube. He tells Sylvia that the weather is nice and recommends that she go for a run. Sylvia hates running, so she returns to her room to read more of Victoria’s diary.