LN Cronan

 From Sylvia recently.  Prior to then, between that Monday phone call he took as he left the hospital coupled with a security team meeting at his apartment Tuesday (a meeting Sylvia revealed a while ago) the most common theory about how Gideon found out was through his own people.

 Agreed, KiMa -- every one of these pictures (with perhaps the exception of the NYPD detective shield) is symbolic somehow and not to be taken at literal face value. But every one of them is some sort of hint to the plot, and so it's fun here to try to spin various theories about what the pictures might hint at.  Sylvia and her publisher both have done an excellent job building our excitement.

The natural assumption, based on appearances, is that after Corrine's divorce goes through, she and Gideon will marry. He wanted to marry her years ago, but she left him. Now she's left her husband and come running back to Gideon -- and anyone who looks at her can clearly see she is deeply in love with him. The fact he's seeing her exclusively would lead people to believe he's thrilled he's gotten her back. Â Based on this lie, people would assume they're already engaged in all but name now. Perhaps even secretly engaged, but for proper society appearance, they're going to wait until Corrine is officially single again before announcing their marriage plans. Â Meanwhile, if Gideon is in a serious relationship with Corrine headed toward the altar, but is f***** Eva on the side, then she's his mistress in all but name. As soon as Corrine becomes Mrs. Gideon Cross, then Eva (if Gideon's still keeping her on the side) would actually be his mistress. Â This is what I meant when I presented a scenario about how Gideon could give some of his employees a legitimate reason for wanting to sneak around with Eva -- and to get them to do what he asks, keeping their mouths shut if they want to continue to collect fat paychecks.

 Excellent question -- one I hope we'll get an answer to if/when Eva demands full disclosure from Gideon about everything that went down in recent weeks. She's now colluding to cover up the killing, so she is on a need-to-know basis. Plus, Gideon owes her a lot of answers after weeks of having kept her in the dark.  The cops didn't figure out who Cary's assailant was until after Nathan was killed -- they found evidence in Nathan's hotel room linking him to the assault.

If Andie's theory is right that the countdown pictures are in reverse order from the snapshots, then this plane picture coincides with the detective shield (Chapter 14). Â It'd be risky for Gideon to fly somewhere while still under active investigation, even though technically he's still free to move about. His own lawyers would have strongly advised him to stick around New York. If the cops for a minute thought he might be trying to flee somewhere, they'd seize on that as the appearance of guilt, and the prosecutor would rush to try to get an arrest warrant. Right now, his lawyers would be working very hard to make sure the cops never even charge him to begin with -- that the case goes away as "unsolved" because no arrest is made. Â A possible theory -- Gideon decides to gamble with the cops, forcing them to either "fish or cut bait." He resumes travelling as a means to try to make the prosecution wake up and smell the coffee -- they don't have enough evidence to be able to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt to a jury, so it's time for them to back the h*** off and let him go on with his life now. Â If my theory is right, his legal team is probably going to freak. But Gideon is probably determined he wants the case GONE as soon as possible so that he and Eva no longer need to hide. He wants her back openly. He wants to "put a ring on it." He doesn't want to spend years seeing her in secret while Brett and other men, believing she's single, keep wooing her. His insecurities would lead him to fear that given enough time, Brett might succeed -- or if not him, some other man.

 His pilot is required to file a passenger list along with a flight plan, for domestic and international flights alike.  However, it wouldn't be too hard for Gideon to arrange for false information to be filed -- he'd be paying those pilots a small fortune to work for him, and he might get them to believe he wanted to avoid having his "fiancee" finding out he was taking his "mistress" on an out-of-town trip. The chances of getting caught by the U.S. government would be pretty low. People using private jetports don't have to go through the regular security passenger screenings everyone boarding commercial flights must.  It'd be dicier to take Eva out of the country, because the pair of them would need to go through customs upon arrival in the foreign country and then again upon return to the United States, a process that would involve both of their passports being examined by government officials.

 Gideon tells half truths, lies by omission, and lies through actions.  Mr. Clueless probably thinks that just because every word that does come out of his mouth is true, that means he's not lying.  Um Gideon - the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Understand that concept? Apparently not. Only the speaking "nothing but the truth." When ones words do not match one's actions, then the actions are not the truth. And lying by omission means it's not "the whole truth."

 Previously, Gideon had told Eva that before her, sex was something he could leave or take. Between working hard and working out very hard, he didn't have much need for it. Every so often, a woman made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and so he indulged.  Eva must have forgotten that when she heard Gideon admit to Dr. Petersen he had sex on average twice per week. Eva was so triggered and paranoid by then, Eva assumed that Gideon was constantly sleeping with women, one after another.  The truth, I think is this:  Once in a great while, Gideon got h**** enough to want to get laid, and when he was, he simply chose among the current women throwing themselves at his feet. He literally slept with them only once or twice -- be it a wild one-night stand during which he went at it repeatedly, or at most, slept with a woman only a couple of times before throwing her onto the reject pile. Then having gotten the need for sex out of his system, he'd go without for another long stretch. With Eva, though, he was going at it morning, noon and night all the time they were together. Both of them probably lost count of how many times they had intercourse, but Dr. Petersen learned the situation involved multiple times daily -- very highly sexualized situation, in other words. So literally, Gideon has had more sex in under two weeks with Eva than he had the prior two years total.

 We recently found out that Monica was the one who told Gideon it had been Nathan who'd attacked Cary.

  Timeline of what the press/public would have believed, based on the celebrity love life coverage of Gideon. This is stuff Deanna could have gotten off the Internet plus interviewing high society insiders who attended the same events Gideon brought Eva to as his date:  Earlier in the summer, for a week and a half, some photos of Gideon and Eva appeared, along with some stories (based on Gideon's leak) the new relationship was serious. However, we also know that at the same time there were false speculations of a Gideon-Eva-Cary love triangle as well as an Eva-Gideon-Magdalene. The very last time Gideon was photographed with Eva was on the red carpet entering a fundraiser the week after they started dating. Via society circle gossip, Deanna would have confirmed that was the same night Corrine showed up and Gideon instantly "latched on" to Corrine, ignoring Eva and ending up fighting with Eva at the event. Another week and a half passed with absolutely no new love life photos of Gideon, not with Eva, not with anyone. (Nathan had shown up in New York and Gideon quietly removed Eva from the spotlight for her safety.) Then suddenly, serious photos of Gideon taking Corrine out started appearing. Eva (and thus we readers) found out about two instances - Monday night dinner for two and Thursday work party. Then Eva quit looking any more. But there had to have been more -- now Gideon was the chief suspect in Nathan's killing and it was even more desperate now he foster the went-back-to-Corrine lie. We know he was spending time with Corrine, because two weeks later, Eva caught him leaving the Crossfire with Corrine.  Now here we are, two weeks-plus weeks into Gideon and Corrine's "reunited relationship" and more than five weeks since Eva briefly appeared on the public stage for only a brief while. The natural assumption was Eva was simply some hot fling that quickly burned out while Gideon and Corrine are going to get married after her divorce goes through.  When Gideon started seeing Corrine again about two weeks earlier, Deanna probably got furious, and that's when she began plotting her revenge. She's been digging these past two weeks and now has some serious dirt already assembled. She's now looking for additional ammo -- including getting dirt from a woman Gideon f***** simply to use that woman to get Corrine's attention, and then threw that woman onto the reject pile the night Corrine ran back to him.

 See Chapter 1 of Reflected.  One of the numerous mind games Corrine played the night before was to tell Gideon she (Corrine) was surprised Eva did not look like her. Mr. Clueless made the mistake (duh) of repeating the remark to Eva the next morning on the way to work. This led to the brunette-type discussion (pages 14-15).  Corrine's remark to Gideon makes me suspect the following: Once Gideon started to become famous (which would have been after Corrine married and moved to Europe) she started cyber-stalking Gideon. She would have seen a long line of brunettes on his arm, and as the years passed, he stuck to women like her but never settled down. This would have fed Corrine's hopes he was holding a torch for her. It's malarkey that Corrine "discovered" Eva was a blonde the night she met Eva. Corrine would have been carefully following Gideon online after Gideon told her about a week and a half earlier he'd met someone -- and in the days since then, had been talking to Corrine about how special Eva was. I think that coupled with online photos showing real passion is what made Corrine desperate enough to hatch a plot to try to nuke the new relationship.

A Chapter A Day Re-Read Project - Today is Chapter 7 of Reflected in You  This chapter starts Monday evening (day 21) and continues through Tuesday evening (day 22)  Key plot developments: For the second time, while sleeping in Eva's bed, Gideon tried to sexually assault her while fast asleep in the middle of one of his violent nightmares. The last time, she talked him out of leaving, but this time, he left. Cary, afraid that the relationship could permanently damage Eva, strongly urged her to dump Gideon. However, she became determined to hang in there, staying in text contact with Gideon the next day when he avoiding talking to her. Then she took it upon herself to go see him Tuesday night, letting herself into his apartment for the first time with her own key. Eva convinced him she was done running, and he confirmed he was continuing to work with Dr. Petersen on the problem. For now, however, Gideon insisted that moving forward, they would sleep in separate beds.  After each of us has read Chapter 7, Sylvia would like to know what each of us liked best - either a quote or a paragraph.

Chapter 6 of Reflected in You - the Readers Guide  This chapter starts Sunday (day 20) and continues through Monday (day 21 - three weeks since Gideon and Eva met).  Key plot developments On Monday, Eva went to lunch with her mother. As they walked back to the Crossfire, instead of taking Monica's chauffeured car, Monica saw something that badly frightened her - what it was, she refused to tell Eva. Sunday, when Gideon arrived at the resort to pick up Eva and Cary, she chewed him over his having assigned a security staffer to (what Eva believed) keep guys away from her. We readers found out how Eva got even - calling in a favor, she'd sent a security goon to interfere with Gideon's freedom of movement in Arizona. Eva found out the way Gideon had gotten the money to start building Cross Industries was through gambling. He'd cheated at blackjack by counting cards.  New characters None in this chapter  What did Monica see? The chapter ended on a dramatic note, with Monica badly frightened by something she saw outside the Crossfire as she, Eva and Megumi were walking back from having all gone out to lunch together. Clancy, Monica's driver/bodyguard, was nearby at the time, driving alongside slowly, because Monica had opted to join the young women on their exercise walk back to the office. Whatever Monica saw, Clancy also apparently saw, because he immediately  loaded the women into the car -- with Monica getting in up front so she could privately speak with Clancy. Weeks later would we readers learn that Monica spotted Nathan right outside the Crossfire. This would have made at least the second time he had been in the vicinity of the building in recent days. The prior Monday during lunchtime, Nathan had a serious confrontation with Gideon in Gideon's office.  Eva tries to argue with Gideon, who manages to distract her On Sunday, Gideon arrived at the Las Vegas hotel to collect Eva and Cary for the trip home. Gideon and Eva got some alone time together while Cary was off elsewhere -- and Eva started to chew Gideon out. She was still mad he'd assigned a security detail to her for the weekend, a security detail that wouldn't let people get too close. She believed Gideon had done it to keep any guys away from her (unaware that Gideon actually has subtly switched to having bodyguards watch her over very real fears Gideon now had for her safety.) She'd gotten even by calling on Clancy for a favor - Clancy sent some goon of a guard to where Gideon was conducting business in Arizona. The guard made Eva's point by preventing other people from coming within three feet of Gideon. Rather than getting angry about the revenge, Gideon was amused -- and was actually turned on at the thought of how Eva had challenged him. While she was trying to continue the argument, he ended up successfully distracting her sexually. After they were done, she hit Gideon with the fact her father was planning to come visit New York the weekend after next -- and she wanted Gideon to meet him.  Some more about Gideon's past Tidbits we readers learned when Gideon and Eva talked post-coital on Sunday at the Las Vegas hotel: Gideon got his financial start -- got the money to start building what became Cross Industries -- by winning at blackjack. Specifically, he "counted cards" which involves the use of mathematical genius to keep track of the cards already played, and thus to manipulate the odds in favor of the player. While technically not illegal, card counting is considered a form of cheating. Gideon, who no longer gambles, came away from blackjack with more than just money - he'd made his first valuable business contacts over the blackjack tables. Cross Industries mostly is an entertainment real estate conglomerate: luxury apartments, resorts, hotels, nightclubs, casinos, gyms. However, Gideon also is into information technology - software, games, social media. "People like to have fun, and they'll pay for the privilege," is what he told Eva when she asked him how did he get to be so rich. (page 99)  Some more about Monica What makes Monica so appealing to men is she's a beautiful woman who radiates a vulnerable sensuality. In some ways, Monica's fragility is real, but not when it comes to men - she walks all over them. Monica does, however, sometimes walk over Eva in a small way by laying guilt trips on her -- like the one she laid on Eva for Eva having gone away to Vegas without even telling her. Monica would have liked to have gone along on the trip. As a child, Eva had learned "repeated apologies went a long way with her." (page 103) and thus when Monica got upset about something, Eva's pattern (dysfunctional) was to placate her mother.  Other misc. stuff from this chapter, all tied to work somehow Eva came up with a good idea on how to market the blueberry flavored coffee her boss, Mark, has landed as a new account. Mark liked her concept so much he decided they'd run with it, and he involved Eva in the next step -- thereby continuing to give Eva new responsibilities above her job description. Mark passed on word that Shawna (his sister-in-law in all but name) wants to invite Eva to go to a concert with her on Friday night. Eva's other new gal-pal in New York, Megumi, told her over lunch that the blind date she (Megumi) went on over the weekend went well, and she's hoping to see the guy again.

  My guess: she did some sort of business-related story as the means to meet Gideon, having a hidden agenda to get him to date her. The natural assumption would be he was sleeping with all those brunettes too - why wouldn't he be? Even if he was careful to explain to Deanna that their interactions would be strictly limited to sex, I'll bet she still had those "exaggerated expectations" anyway he'd make her his girlfriend -- and that she would become "the one." Most, if not all, of the beautiful brunettes would have believed every one of them had such a shot. Gideon had been engaged once before, so clearly marriage was in his life plan -- and he absolutely had a "thing" for brunettes.  Magdalene had exaggerated expectations, despite the fact she knew the score: Gideon didn't sleep with the women he dated nor date the women he f*****. Magdalene believed Gideon not sleeping with her was a sign of respect and proof that he was going to keep her in his life for the long haul. She actually thought that he'd simply get sowing his wild oats out of his system so he'd be ready to settle down -- choosing her as his wife.  Even Eva herself had certain expectations with Gideon from the get-go. He basically was looking for a one night stand or at most a short-term fling. She expected friends with benefits. Then when the lovemaking in the limo changed everything, she knew the arrangement she'd already made with Gideon wasn't going to satisfy her. The crucial difference between Eva and other women, though, was she intended to walk away, not settle for scraps and hope for more. Thanks to therapy, Eva had enough insight to realize settling would be very bad for her.  I suspect Eva is right Gideon screwed Deanna and then threw her onto the reject pile -- the gleam in Deanna's eyes showed the woman has some sort of personal grudge against Gideon. What she said to Eva suggests to me Deanna thinks he's been using women for years (Eva being the latest) all the while holding a torch for Corrine, trying to figure out how to get Corrine back and marry her some day.  Yes, part of Eva's reaction was the old brunette-fixation insecurity, because Deanna appeared to be very much Gideon's type. But Eva also sensed it wasn't as simple as that in this particular case. Eva's instincts had been dead right about Corrine herself still being in love with Gideon. Eva's instincts also had been dead right about Magdalene. Deanna is now the third brunette tied to Gideon somehow that Eva has had getting in her (Eva's) face.  Eva still suspects the reason Gideon had dated brunettes for years was because of Corrine. What's finally changed recently is Eva at last believes Gideon is in love with her. But unless and until Gideon actually figures out for himself what the real reason behind the brunette fixation is (because he's admitted he doesn't consciously know why) the insecure part of Eva is still going to bristle at every beautiful brunette of a certain "type" associated with Gideon, past and present -- because there definitely is something behind the brunette fetish.

Tuesday - which means we're getting a snapshot today, probably at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time based on when all the other ones thus far have hit the Internet. Â Today will be a glimpse into Chapter 19. Recap of the snapshots of chapters 1-18: Â 1. The word "Press" over a fuzzy shot of a newspaper page, and a fancy pen in the foreground. 2. Unwrapped Christmas present boxes 3. The word "Business" next to a cup of coffee 4. A microphone on a stand 5. A pile of neatly-folded white terrycloth towels, wrapped in a red ribbon. 6. A bathtub in a modern-style bathroom 7. An open bottle of red wine, nearly full, and in front of it, one wine glass holding some wine. Near it is a small vase holding four red roses. 8. Two different types of pills in blister packs plus a bottle of some sort of liquid medication. The meds are on a glass coffee table in front of a white couch. 9. Fuzzy shot of a crowded dance floor. One woman in the center of the shot is in semi-focus. 10. A diamond and gold women's watch. 11. An Aston Martin sports car 12. A vase of white roses with a card that says "Happy" (can't see what) and signed xoxoxoxo. This was substituted from the original shot of an elevator bank. 13. Pieces of women's clothing scattered at the foot of a bed. 14. An NYPD detective shield (badge). 15. A man's hand grasping a bed sheet 16. A set of stairs or spectator seats (in Times Square?) 17. A man's hand holding a French passport 18. A private jet parked at an airport.

 If he's taken Eva with him, yes. North Carolina? They were supposed to have flown down there, not taken the limo, that weekend away in Reflected. The decision to ride down in the limo was a last-minute change of plans by Gideon.  Plus, the U.S. cover of Entwined depicts luggage tags - so travel definitely is somehow a key component of the story.

 Magdalene wasn't the only one Gideon took out on dates. There were others, Eva saw -- Cary had included pictures in the dossier of online material he'd pulled together on Gideon for Eva to review just before she went out with Gideon for the first time. Eva noticed Magdalene only because Magdalene was the one most frequently photographed with him, photographed often enough that Eva decided to read one of the captions to determine Magdalene's name. And even Monica noted Gideon had a reputation as a ladies man -- one with a known preference for brunettes. The photos Eva reviewed confirmed her mother had been right about the society gossip about Gideon.

 Excellent, Kirsten! Thanks for finding it!  Gideon's stepfather had all the money, and thus all the power. Elizabeth Vidal would have come into the marriage literally penniless, every last dollar and even every last valuable assets (home, cars, jewelry) seized by the government, because every last dollar Geoffrey Cross still had and every last valuable he bought came all came from stolen money -- money he'd defrauded investors of.  We know Elizabeth remarried very soon after. I think Vidal Sr. snapped her up at at a "bargain price" so to speak, a stunning trophy wife that normally would have been out of his league, even being a rich man. Gideon gets his amazing looks from his mother. Like Monica, Elizabeth normally could have her pick of men. So why him? She was desperate. My guess is he controlled her by controlling the money - that's how he's kept her at his side all these years.

I too suspect Eva might be the only blonde he's ever gone to bed with. Certainly she's the only non-brunette he ever dated -- and she's the only woman he's ever made love with, period. Even with Corrine, it had been nothing more than f******. Â BUT .... alternate theory ..... Â Maybe after Corrine, did Gideon stop sleeping with brunettes, period -- that he developed sexual attraction only to women who did NOT resemble his mother? That the dating-brunettes thing is more of a Mommy issue related to his mother being a trophy wife, so Gideon unconsciously strikes back by having trophy girlfriends who kinda look like Mommy too? Â This might explain why it was so easy for Gideon to keep the dates and the bed partners completely separate, and why he was filled with overwhelming desire when he first laid eyes on Eva -- because she did NOT resemble Mommy/Corrine in any way. Â AGHHHHHH!!!! I want to know, and I want to know now!!! But I gotta wait two weeks from tomorrow - June 4!!!

 That might explain why Victor didn't talk with Eva on the phone on Saturday night (i.e. which would have been the weekend following his visit to Eva and also was only a few days before the end of Reflected, which wraps up on Wednesday evening.)  Maybe he has been hanging around New York doing his own digging? Trying (likely in vain) to get to see Monica to demand to be told what was the deal with Eva's former stepbrother? Whatever bad happened was eight-plus years ago, so Eva was still a teenager. Trying (definitely in vain) to see Gideon to demand to know why the cops also wanted to talk to him (Gideon) about Nathan? Gideon definitely knows something, Victor saw for himself. Even hounding the detectives, cop-to-cop, about why they're investigating Nathan's death?  If that last one is true, then the big question is -- what, if anything, has Detective Graves told Victor? And when? Wednesday evening, Graves went to Eva, and if it's true Graves is trying to trap Gideon, Graves just threw Eva into the deep end. Is Graves going to try to involve Victor in order to get him -- cop to cop -- to convince Eva to save herself by turning against Gideon?

 Sylvia said the abuser was not Dr. Lucas, who is a pediatrician - she confirmed that in a spoiler question answer some time ago.  She hasn't confirmed one way or the other whether it was the doctoral student. Reflected in You strongly suggests the doctoral psychology student was the abuser. We will learn the identity in Entwined, Sylvia has promised.

Eva talks to her Dad on the phone every Saturday, but there's no mention she spoke with him the weekend after he had gone home (i.e. the Saturday of the "spa day" -- one week to the day after Eva dumped Gideon). Maybe because Eva was out with Cary, Monica and Stanton that evening, Victor tried to reach her but just got her cell. Or maybe he skipped talking to her for a reason -- wanting to hold off because he was in the middle of still doing his own investigation, and wanted to wait until he had his ducks in a row to talk to Eva -- maybe talk to her in person by flying back to New York.

 I'm sure his alarm bells went off. But as far as his own daughter went, Victor instantly saw by her reactions exactly what the detectives saw -- Eva wasn't involved in any way, shape or form. Graves and her partner crossed Eva right off their list.  Victor already started investigating -- investigating Gideon -- after Eva went to bed. When the cops were there, they asked Gideon about his whereabouts Thursday. Gideon avoided talking about that in front of Eva, instead going off with the cops. Victor found out Gideon was partying with Corrine. He also would have found out all about the media feeding frenzy that Gideon was dating Corrine again.  Note: the very short "Page 6" story Eva saw was really bland, just saying where and when the party was, and the caption was tame too, just giving Corrine's name. However, the photograph itself was anything but tame. I think Victor chose that particular story and picture to show Eva for two reasons: 1. it confirmed exactly where Gideon was on Thursday. 2. any other story online probably would have been a lot uglier for Eva.  For plot purposes, that bland story is crucial. It's obviously a press release Gideon's people gave the New York Daily News (which runs the celebrity gossip feature Page 6) sometime after 9 p.m., close to deadline so that the paper would run it as is. Because it said exactly what Gideon needed the cops to read -- between 6-9 p.m. he was at a work party. That was his alibi. His arm wrapped around Corrine was a two-fer, to protect him against motive - Corrine, not Eva, was the serious woman in his life, so he had no motive to want to kill Nathan.  I'll bet that based on that story and photo, the cops would have simply concluded "he has an alibi, and because he'd already left Eva for his ex fiancee, he doesn't have motive either." The cops would have quickly crossed him off the suspect list. He could have simply waited a little bit longer to make sure the coast was clear, then dump Corrine and go back to Eva. Um, no, didn't happen.

 Yes, my number one spoiler question is concerns the whole brunette fixation!!!! Did the brunette fixation extend beyond dating into the bedroom (well, hotel room in Mr. Cross' case)????  We know that prior to Eva, Gideon dated only brunettes. Before Eva, were all the women he bedded brunettes too? By this, I mean that when he was feeling h**** and decided to take women up on offers, did he always pick brunettes? (Yes, yes, I know Anne Lucas was a redhead, but that was a revenge f*** not desire, so she doesn't count as one of Gideon's many casual sex partners.)  Eva's gut is telling her Gideon f***** Deanna Johnson in the past, so I'm hoping we might finally get some answers about his history between the sheets before Eva.  Other questions I have:  What did Angus do that earned such loyalty and trust from Gideon? Was Gideon into BDSM with Corrine -- was that the REAL dealbreaker for her, not the malarkey "Oh Gideon won't stay the night with me, boo, hoo, poor little me)? Did Gideon's father kill himself at home -- and was 5-year-old Gideon home at the time Geoffrey Cross blew his own head off?

 When someone dies in a hotel room, most of the the time it is housekeeping that finds the body. If this was the case here, housekeeping would have shown up sometime mid-late morning most likely.