Ada Accardi: The Unexpected Killer in The Housemaid Is Watching

Overview

Ada Accardi is the eleven-year-old daughter of Millie and Enzo in Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid Is Watching (Book 3 of The Housemaid series). She appears at first as a quiet, helpful child who shares a room with her younger brother Nico and assists with unpacking on moving day. But beneath her ordinary eleven-year-old exterior lies a secret that redefines the entire plot: Ada is the real killer of neighbor Jonathan Lowell. Her confession in Chapter 60 – delivered through tears while insisting she is not sorry – turns the story’s central mystery inside out. Ada’s character forces readers to examine how violence, protection, and family loyalty can take root in a child shaped by her parents’ own dark pasts.

Plot Role

Ada’s role is that of the hidden perpetrator. For most of the novel, the narrative – told largely from Millie’s first-person perspective – builds suspicion around Enzo. When Jonathan Lowell is found dead, police discover Enzo’s pocketknife with the victim’s blood, and Enzo confesses to a staged motive (insurance money). But the real killer is Ada, who acted in self-defense after discovering a hidden room in the Lowell house. Her act is not a calculated murder but a desperate reaction to a threat she believed endangered her family. By confessing, Ada simultaneously frees her father from a false accusation and shatters the family’s fragile peace. Her role is thus both the climax’s twist and its emotional anchor.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Ada is fiercely protective, especially of her brother Nico and her father. Her confession to Millie in Chapter 60 is followed by a direct statement that she is not sorry – a trait that shows both her clarity of purpose and a disturbing detachment from the moral weight of her act. She is also remarkably self-reliant. In the moving-day scene (Chapter 61), she cries from homesickness yet accepts her father’s promise to move back in a year, demonstrating a resilience that mixes childlike dependence with adult composure. Her threat to a classmate in Chapter 81 – to “castrate you in your sleep” if he does not stop harassing her – reveals a calculated, cold side that aligns with the violence she has already committed. This is not a frightened child; it is one who has learned, perhaps from watching her parents, that extreme measures are sometimes the only answer.

Chronological Arc

Ada’s arc spans from normalcy to concealment to revelation. Early in the book, she is a background presence: Millie notes that Ada helps unpack and generally keeps to herself. The murder happens off-stage, and Ada carries the secret through the middle chapters while her father is arrested and her family unravels. In Chapter 60, she confesses, but the narrative does not return to her point of view until Chapter 61 (moving day, from her perspective) and Chapter 81 (the library scene, set after the trial resolution). By the end, Ada has absorbed the lesson that her father would have done the same thing – his words, as she recalls: “if he knew what Mr. Lowell was doing to Nico, he would have done the exact same thing I did.” This line suggests Ada’s arc is one of moral assimilation: she justifies her violence through family loyalty.

Relationships

Ada’s bond with her father Enzo is the novel’s most emotionally charged relationship. She idolizes him, calling him “extraordinary” and believing he can do anything – even deliver Rice Krispies squares from China overnight. When Enzo is arrested, Ada sobs and insists he is innocent, which is true only technically. Her love for him motivates her confession, but it also enables her to see her own act as an extension of his protective nature. With her mother Millie, Ada is more guarded. Millie is described as a “really good mom” who handles practical needs, but Ada does not confide in her about the murder until cornered. The relationship with Nico is tender – she holds him when he comes home from the hospital and remembers telling him she loved him. That protective sister role likely fed into her decision to kill Jonathan Lowell.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Ada’s key decision is to kill Jonathan Lowell in self-defense. According to the outline, she acted after discovering a hidden room – a detail that places the act outside simple malice. The immediate consequence is that Jonathan dies, but the chain of events that follows is far more extensive: Enzo is arrested, the family’s finances and reputation crumble, and Ada must live with the secret for weeks. Her second key decision is to confess to Millie in Chapter 59 (from Millie’s perspective) or Chapter 60 (from Ada’s). That confession saves Enzo from prison but forces the family to relocate again (moving day in Chapter 61). The final consequence visible in the text is Ada’s own psychological hardening: in the library scene, she threatens Hunter without hesitation, showing that the killing has not left her with remorse but with a willingness to use fear as a tool.

Theme/Symbol Connections

• Deception and Secrets - Ada’s hidden act is the core secret of the novel. She deceives everyone, including her mother, for weeks. She also deceives the police by letting her father take the blame temporarily.
• Parental Sacrifice and Protection - Ada’s motive (protecting Nico from Jonathan) mirrors Millie’s and Enzo’s own protective instincts. Enzo’s willingness to confess is also a form of sacrifice. Ada becomes a full participant in this family pattern.
• Surveillance and Paranoia - The hidden room Jonathan used suggests he was a watcher. Ada’s discovery of that room and her response invert the surveillance theme: the watched becomes the watcher, and then the executor of justice.
• Class Inequality and Social Aspiration - The Accardi family struggles financially. Their move to a better neighborhood puts them next to the Lowells, whose wealth and privilege conceal Jonathan’s predatory behavior. Ada’s act is a violent rejection of that class power.
• Violence and Its Legacy - Enzo has a violent past: he beat his sister’s abuser half to death. Ada inherits that legacy. The novel suggests violence is passed down not through blood but through example and necessity.

Questions and Answers

1. Why did Ada kill Jonathan Lowell?
   Ada killed Jonathan in self-defense after she discovered a hidden room in his house. The precise threat is not fully detailed in the evidence, but the outline and the text indicate she acted to protect herself and possibly her brother Nico from Jonathan’s danger.

2. How does Ada feel about her father after he is arrested?
   She is devastated and insists he is innocent. In Chapter 60 she sobs and tells Millie, “Daddy didn’t do it.” Her love for Enzo is so strong that she eventually confesses to free him.

3. What does Ada’s threat to Hunter in Chapter 81 reveal about her character?
   It shows she has absorbed the lesson that extreme threats work. She delivers a calm, graphic warning about castration. Her smile afterward indicates she enjoys the power. This is the most direct evidence of her psychological shift from child to someone comfortable with violence.

4. How does Ada view her mother compared to her father?
   Ada sees Millie as a “really good mom” who handles everyday needs, but she views Enzo as extraordinary and capable of anything. She believes he would have done the same thing she did, which suggests she models her own moral code on his example.

5. Did Ada know about Jonathan’s hidden room before the killing?
   The outline states she killed him “after discovering a hidden room.” This implies the discovery was immediate and frightening, not premeditated. Ada’s act is reactive, not planned.

For more insights, read the full book analysis, explore the theme of deception and secrets, or see the ending explained.