The movie introduces us to a perfect couple, Michael, and Madison.
This beautiful couple got the whole fairy-tale love story going on – a beautiful home,
a love that seems unbreakable; all the work and all the makings of a perfect life.
But since this is a thriller, things are about to take a dark turn.
After two years of marriage, Madison, who is our heroine, has this dream of starting
a family with Michael.
But unfortunately, that dream isn't shared by Michael; he's not too keen on the idea
of diapers and midnight feedings.
In fact, when Madison brings up the whole family thing, Michael's mood takes a nosedive faster than
a roller coaster.
After all, children are like the best gifts of mother nature; Madison will frequently
check her pregnancy test, but the results always disappoint her.
Michael, being a good husband, will always reassure her that they have plenty of time
to work on this.
Well, let's step into Michael's shoes for a moment.
It turns out that Mike has some real heavy baggage; this is clear in the next scene,
where Mike pays a visit to his mom's grave, and has a heart-to-heart chat with her headstone.
Both his parents passed away in the same year, but Mike's parents didn't just pass away peacefully;
it was a gut-wrenching tragedy; they died in a murder-suicide.
After visiting the cemetery, Michael gets a surprise from his wife for their anniversary.
The party is also attended by Michael's coworkers, and Madison's best friend, Chelsea.
Here we learn that Madison has made a big decision; she finally decides to wave goodbye
to her job in the hospital with Chelsea, and embrace the role of a full-time wife.
When Madison goes to the toilet, she is annoyed by Michael's habit of leaving the toilet bowl
open after using it.
After the party, Michael gives Madison a necklace with a heart that's split in half;
he wears the other half himself.
Later that evening, Michael spends time with a friend; he says that he isn’t ready to
have a child because he wants to focus more on his business so he can provide everything
for his wife.
The friend tells Michael to talk to his wife about this because she probably wants a child
very much.
Returning from the bar, the husband is ready to talk to his wife about this, but his wife
isn't acting like she usually does.
It turns out that Madison stumbles upon something that'll send shockwaves through their relationship;
a steroidal testosterone.
Michael has been taking these things on the down low, but he's not hitting the gym with
them, he's been taking them to prevent the possibility of Madison getting pregnant.
As a result, Madison always thinks it's her fault that she couldn't have a baby.
She calls him a liar and a coward for keeping this from her when he knew that all she wants
is a child, but Michael responds that he doesn’t want to have a child, and has told her that
a hundred times, but she kept pushing him.
Michael is trying not to explode as she lashes out at him with all the angry words, until
she mentions that his dead father would’ve never lied to his mother like this.
He tells her that he’s the man of this house;
he makes the money, he makes the rules, and he’ll not be disrespected here.
He also warns her not to mention his father again.
From that moment on, things take a dark shift as Michael's behavior takes a violent turn.
Their once-perfect relationship has become a shadow of what it once was.
Even small things can start a fight between them, and when it gets bad enough, Michael
will treat her aggressively again.
Madison, who once had dreams of starting a family, and was even willing to quit her job
to become a good housewife, now finds herself in a depression state instead.
One night, when the married couple attends a work event, Michael becomes jealous when
he sees his wife talking with another man.
Back from the party, Michael's anger spirals out of control, and he does the unthinkable;
he forces himself on Madison.
Fast forward a bit, and Madison's excitement takes center stage once again as she shows
Chelsea a positive pregnancy test, and the anticipation of a new chapter, a new life,
fills the air.
Four months later, it turns out that Madison has secretly landed a job working alongside
Chelsea, but her relationship with Michael has taken an even more dangerous turn.
He’s questioning the very paternity of the baby, and unleashing his anger in abusive
ways even though she's pregnant.
Chelsea urges Madison to go to the police, but Madison is trapped in a web of fear and confusion.
Fueled by frustration and a fierce determination to end her friend's suffering, Chelsea reports
the abuse to the police, and the police suggest that Madison get a restraining order.
Now six months pregnant, by gathering her strength, Madison decides she’s had enough,
and packs a bag to go stay at Chelsea's.
Upon learning this, Michael immediately walks up to her, and she tells him she can't stand
being around her abusive husband anymore.
Madison defends herself against Michael's
violent attack by shattering a vase over his head.
It's a critical moment of survival, and Madison seizes her chance, leaving the man alone.
But just as hope starts to blossom, tragedy strikes.
The doctors fight to save her, but fate has a different plan.
Michael learns the devastating news; Madison suffered internal bleeding in her brain, and
unfortunately, she died during surgery, and the baby couldn’t be saved either.
Michael is depressed and can't bring himself to look at his wife's dead body when the doctor asks.
Sometime later, Michael goes to a lake to throw his wife’s ashes into it;
he is filled with guilt and sad about her passing.
He even tries to end his life, but he can't bring himself to do it.
In the next scene, the movie shows us that Madison is still alive, and shows us how she
came up with a clever plan to get away.
The mastermind behind it all is none other than her loyal friend, Chelsea, who works
at the hospital.
Together, they orchestrate an elaborate plan, including staging an accident and faking Madison's death.
It's a high-stakes game, and the doctor at the hospital is a hired actor.
As if that wasn't enough, Madison takes things a step further; she sets up a life insurance policy,
with Chelsea as the beneficiary with the goal of funding her fresh start,
away from the horrors of her past.
She relocates and trades her old troubles for a waitressing job, and a chance at a brighter future.
To add to this, Madison decides to take on a new identity – Kate Smith – and a brand-new life.
But that's not all; Fate has something unexpected in store when she crosses paths with her next-door
neighbor, Alex.
Alex is a widower; a father to a six-year-old daughter, Rachel, who has
come to request a small donation for Rachel’s school.
One day, Madison catches Alex taking fruits from her tree, so she goes up to him and talks
to him about it.
Alex, on the other hand, responds with some jokes and is just borrowing the fruits to
make a pie for his daughter.
Alex tells her to come over later that day to try his cooking, and Madison does come
over and spend time with the neighbor.
From that moment on, sparks fly, and a relationship grows as Alex helps Madison get ready for
the birth of her baby.
Their chemistry is obvious, and Madison starts embracing her new life.
One night, Alex tells Madison that his wife passed away while giving birth to Rachel.
Despite Madison's good new life, Alex begins to sense that something isn't adding up.
When he called her name several times, sometimes she didn't respond, and he thinks that it
almost didn't seem like her name was Kate.
Here she takes a leap of faith, and shares the haunting story of her past, which included
marrying the wrong man who was mentally and physically abusive.
She also tells Alex her real name, Madison.
The next day, we go back to Michael, who suddenly receives a call from a place he probably wasn't
expecting – Madison's old workplace.
They're puzzled, wondering why she hasn't shown up to collect her last paycheck after
she resigned.
Michael is understandably taken aback, as his wife quit her job a long time ago when
he told her to become a full-time housewife.
He tells the staff that her wife didn’t collect her last paycheck, which was a few
months ago, because she had passed away at that time.
But when the staff checks the hospital records, they find out that Madison was admitted to
the emergency ward, but there's no record of her passing away.
The data just says that she got checked out the same night she got admitted.
When he hears this, he goes straight to the hospital and asks if there are any records
about Madison.
He then gets the necklace he gave to his wife.
The following day, Michael shares with his friend how unusual it is that the hospital
does not have a record of his wife's death.
The friend tells Michael to move on since he has also seen his wife’s body being cremated,
but Michael says that it was hard for him to see his dead wife, so he asks Madison’s
best friend Chelsea, to handle everything, including the cremation.
When things start to seem more strange, they decide to go on a mission to uncover the truth.
On the same day, Chelsea, is met by the chilling presence of Michael in front of her house.
She is anxious to see him because he never knows where she lives, and Michael asks Chelsea
to help him move Madison’s belongings since it is hard for him to do so.
Later on, Michael finds out from his friend that their men have found someone who looks
like Madison working at a restaurant.
So, Michael goes to the restaurant, and tells the staff there that he is Madison's brother.
But the waiter's staff says that no one named Madison works there, so Michael shows her
the wife’s picture.
To his surprise, the crew tells him that the girl in the picture is not Madison; it’s
Kate Smith.
She tells him that Madison is off today, and he can ask Madison’s boyfriend, who works
a few blocks from the restaurant.
Later that night, Chelsea contacts Madison to tell her that Michael came to her house,
unaware that the man they are talking about is listening to their conversation.
Just then, Madison’s water breaks, and she is about to give birth, so Chelsea rushes
to her house to take her to the hospital.
In a quiet corner of this thrilling tale, Madison is embracing her new life as a mom.
She’s given birth to a baby boy, a little bundle of joy she names "Peace."
A few days have passed; when Chelsea sees how well Madison is doing, she tells her that
she must return home, and bids her farewell.
But as she gets into her car, it turns out that Michael is already in the back seat.
Afterwards, Madison, who has just welcomed her precious baby into the world, makes preparations
to return home.
Alex, the kind-hearted neighbor who's become a steady presence in Madison's life, accompanies
her until she gets home.
When Alex is about to go home, someone is secretly watching them.
With Madison taking a much-needed shower, he sneaks into the house.
Hearing footsteps, Madison quickly goes to check it, and finds her toilet bowl left open.
At first, she thought it was Alex, and to her relief, the baby is still in place.
She then hears music from downstairs, and
quickly checks it out, but nobody is there, and it’s the music from her speaker.
When she goes back upstairs, she finds that the toilet lid is left open again, and to
her surprise, her baby has gone.
And then all of a sudden…
She sees the menacing figure from her past,
Michael, holding her baby, so she anxiously tries to retrieve the baby.
Michael slowly hands the baby back, and tells her to place him back in the cradle.
He puts the necklace he gave Madison on her neck, and tells her what happens to him after
she makes him think she's dead.
He blamed himself every day, thinking he killed his wife and child.
It hurts even more when he finds out it was just a joke that she plays with Chelsea, and
learns that Madison has a boyfriend now.
Michael then pulls out his pistol, right when Alex knocks on the front door.
He tells Madison to open the door and not do something stupid, or he’ll kill Alex.
As per Michael's order, Madison goes to greet Alex, and tells him that she’s not feeling
well and wants some time alone.
Despite his curiosity, Alex decides to just return to his house.
However, just as Michael attempts to make his move,
A fight breaks out between the two men, with
Michael eventually winning and smashing a vase over Alex's head.
As Michael begins to strangle Alex, Madison steps up to the plate, but she doesn’t have the strength.
However, she's not about to stand by helplessly; she tells Michael that if he kills Alex, he'll
go to jail and be unable to protect her anymore.
And the moment he gets close enough to touch her, Madison strikes, stabbing him with a
knife she's managed to grab.
But the battle is far from over.
Madison seizes the handgun Michael had, and makes a desperate call for help.
In a life-or-death struggle, Michael reveals that his dad killed his mother when he was
a kid and then ended his own life.
In the end, Michael tells her that he loves her so much, and that if he can’t have her, nobody will.
In an act of self-defense, Madison makes a fateful choice and kills Michael.
Afterwards, we see the police arrive at the scene.
Michael's reign of terror meets its end, and the weight of the world lifts from Madison's shoulders,
and this is where the movie ends.