Sierra’s Reviews > The Drowning Woman > Status Update

Hazel was supposed to leave the bag filled w clothes for Lee but she didn’t put that in there, she did leave a shit ton of money for her, a new fake passport, a letter apologizing & telling her jesse wasn’t who she thought he was, plus a plan ticket to Panama 🥺 Hazel gave Lee her freedom plan, sacrificing herself
Lee is sussed out, refuses to leave without finding out what happened to Jesse, is betrayed & confused by Hazel.

Lee makes her way to the grocery store Hazel ditched her car at, then drives over to Jesse’s apartment to find more info out abt him. She finds a hidden social security card for someone named Carter, googles him & finds out it’s Jesse’s real name. Him & his brother, Sean, were arrested for robbing an elderly couples home & brutally beating them. She finds out that Sean is in a halfway house, goes there the next day to talk to him.

Lee finds out from Sean that Jesse/Carter was always a bad kid, got off on violence. Says they could have gotten away with the robbery but Jesse got carried away beating up the old people, then blamed it all on Sean saying that he was just doing what his older brother was pressuring him to do. Jesse’s lawyer was Ben- he was the one who convinced Jesse to turn on Sean!

Lee gets a call from Hazel…it’s Ben asking to meet up & talk…says they were both screwed over by Hazel & Jesse, that he’s got answers for her…she agrees to meet in a public park.
Ben tells Lee that after he worked as Jesse’s lawyer, he felt bad for him, wanted to help him out. He got Jesse a new name & a job at his friends gym..asked his friend to keep an eye on him & hazel- his friend told him they were planning his murder after overhearing their plans at the gym.
He tells her that one of his security guards stabbed Jesse, they got rid of the body & she doesn’t have to worry abt anything bc Jesse technically never existed, no one will come looking for him. He gives her an envelope full of money & a plane ticket, tells her to leave Seattle.

Lee is set- she’s got 2 plane tickets, a new identity if she chooses to use it, 75k to start a new life w. She’s at a computer cafe going over all her options when she drops the pen she took from Jesse’s apartment, it breaks into 2 revealing it’s a usb drive. She plugs it into the computer, listens to the audio files w headphones…concludes she can’t trust anyone anymore.

Hazel’s POV
After she went back home to find Ben in his office waiting for her, he locked her in the basement for days before things went back to normal for them.
Hazel convinces him to let her visit her mom one last time, she comes home after & records a suicide video..explains all the abuse Ben has put her through, schedules it to be posted after her death. She’s abt to take a bunch of pills & drink a whole bottle of vodka when she hears the doorbell ring..goes down to find Ben getting arrested!! The cops say it’s for conspiracy to commit murder- HER murder!

Hazel has to turn her phone in to police & go down to the station for questioning, she’s able to delete the suicide video before handing it in.
She hires a lawyer after, has to go home cause she doesn’t have anywhere else to go.
The next day her lawyer calls to tell her Ben pulled some strings, has all his colleagues putting in work & he might get out on bail…

One of Ben’s colleagues wife comes to talk w Hazel, tells her that her husband is working to get Ben out & she needs to be prepared. Gives her contact info to people who can help her, tells her to get a divorce lawyer, to pull out as much cash from Ben’s credit cards as she can before he cancels them…says she knows they weren’t close but she can’t stand by & watch Ben do this to another women- turns out Hazel is his 2nd wife!

Hazel goes to the bank to pull out money, she’s only able to pull out 7k from the one card cause apparently someone’s already took out a cash advance for 50k…
She’s able to get 100k off a different card tho :)

Hazel tries finding Ben’s ex wife on Facebook, she knows that after their divorce she moved back to Poland but doesn’t seem to have much social media presence. She DMs someone she think might be her, a man reaches back out saying that he’s the ex wife, karolina’s, brother…that she died 4 years ago- drove into a cement wall at full speed. Hazel tells her lawyers abt karolina but when they look into that, they find that her family was paid off after her death- have nothing but nice things to say abt Ben & say that the brother is crazy..

Later in the day she gets a call from her mom’s care facility informing her that her mom “wandered off the property” & is missing! She immediately knows it’s Ben…

Her lawyer calls her down to the office to talk..it’s very important she says. When she gets there they show her the audio files Lee must have turned in- 1 of them has a convo between Jesse & Ben..Ben made a deal to pay Jesse 50k to kill Hazel, that’s the real reason he got him the job at the gym. He wanted her gone cause he thought she was empty & lifeless, didn’t wanna be w her anymore.
He specifically tells Jesse to seduce her before killing her, wants him to give her some pills & bring her out on a boat, when she’s groggy enough push her overboard!
The 2nd recording is of Jesse telling Ben how he has Hazel fooled into thinking they’re running away together , how she plans on faking her suicide- so now the lawyer knows abt that, luckily she doesn’t know they were planning Ben’s murder too.
The recordings were anonymously submitted, the lawyer thinks it’s Jesse trying to save his own ass now that things went down, doesn’t suspect he’s dead- Hazel still doesn’t know whatever rlly happened to him…

The case is dismissed sometime later- the audio recordings deemed hearsay, Ben’s lawyers said they coulda been faked. The money that Ben used to pay Jesse was taken out of Rachel’s account- the 50k from her credit card- so there’s so proof of Ben paying him. The lawyer tells Hazel she thinks she should go to a mental facility by this point- she’ll be protected there & get therapy…
Her mom is still missing & it’s been days…

Hazel goes on the run- packs a bag, takes as many valuables as she can from Ben to sell later, buys a used car, new burner phone, gets her hair cut & dyed blonde.
She spends the night in a random motel, the next day she’s notified her mother was found dead, at first she thinks it was Ben but her moms body was found in a patch of grass by a stream- a place they used to picnic at, had lots of good memories there.

Hazel is staying at a different motel when Ben finds her, she’s on her way out to leave. They argue & he says he’s having her committed to a mental institution, luckily a worker noticed them fighting & asks if she’s ok- gives her enough time to hit Ben & get into her car, driving off.

Hazel had a fake passport buried in the sand where she used to sit with Lee, she gets that before leaving town & starting her new life.
She gets a call from police before she goes, Jesse’s body was found & Ben’s body guard is snitching cause they’re trying to charge him w the murder, police say now is her chance to get Ben in trouble for everything he’s done but she’s exhausted by this point, says good luck & hangs up.

We end the book abt 3 months later. Lee is living on a little island in Panama, owns her own restaurant again :) Changed her name to Kelly.
Ben was charged w Jesse’s murder.
Hazel finds Lee in Panama, she’s also changed her name- now she’s Nora.
Hazel apologizes for everything, they talk abt Jesse, make up :) Lee offers Hazel a job there & they begin their new life together as bestiess