LN Cronan

Gideon's decision (before the end of Chapter 7 and now into Chapter 8) to avoid giving Deanna any of his attention shows that at least on one level, he learned from the horrible mistake he made of giving Corrine attention. From the get go, it had been a mistake even when she was back in France, because it escalated to her calling him every day, then her chasing him in person -- and worst of all his underestimating just how viciously Corrine would set out to hurt her rival, Eva.  

 

But based on what Gideon overheard Deanna tell Eva on the phone in Chapter 7, Gideon now knows Deanna is prepared to be even more vicious against Eva. Deanna wants to paint Gideon as a violently jealous and abusive man, doing so at the expense of Eva by painting Eva as a s l u t -- Eva supposedly caught cheating on Gideon at least twice (the imaginary three-way with Cary and that Ian guy, and the actual truth about her getting caught in a passionate embrace with Brett.)

 

So Gideon also has learned from the mistake of not protecting Eva against any scorned women from his past. Gideon's already arranging to bury the whole Gideon-clocked-Ian incident via paying off the guy in return for Ian's legally-binding sworn silence; he's going to pull his rank at Vidal Records to control the Brett-Eva story. Deanna underestimated Gideon.

 

He's also figured out that in a way, Deanna is attempting the exact same thing Corrine actually did accomplish - to drive a wedge between Eva and Gideon. One of the ways Gideon could defuse a potential sex-tinged scandal between him and Eva would be to avoid going anywhere near her (Eva). Something that actually is backfiring horribly for Deanna, because Gideon's proposed solution (pun intended) is to make Eva his wife.

HI all ..... I'm trying to catch up and this may have stated already so sorry it restating ...

 

In Chp 20 when Eva has lunch with Cary she states......."grateful that I'd tucked my wedding ring into the zippered pocket of my purse."    Then later when she went back to Gideon's office she stttes ...." I unzipped the small pocket and drew out the rings inside it, slipping mine on."  Guess we will hear about the wedding ring when they get 'married' again. 

 

So it sounds like there are 2 rings but she isnt wearing the wedding band publicly just the engagement ring, whereas our boy doesn't give a crap who knows he married to her.  Gotta love him even more   

 

I foresee another Mommica emotional outburst early in Book Four " .... oh Eva, honey, how could you get married and not even tell me .... "

 

Once she calms down, though, Mommica will be relieved that Eva accomplished Mommica's own goal for her daughter -- to marry a rich and powerful man.

Once Monica married Stanton, he found out about Nathan. Monica got Stanton to bury the old secrets even more deeply by buying the sworn silence of people who knew things from when Nathan was prosecuted and Monica had sued Nathan's father for divorce and for damages.

 

However, Nathan continued to be a potential threat even to the present. Monica was paranoid (with good reason, it turned out) some day Nathan might show up again. It fed into her boundary-violating stalking her own daughter's movements.

 

Naturally, as the Stantons' bodyguard, Clancy would have been alerted to the fact someone out there could prove to be a threat to Mrs. Stanton and/or her daughter. He had to have been shown recent photos of the guy. And the sicko had already been to the Crossfire (to see Gideon) days before Clancy spotted him on the sidewalk near the building. By then, it was possible Nathan had already paid a visit to Richard Stanton. Certainly, Gideon would have warned the Stantons that Nathan was in New York and in possession of some sort of violent child p o r n images of Eva.

 

On we go with our deep-dive into one chapter per day. How it works:

 

1. We're trying to avoid mentioning anything that happens beyond today's chapter. The idea behind sticking to just the chapter -- plus anything coming before it -- is that fans still reading the novel can start talking about early chapters without coming across stuff from later in the book they haven't read for themselves yet, stuff that might spoil surprises of what's to come - "spoilers". It's been working really well this week
2. Pick a favorite quote or paragraph -- oh h e c k pick plenty: it's so hard to choose sometimes. Sylvia started the pick a quote (or paragraph) system when she started the group effort to re-read one chapter per day of Bared to You and Reflected in You.
3. Have fun!!! (That's the real easy part!)

Magdalene did apologize to Eva. It's in Chapter 20 of Bared to You. From page 311: "You love him," (Magdalene) said. "I didn't see it. I'm sorry. And I'm sorry for what I said to you the first time we met."

 

And at the time she made this apology, Magdalene was being genuinely kind to Eva (and Eva to her). Gideon momentarily had left Eva alone with Maggie, because Corrine had just cooked up a lame excuse to drag Gideon away. Corrine had already declared war on Eva (and as a two-fer, Maggie) -- Corrine the Catty had stumbled within clear sight of her two rivals, so she could lean into Gideon to laugh as Gideon steadied her with a hand to her back.

 

Maggie actually had Eva sit down, seeing Eva was sick over the sight of Gideon touching Corrine. It was then that Maggie's real, true nature came out ... she actually apologized to Eva for having been so mean the night she and Eva first met.

 

Accepting the apology, Eva replied, "You love him, too. And at the time, I didn't. Not yet." Maggie responded with "Doesn't excuse me, does it?"

Hi Gigi

Clancy worked for Stanton, he wouldn't have been around when Eva was abused. Wrong husband.

 

Julie's got it right.

 

Clancy is Stanton's employee. By the time Stanton, who is Monica's third husband, entered Eva's life, Eva was college age. Monica's second marriage (Mr. Mitchell, a compulsive gambler) was on the rocks around the time Eva decided to apply to San Diego State University. Barker was husband number one.

 

"(Clancy) didn't take orders from anyone but Stanton." Bared to You, page 37 - makes clear exactly who Clancy works for.

 

Pages 85 and 86 of Reflected in You cover some of Eva's back story about how she quit living with her mother and moved to California to be near her birth father, Victor. At the time she decided to leave the nest by going away to college, "My Mom had been going through a rough patch with husband number two and I'd been in a rebellious phase, making my own life h e l l as I tried forget what Nathan had done to me for so long. Moving out of my mom's suffering orbit has been one of the best decisions I'd ever made."

 

Monica married Stanton sometime in the four years prior to the summer Eva finished college and moved to New York. Stanton is a stepfather under whose roof Eva never lived. Clancy would have hardly known Eva, period, before Stanton ordered Clancy to serve as driver/bodyguard for Eva travelling to and from Brooklyn to take Krav Maga lessons.

 

What's more, the summer the GidEva saga began was the very first time Eva has ever lived in New York City. Many things about the place continue to awe her, especially the sheer amount of traffic (her and her transportation fetish ) Even more indication that Clancy never had any sort of frequent contact with Eva until Stanton the Enabler appeased Mommica by ordering Eva to ride with Clancy. (Eva really needs to start standing up to Stanton along with Mommica now.)

 

Vade retro Satana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

On second thoughts... playing upon his shortcomings and then giving him his due might be fun.

No, not even so.

 

Gabri, am I going to need Arnoldo to repeat in Italian "Christopher Jr. is NOT welcome to this dinner get together of friends and admirers of Gideon and Eva."

 

Actually, how would you say that in Italian? Write it out for us -- and be sure to throw in some naughty words too, ones that the English language word filter won't ##### out.

I just don't know how he can't let himself be manipulated like that. He just won't quit her!!

 

Because she's been blaming him for all her unhappiness for ten years now -- she's made him believe he failed her by not loving her enough, something that taps into his own deeper issues of feeling he's unworthy of love, that he's damaged goods. Recently, she led him to believe he was the reason her marriage failed -- that he's somehow to blame for the fact that even another man couldn't make her happy, all because he'd broken her heart years ago.

 

She trapped the guy into a lather-rinse-repeat cycle with him desperate trying to someone "fix" things so she could move on with her life and be happy. He really wanted to finish business between them -- most especially after he met Eva and realized Eva was his future. But Corrine just wouldn't quit harping on the poor guy. "Fix me!!! Fix me!!!" was Corrine's tune to some poor guy who couldn't even yet get a good start on fixing himself.

Am I too late to sign in?

I'll bring Eric, the handsome flight assistant.

Or Cary, if I can drag him away from that blond, long-legged harpy!!!!

Or both

 

Bring both Cary and Eric!!! Depending upon which way Eric swings, he has a double shot at getting lucky. The Harpy definitely is on the no-fly-list though -- she's not allowed inside the door.

It is Lizzie and Gideon's fault that the fight erupted; Gideon had no business being there ESPECIALLY NOW that he is MaRRIED and he should have told his mother firmly on the phone that it was not HIS place to be there!!!

 

 

Exactly why did he show up in the first place! He should've told Elizabeth to call JFG and if she said he was already there then Gideon should've said well then what's the point of me going! There was no point!

 

Exactly!!! Because he'd certainly had no trouble telling his mother "No" before.

 

It all ties back to Gideon's guilt over Corrine. Yes, he does have reason to feel some guilt -- he coldly used the woman every bit as much as he calculatedly played Eva's own emotions against her.

 

BUT ...

 

Corrine apparently installed his guilt buttons years ago, and for quite some time recently, she'd been hitting those buttons by calling him up from France, trying to "lean on him" during her "time of trouble." When what she really was doing was manipulating the poor guy. And she very calculatedly manipulated the vulnerabilities of his brand new girlfriend, a woman he loved deeply, purely for her (Corrine's) own selfish aims of driving a wedge between them. Which she succeeded in doing. So Corrine wasn't some innocent victim here. She was as much to blame for herself getting hurt as Gideon was.

I really loved the quote on page 95, "You've got a weird catalog of movie lines in that gorgeous head of yours, angel."

 

It was so sweet to see the pair of them having an ordinary sweet and funny evening in their love nest apartment, the second night in a row. After those weeks apart, with Eva crying every night and Gideon probably doing the same thing, then the pair of them crying together on Wednesday night. Thursday, the new hunky neighbor got lucky, and then on Friday, Eva got to -- um -- play with Gideon. They did more laughing in those two evenings than probably in the whole prior month, possibly even including North Carolina.

 

Hi LN

I believe that tracking bugs have been planted in almost all of Eva's personal belongings to be switched on or off as the need be (Clancy told Eva he had switched the bug in the vanity off as soon as he was sure Nathan was dead. He didn't mention the Rolex, though....)

So Monica is not lying when she says she won't do it again, because she wouldn't need to.

 

 

 

.

 

 

Hey Gabri, you're up late tonight  

 

Monica had been lying by omission, though, early in Bared to You in the immediate aftermath of Eva getting angry over the (supposed) phone incident. Eva demanded a joint meeting with Monica and Dr. Petersen -- apparently not the first time Eva's needed a three-way meeting with her neurotic mother and the shrink. She gave Eva the impression she'd take Dr. Petersen's advice about giving Eva the much-needed boundaries and sense of control over her (Eva's) life, both of which Nathan had so brutally taken away from Eva as a girl. 

 

When in fact, all the time the bug was still in that Rolex and had been for many weeks, ever since Eva got the watch as a college graduation present. And who knows when the make-up compact bug got slipped to Eva.

Now there's an idea for a couple can you imagine Tat being poor Gideva's sister-in-law ? I think that would actually cause GidEva to seriously think about a permanent move to the Windward Islands!!

 

God, I'd rather see Tat marry Christopher Jr. and thus literally end up as Eva's sister-in-law than Tat marry Cary, which would make her figuratively Eva's sister-in-law. Because Cary is Eva's brother in all but blood, is her brother in all the ways that actually matter.

 

I can't see Mr. and Mrs. Cross having the Vidal Jrs. over for dinner -- but if Tat were married to Cary, well she'd end up a permanent fixture in the Cross' life. 

Aww please can I bring Brett?? I'll keep him occupied so he doesn't go anywhere near Eva

 

OK, Rogue I'll let you, but only if you vow to try to make him forget Eva Cross (er, shhhh, we're still supposed to be calling her Eva Trammell.)

 

And you're more than welcome to keep him -- ahem -- "occupied." Go for it!!!! I hear he's got a thing for smokin' hot quickies in bathrooms. Just be certain to check for hidden cameras, first

Someone asked about the time that has passed from the beginning of BTY to EWY and Sylvia tweeted 3 months..!!

 

The math I did comes out to 59 days, but I could be off one or two. I had been crunching some numbers yesterday to factor in how many weeks along Corrine might have been when she started stalking Gideon in person in New York.

 

I'm still chipping away at a mini-project to create a daily timeline for Crossfire from the first day of Bared to the last day of Entwined.

LOL I can't picture Angus hollering much of anything. I just thought how great it would have been to see the looks on the faces of Elizabeth and Corrines parents if they had in fact heard Angus address Eva as Mrs. Cross :-)

 

Good Lord, can you imagine what might have happened if Lizzie overheard Angus calling Eva "Mrs. Cross." There had already been one fight in that waiting room -- Gideon and JFG had barely been flexi-cuffed by security and escorted off the premises. I have this twisted vision of Lizzie launching herself at Eva, starting a cat fight Lizzie would quickly lose to one of Eva's basic Krav Maga moves. Security would come running back, flexi-cuffs at the ready, to haul Lizzie and Eva away too.

 

Corrine's parents would have been left there dazed thinking "What the h e l l just happened here?"

 

Seriously, though -- I do feel bad for Corrine's parents, who seem to be nice people, and I do feel bad for JFG too, even though he comes across as being a jerk. He ended up collateral damage too.

 

I do not feel bad for Lizzie, though -- what the heck was she thinking calling Gideon, making matters a lot worse all around for him being there. She's the one to blame for the fistfight erupting, guilt-tripping Gideon into entering an emotionally volatile setting. And for what good reason? Oh yeah, because she's head of Team Corrine As Mrs. Cross. Well, karma bit Lizzie when the Real Mrs. Cross showed up too.

When Eva changed her phone Mommyca had no way of tracking her, And then when Mommyca saw Nathan outside the crossfire she almost passed out..!! Then the attack on Cary more than likely put the icing on the cake so they placed the bugs in Eva's belongings..!........

Oh wait one was in her Rolex she got a as graduation gift..! So the bugs were probably already there just not being used, after the attack on Cary or maybe after Mommyca saw Nathan at the crossfire the receiver was turned on to trace Eva so everyone knew where she was.!!

Let me think about this some more..!!

 

I'm thinking now that really early in Bared to You, when Eva's little trip out to Brooklyn to check out the Krav Maga studio showed up on Monica's radar (pun intended) Monica and Stanton lied about how they actually tracked Eva. Stanton claimed it was one of his company cell phones they gave to Eva for personal use -- but really all along it was the Rolex watch. They lied about the phone, letting the phone "take the fall" so to speak. She'd get a new phone -- which she immediately did -- all the while, Monica kept tracking her.

 

Which means Monica also lied to her teeth in Dr. Petersen's office when Eva was there for the joint therapy session Eva demanded with her mother. Monica was all full of apologies, and she sorta promised her shrink she wouldn't do it again -- but all the time, she was still pulling it.

 

So why the second tracking bug in the powder compact in Eva's purse? As back-up for those times Eva didn't wear her Rolex out somewhere. She'd still probably carry her purse.

Yes I'm back had to take two days off..! Remodeling my house painting is horrible next time I'll hire someone else to do the deed..! But I'm back now..!!

So what are we talking about..!!?

 

Tatiana is a hot topic of discussion today too -- is she the one who leaked to Deanna those half-truths about Gideon clocking that Ian guy in Eva's apartment? Tatiana wasn't in on the orgy herself, but she could have found out about it during pillow talk with Cary.

Sassy Saturday, Frisky Friday .... now we got Wild Wednesday going on.

Chris jnr, just rang, he needs a date, any volunteers?

 

Nope, nope, nope -- I'm invoking hostess prerogative here. The following people are on the persona non grata list:

 

Christopher Vidal Jr.

Lizzie Vidal

Dr. and Dr. Lucas

Mr. and Mrs. Grioux

Brett Kline

Deanna Johnson

Tatiana Cherlin

 

Maggie Perez can come but only if she's on her best behavior and brings her new boyfriend, Gage.

Hey ladies..! *** Waves Hi***

 

Mrs. C is in the house!!!

We Yanks could keep Deanna Johnson, girl reporter, here in the United States. We'll send her to Alaska.

If Clancy didnt plant the bracelet and someone else did... maybe when its time to collect Eva will be in danger. Graves said that Nathan was planning on trafficking her and was involved with the Russian mob. If someone out there knows what Gideon did thats great power to hold over him... but whats greater?? Eva. He would do anything... more so if she's ever abducted. Everything is written for a reason, and her refusal to be tracked will somehow bite her in the a**.

 

I couldn't see Nathan ever turning Eva over to sex traffickers. The mere thought of another man touching her triggered his crazy bad enough to go postal on Cary. That pervert considered Eva to be some sort of private sexual property of his.

 

Thus I think the Russia truly was framed -- he had nothing to do whatsoever with Nathan, but someone set him up by planting evidence connected to Nathan (the bracelet plus copies of some of the recent stalker photos Nathan had taken of Eva, just like the pictures found in his hotel room along with his dead body.)

 

Whoever it was -- Angus with his past history working for the British foreign spy agency, Clancy with his brother working for the FBI -- either man (or both cooperating together) had the means to get inside information about the Russian Mafia.

Angus is former MI6, British foreign intelligence, instead of former MI5, British domestic military intelligence. It makes Angus a much cooler character, almost as cool as James Bond, who also is MI6. I'll bet Angus loves the Aston Martin -- does Angus like vodka martinis though? (Shaken, not stirred -- and make sure it's Kingsman, LOL)

 

Silly aside, I think Sylvia deliberately chose MI6 for Angus for very clever reasons. It raises the possibility Angus actually may have worked as a full-fledged foreign spy during the years in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the time in history when organized crime suddenly flourished in Russia. That possibility raises the interesting possibility that Angus too might have been involved in the dead Russian gangster twist. Gideon doesn't think so --- but I can see Angus taking some matters into his own hands to protect a guy he looks upon almost as a son.

I'll captain team "Corinne didn't know". Even though you all have done a good job of making me question my belief.

I'll enjoy my crow pie if I'm wrong but only if Arnoldo makes it

 

Arnoldo makes great crow pie - I had some the other night when Julie took us all out because she'd hit the 2,000-post mark. And I got to ride in the DB9 with Raul, because his boss let him borrow the car for the night. Alas, I didn't get to give the shocks a workout, though.

 

Ah well. Not everyone gets lucky on the first date like Eva's hunky new neighbor did. But I'm nearing 2,000 posts myself, so I suppose I should return Julie's by picking up the tab myself for a night at Tableau One.

 

How many of you ladies are in? I need to know so I can call in the reservation