Nancy

**Nancy** (Heather Ankeny) was the hidden main villainess of the 2020 Lifetime film *A Mother Knows Worst* (alternately titled *A Deadly Lullaby* and *Broken Cradle*; airdate March 28, 2020).

## Prologue/Events

In the film's prologue, Nancy was working as a delivery nurse at a hospital where two women gave birth to newborns: Olivia Davis (whose husband is Harry) and Brooke Marsden (whose husband is Glen). However, she had to tell the former that her baby died shortly after being born, leaving Olivia and Harry heartbroken. On the other hand, Brooke and Glen joyfully went home with their daughter, who they named Sienna.

Six months later, during a party at the Marsden residence, Olivia observed that Nancy was in attendance as well, with Nancy being encouraging to Olivia and giving her number to her. Not long after that, Olivia met Sienna and began to bond with the newborn, with the film's progression seeing her being suspected and then accused of tormenting Brooke and Glen on numerous occasions. To elaborate, Olivia was believed to have thrown the couple's baby car seat away, sent a text to Glen demanding he hand over Sienna to her, drowned Janice (the Marsden family's nanny) after breaking into the aforementioned residence while in a hooded disguise, and filed a false sexual assault complaint against Glen in order to prevent him (along with his wife and his child) from moving to London.

Feeling she had no one else to turn to, Olivia visited Nancy at her house and talked about everything that had occurred, with the delivery nurse comforting her and opening up about taking care of her cancer-stricken mother. However, the former departing the latter's residence was followed by police detectives questioning her about her presence there, prompting her to call Nancy and inform her of what had just taken place; Nancy's response was to instruct Olivia to meet her a park. However, Olivia saw Brooke instead and discovered that she was on the receiving end of a restraining order which was filed by the latter.

Olivia's innocence began to be confirmed when Harry (who had been tracking his wife's phone) noticed that she was nowhere near Brooke and Glen's house when its security guard was struck in his head by a rock, with his attacker being a hooded figure whose true identity remained unknown. Hearing rustling in the bushes where said figure was last seen, Glen fired his gun into the area. Meanwhile, the married couple decided to talk to Nancy to see what she knew; they went to her house, only to find out from Nancy's mother that she had recently been on an island vacation. Finding a money order in her living room that Nancy received after returning from the vacation in question, Olivia and Harry realized that she could have been the true mastermind behind it all, prompting them to rush to the Marsden residence.

## Death/Reveal

However, after arriving and telling Glen about their discovery, he unveiled his true colors by unlocking a briefcase and holding them at gunpoint (making him the film's hidden secondary villain). Olivia and Harry were then guided into his basement, after which Glen locked the pair inside with Nancy's corpse. They then deduced that Glen and Nancy were conspirators who switched the two families' newborns six months ago, with the latter being paid $50,000 by the former. Their escape from the basement was followed by Olivia getting into a struggle with Glen which woke Brooke up. Grabbing her husband's gun, she listened to Olivia reveal that Sienna *was* in fact her daughter, meaning that it was *Brooke* who lost her newborn on that night. Additionally, the rest of the details were divulged in full through Glen's confession.

As it turned out, Nancy disclosed to Glen that she needed $50,000 to pay for an operation her mother needed to undergo. Subsequently, the latter embezzled that amount of money from his own firm and gave it to the former through a money order. Additionally, after she informed him of the death of Brooke's baby, the villainess swapped the ID cards of the Davis and Marsden newborns before deceitfully claiming to Olivia and Harry that they lost their baby. Meanwhile, Glen took Olivia's baby and presented her to Brooke as their daughter even though she was not. Moreover, Nancy demanded more money from her accomplice after that night, and in the six months that passed, she began committing various unhinged acts in the hopes that she would scare him into acquiescing. One such act was an attempt to kidnap Sienna and hold her hostage for ransom, which failed.

Befriending Brooke in order to frame her, the ruthless woman threw the Marsdens' baby car seat away and sent a text to Glen alluding to her monetary ultimatum, after which she donned a hooded disguise one night and broke into the Marsden house as part of her second attempt to abduct Sienna. When Janice attempted to intervene, the evil Nancy attacked her, dragged her downstairs, and drowned her in the Marsdens' pool by holding her upside down by her feet while her head was underwater. Even though Glen knew his accomplice was his nanny's murderer, he allowed for Olivia to take the blame in order to hide the truth. In addition, Nancy filed the false sexual assault complaint against Glen, resulting in him being unable to move himself and his family to London.

Still believing that kidnapping Sienna was the best way to get him to pay, the greedy criminal returned to Brooke and Glen's house on another night while wearing the same disguise. Trying to hide in bushes close to said house, she attacked the security guard by hitting his head with a rock as he tried to find her with the help of his flashlight. She then resumed her third attempt to abduct the newborn girl by moving through the bushes, only for Glen to kill her by firing his gun at her, after which he hid her dead body in his basement as part of his efforts to cover up everything.