Sierra’s Reviews > The Drowning Woman > Status Update

Lee lost her restaurant during Covid, afterward to stay afloat she borrowed a lot of money from a gangster. When she couldn’t pay up he smashed her finger w a meat cleaver, threatened to break every finger if she didn’t pay. Now she’s bankrupt & on the run from him, drove all the way from New York to Seattle.

Lee starts parking in the rich area by the water to sleep, one night she’s woken up by a woman crying on the beach, Lee looks over to see the lady throwing herself in the ocean, trying to drown herself. Lee saves her, we meet Hazel- a depressed housewife who hates her sadistic, abusive husband, Benjamin, who’s a very rich criminal defense lawyer.
They strike up a friendship, Hazel brings Lee food & supplies when she can.

A sexy guy gives Lee an orange when she’s waiting for her car window to be fixed at the mechanic. She works under the table at a shitty diner, sexy guy, Jesse, comes in to her job coincidentally, asks her out for drinks after work.

Next time Lee sees Hazel she asks for Lees help escaping her husband. She explains that their relationship has a Master/Slave dynamic, at first she was into it & there was a contract w limits. Eventually Hazel lost interest in it but her husband didn’t care, forces her into it now. If Hazel pisses him off he locks her in a soundproof room in the basement, has cameras all over, only lets her see people he approves of, doesn’t let her leave the house much unless it’s for a 15 min walk, etc.
Lee agrees to help- doesn’t know how she can offer any help but agrees.

Lee is estranged from her family. When she was drowning in debt but still had her restaurant, she saw her sisters finance come in there w another woman. Instead of telling her sister immediately, Lee decided to try blackmailing him for money to get outta debt. That backfired when the asshole, Clark, confessed to her sister & snitched on Lee. The sister cut her off but still married the guy, the family judges her for it so they’re not in her life anymore, she’s too ashamed to contact any of them anymore.

Hazel finds a guy on the dark web that can get fake IDs & passports, she gets herself & Lee one. Her plan is to steal money from Benjamin’s safe & sneak off to a different country, start a new life- oddly doesn’t invite Lee even tho she knows all her shit going on & claims she wants to help her.

Lee has been sick & rlly looks like shit, Hazel offers to treat them to a spa day, ends up bailing cause she says it’ll look shady on her credit card bills but books it for Lee, says it’s taken care of.
After Lee is pampered & given a haircut/dyed exactly like Hazel’s, the front desk lady tells her it’s not prepaid & it’s $500!
Hazel shows up after Lee calls her panicking- w a black eye, says Benjamin hit her & that she needs to leave tonight!
She tells Lee she only has her own fake passport but forgot Lee’s ID…says she found a lot more money than she expected from Benjamin. Now she offers Lee 50k & the ID if she pretends to be her so Hazel w have more time to escape.
New plan- they’ll meet up & switch clothes..Hazel will tell Ben she’s going to the gym, while she’s flying away on a plane, Lee will pretend to be her, drive her car to the house & go inside so Ben can see her on the cameras - w her new hair he’ll think it’s Hazel. Then she’ll leave after a few hours, ditch hazels car somewhere & return to her new life.
Lee agrees to this shady deal that sounds like a set up.
She tells Jesse abt it beforehand, they’ve been getting closer. He’s a personal trainer, he has an apartment he works out of, sometimes Lee spends the nights there. He doesn’t think it’s a smart idea but she only tells him she’s helping a friend & getting money out of it, still hides that she’s homeless.

Everything goes to plan the night of hazels escape except Lee finds Jesse’s dead body inside the living room…

Hazel’s POV
She met Ben when she was 26, their relationship started out kinky w dominant/submissive dynamic. He swept her off her feet, taking her on nice dinners, extravagant vacations. Her mom got early Alzheimer’s when she was only in her early 50s, Ben put her in a rlly nice home w amazing care.
He proposed after some time, a few weeks before the wedding brings Hazel a Master/Slave contract, says he’ll only marry her if she agrees to it & will keep taking care of her mom for as long as their married…Hazel knew these were red flags but chose that over a life of struggle- her being a office temp at the time.

Once they’re married, Ben grows more controlling- dictates how she dresses, stopped letting her see her mom, makes her get a boob job…makes her start working out regularly. She meets Jesse at the gym! They start having an affair, she confides in him abt her marriage, they fall in love. After a while they can’t take it anymore, Jesse hates seeing her be abused the way she is, comes up w the idea to fake her death & runaway together- decided she’ll “drown” herself!

Their plan was for her to go out on a jog one day, swim out into the ocean where Jesse would be waiting to pick her up in his friends boat, then run away to Panama together.
Hazel wrote a suicide note. Thennnn Lee came along & ruined their plans.

Jesses the one who told Hazel to find out more abt Lee, at first Hazel even thought she was someone her husband hired to watch her.

The first night Jesse & Lee meet, they go out for drinks, Lee passes out drunk cause she’s on flu meds & Jesse lets her crash at his place…he tells Hazel the next day..says that they could use her to rlly get rid of Ben for good. Hazel is against it at first, feels really bad for Lee..but Jesse convinces her.
He knows she keeps a knife for protection, says he’ll use it to kill Ben, it’ll look like a crazy homeless lady did it.
Hazels also pissed he let Lee sleep at his place, asks if they did anything- he tells her he’s not attracted to her, that Lee looks like an off-brand version of Hazel…sureee buddy.

As time goes on & Jesse keeps seeing Lee, Hazel starts getting suspicious that he’s sleeping w her, Lee even tells her how she’s falling for him…Jesse denies it & Hazel tries convincing herself it’s true…
Hazel wants to back out & go back to the original plan- just run away together. When she tells Jesse it rlly pisses him off, he says that’s impossible & framing Lee is the only way…says life will be easier after she inherits all Benjamin’s shit- so it’s very obvious what he’s rlly in all this for.

Hazel confirms they’re sleeping together when she offers Lee the spa day…Lee asks for a bikini wax when she’s offering & Hazel asks if they’re still “just friends”- Lee says no! Hazel is pissedddd at Jesse, feels super betrayed, feels awful for what they’re doing to Lee…but also feels like Jesse is her only chance at escaping Ben..feels like it’s a choice between her or Lee by this point…
Jesse denies it again when she asks…

The spa day comes around, Jesse punches Hazel in the face without any warning or hesitation before she heads over to pay for Lee’s stuff…says that it’s the only way Lee will feel bad enough to help.
Hazel is thinking to herself that it’s fucked she’s abt to set up an innocent woman who’s willing to help her escape a shitty man, only to run off w another shady, shitty man….

That night Lee sleeps over at Jesse’s, he steals her car keys when she’s not paying attention & throws them out the window lol Hazel comes by to pick the keys up, steals the knife outta her car & puts the keys by a bush for them to find later- Lee thinking she dropped them.
Hazel decides on her way home that she doesn’t wanna frame Lee anymore, throws the knife into the ocean & goes home.

The day of the plan- Hazel meets Lee at the gym, they exchange clothes & car keys. Instead of getting on a plane & leaving, Hazel abandons the plan all together. She figures w her door locked, Jesse can’t get into the house & even if he does, once he sees she didn’t plant the knife for him he’ll just leave & get the hint.
She plans on going home & planning a new way of escape, letting Lee obliviously live her life w the money she gave her for helping.
When she arrives, the car Hazel was supposed to abandon is still there…she goes inside to find Ben in his office waiting for her…
Girl shoulda left…