53 pages • 1 hour read
Something in the Water
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Chapters 38-41Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 38 Summary: “Tidying Up”
Back at the hotel, Erin cleans her room while thinking about what she learned from Mark and Patrick’s burner phones. Mark hired Patrick to follow Erin a few days after their honeymoon. Mark intended to take all the money for himself and continuously tried to convince Erin she “was in danger” (322).
Mark’s texts to Patrick explain the whole situation. Mark set up his own Swiss account to transfer money into. He wanted Erin to dump the diamonds so he could sell them himself, and he wanted the two million Euros for the USB to go to him, not Erin. She can’t believe it, but she can’t hide from the reality either.
After she cleans the hotel, Erin calls Eddie to get advice about making Mark look like a missing person. He walks her through the steps, and Erin goes home to start the process and “get my house in order” (325).
Chapter 39 Summary: “Missing Person”
Erin starts putting her life back together. She wonders how she missed the signs or if Mark “loved me really” (323). She puts the questions aside to focus on making sure she doesn’t take the fall for what Mark did. She continues to make it look like Mark just disappeared—leaving concerned messages on his phone, checking in with places he’s been, calling people he saw recently. She talks to Hector, who says he hasn’t “seen Mark since your wedding” (330), which means Mark’s new business was also all a lie.
Chapter 40 Summary: “Empty”
The next day, Erin calls the police to report Mark missing. Though it’s not part of the plan, she calls Mark’s phone one last time to tell him she loves him “more than you will ever, ever know” (332).
Chapter 41 Summary: “What Happened Next”
The final chapter picks up two months later. Erin avoided being implicated in Mark’s disappearance and having her own secrets discovered by the police. Andy investigates her potential further involvement in Holli’s case, which also turns up nothing. Erin still can’t believe all the coincidences surrounding her but concludes that “life sometimes is weirdly random” (334). She never gets answers about the USB drive or the people from the plane.
She goes to her follow-up interview with Eddie, who’s made up with Lottie. Eddie asks her for another favor, and Erin finds she doesn’t mind because she feels like “part of the group” (336).
She stays with Alexa for Christmas. One night, a breaking news report shows Holli robbing a store somewhere in London. Erin realizes Holli “told me she would do this” but shrugs off any guilt for something she couldn’t control (339). Erin understands now she can’t save everyone and looks toward the future with excitement for her life and her unborn child.
Chapters 38-41 Analysis
Through Erin finding clues on Mark and Patrick’s burner phones, Chapter 38 explains Mark’s changing behavior. The chapter’s title, “Tidying Up,” is both literal and figurative. Literally, Erin cleans her hotel room and home, erasing her incriminating behavior and setting the scene for her role as a distraught wife. Figuratively, Erin starts to wrap her mind around what Mark did. She tidies the piles of details she knows or doesn’t know and gets a clear picture of what went on within the last three months. She understands now that she wasn’t losing her mind or paranoid. Mark set her up to have those feelings, and she also tidies up which emotions were genuine versus contrived.
Erin’s conversation with Hector (Mark’s supposed business partner) in Chapter 39 slides the final puzzle place into place. Mark used Hector as part of his deception. Hector stands in for the double life Mark leads and the new life he builds away from Erin. The news also represents the completion of Erin’s character growth. Rather than falling apart, Erin uses Hector’s information to cement her story of Mark’s disappearance. Erin comes into her own in the final chapters, bringing forward the protective self she discovered in Chapter 35.
Chapter 41 offers closure for Alexa and Holli. As was foreshadowed, Erin and Alexa become a family of sorts, and Alexa fits perfectly into Erin’s new life. Alexa is pregnant in the final chapter, mirroring Erin. Both women look toward the future and the upcoming new additions to their families. The book ends with Erin seeing Holli on a breaking news blast. As Holli foreshadowed, she returned to a life of crime. No closure ever came for her counterterrorism, which leaves the reader to decide if her current robbery is an extension of that crime. Earlier, Erin felt uneasy about Holli’s admission of wanting to return to crime. Erin decided to say nothing, which might have had an impact on how Holli turned out. Now, Erin shrugs off Holli’s choice. After everything Erin’s been through, she understands each person’s life is their choice. Holli chooses to commit crime, and Erin absolves herself of responsibility for Holli’s choices.
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