LN Cronan

 Deanna would keep Lucas' name out of it, just like she promised to keep Eva's name out of it.  Yes, Lucas would violate medical ethics and actually the law by leaking Gideon's mental health history to an outsider, most especially a journalist bent on using the information to hurt Gideon. But if it's true Lucas was involved in the original cover-up of the reports Gideon may have been being abused, already Lucas has violated medical ethics and the law. He was ethically and legally required to report the mere accusations to child protective services, so that an outside investigation could have been conducted, instead of cooperating with a privately-hushed-up investigation by Gideon's family.  Gideon's already got a reputation as being a playboy billionaire with a string of socialites. That doesn't harm him. What I think Johnson hopes to accomplish is to give him a bad reputation as a real piece of s*** who actually mentally and emotionally abuses women.

 I see the fact that Eva did not immediately go out and start sleeping around as proof that she did not break apart over Gideon. If anything had the power to eff her up permanently, it would have been what Gideon did to her. Indeed, toward the end of the relationship, Cary was afraid her relationship with Gideon was going to mess her up for good. Had Eva's full set of demons taken over, that kiss with Brett would have been mild in comparison to what she might have pulled next. And she'd have done more than go out to eat with some guy - she'd have taken him home to bed knowing full well Gideon was having her followed and so would find out about it.  She came out of the break-up with some of her old wounds torn right open, but she didn't fall apart. Instead, she licked her own wounds in order to start the process of letting them close back up again and heal as best they could.

Eva and Gideon both have people in their lives who care deeply for each of them and want each of them to be happy. But right now, I think only Angus and Ireland still believe Eva and Gideon can make one another happy. As things now stand, Cary believes Gideon would continue to make Eva miserable, and Arnoldo believes Eva would only hurt Gideon even more than she already did.

 Angus most definitely. Angus saw from the start how good Eva was for Gideon and how much they loved one another. And I think Angus is the only one who actually knows the full truth about why it is Gideon and Eva's relationship began collapsing in the days leading up to Nathan's killing - because I think Angus helped Gideon do it. Angus is probably not happy with Gideon, however, for the decisions Gideon made concerning Eva. But I'll bet Angus probably watched Gideon cry on his way home from the police station the morning Eva dumped him, and Angus has had a front row seat of seeing how much pain Gideon has been in.  Ireland too. Eva and Magdalene are probably the one two women Gideon ever dated that Ireland has even met. Ireland's intuitive enough to see what Gideon had with Eva was something special, something magic, whereas with Magdalene, it was just platonic dating. Ireland barely knows Gideon. Eva went out of her way to get Gideon to make Ireland part of their (Gideon and Eva's) life.  Cary right now is probably pretty disgusted with Gideon for having broken Eva's heart, but ultimately, Cary will come around.  Arnoldo right now is probably pretty disgusted with Eva over the Brett incident, especially because Arnoldo would (falsely) believe the Brett episode hurt Gideon so badly he can't forgive Eva for it. Gideon dumped Eva that night and then almost immediately ran to Corrine for comfort, so badly hurt was Gideon, is what Arnoldo probably believes. Arnoldo will come around ultimately as well.  Monica? Probably still hoping for Gideon and Eva to reconcile, because Gideon would, in Monica's eyes, be the perfect husband for her daughter.  Mark/Steven/Shawna are probably hoping Eva will get over Gideon.

 Gideon was emotionally effed up as a kid because of the repeated traumas he suffered. He already had problems even before he got raped. I'm pretty certain Lucas has inside information about Gideon's mental health issues from when Gideon was a boy and a teenager.  Lucas is firmly convinced Gideon is messed up because Gideon is just plain evil, born that way - a sociopath, narcissist, misogynist. Lucas is convinced Gideon emotionally abuses women for the sheer evil pleasure of it. Of course, Lucas' opinion is deeply prejudiced by how Gideon hurt his (Lucas') wife Anne. Because what Gideon did to her actually was kind of evil. He didn't do it because he himself is evil -- he did it because he's got some flaws that drove him to do it. Afterward, Gideon felt deep remorse though, recognizing the whole Anne episode was not one of his finest moments.  I think that prior to this summer that the saga unfolds, Lucas never had any opportunity to mess up Gideon's love life in revenge for Gideon having messed up the Lucas' marriage. But then Eva came along, and it was obvious Gideon was crazy about her in a way he'd never been for any other woman. So Lucas set to work on undermining that by trying to poison Eva's mind against Gideon. Now I think Lucas believes an even better opportunity for revenge has come along - Gideon himself is now on the track toward finally getting married, but Lucas would like to try to nuke Gideon's chances at marrying Corrine. Lucas' plot may be to create a scandal about how Gideon mistreats women.

 Gideon planned the Vegas trip before Nathan showed up in his office. That Nathan visit happened lunchtime. Before work that morning was when Gideon told Eva he needed to go to Arizona on business and wanted her to come with him -- specifically giving one of the reasons as he worried about her safety, given her new near-celebrity status. As his girlfriend, she was now famous in her own way. Eva didn't want to abandon the in-crisis Cary to go away with Gideon, so the pair of them compromised: Eva could spend the weekend with Cary, but do so in Vegas at one of Gideon's hotels.  In Vegas, Eva found out to her dismay Gideon had put very tight security on her. She assumed it was because of his jealous nature. In fact, it was because he'd suddenly found out Nathan was in the picture and thus Eva was in specific danger from that maniac, not just general danger as a magnet to celebrity-fixated nuts.

One thing to add: Gideon never intended to rip open her old rape victim wounds. That was never part of his plan. But his plan spun out of control. Once she found out about the pictures and video Nathan had possessed -- something Gideon never, ever wanted her to find out about -- that knowledge combined with him pushing her away at the time, made her assume the worst. She believed he viewed her as permanently damaged goods.

When I re-read, in Chapter Fifteen, the scene in which Eva and Gideon fought, it made me put into a larger context the fact that Eva has reacted differently each time Gideon distanced himself from her. Sometimes, her reaction was healthy, and other times her old dysfunctional patterns completely took over. Here are three examples.  Situation: Gideon mistreating her on their first date by emotionally freezing her out. Response: Healthy. Gideon had wanted strangers with benefits - just f******. Eva negotiated friends with benefits. But given what happened immediately after they did have sex, Eva concluded Gideon couldn't handle combining sex with any additional emotional involvement. So her decision was to cut him off, because she felt they'd be bad for one another. (Of course, Gideon worked hard to persuade her to give him a shot, this time as boyfriend, not friend with benefits.)  Situation: Gideon lied to her about the nightmares and then dumped her -- did so very coldly, sending her a note instead of at least having the courage to break it off face to face. Response: Unhealthy. four days later when they did come face to face, and things quickly got tense, Eva reverted to her "wound and run" pattern that Dr. Travis had worked so hard to try to break her of. She literally ran away, and when he caught up with her, she turned verbally vicious. Then she got violent: she slapped him hard enough to snap his head, and bit him hard enough to draw blood. I viewed this as a glimpse into the Old Eva that ended up being persuaded by her Dad to get some help.  Situation: Gideon froze her out and started taking Corrine out again. Response: Mixed: both healthy and unhealthy. The good part of her response had been to finally put a stop to his mistreating her. She dumped him because he hadn't had the decency to end things face to face before he (so she believed) full-fledged got back together with Corrine, romantically and sexually. The bad response, though, was to beat herself up with the belief she was permanently damaged goods because of Nathan. She actually forgave Gideon for what she believed (wrongly) was a perfectly acceptable reason for him to reject her sexually. She cut him some slack for his own issues, but she did so at the cost of her own self-esteem. This, actually, is what I view as the deepest damage Gideon did to her when he totally mishandled the whole situation. He ripped open some of her rape victim wounds.

 My theory is he hugs her hello and good-bye, and possibly even kissed her a couple of times in order to manipulate her. Not the deep, passionate kisses Gideon gives Eva (and that Eva gave Brett that one time.) But kissed her a couple of times in order to keep Corrine in the limbo he needs her to be. He'd have trouble if she tried to force things by either threatening to walk away or demanding sex. As long as he can keep her in that middle ground, making her think she's making slow progress, he can keep her where he desperately needs her to stay -- and to stave off any ultimatums she might try.  We know definitely though, that he has touched her in a way that goes beyond what "just friends" would involve. In that party picture, he had his arm around her lower waist and his lips almost to her face. The pair of them were very deep into one another's personal spaces, way beyond what "just friends" would go into personal space. And Eva caught him red-handed (pun intended) with his hand at the small of Corrine's back, when he and Corrine walked out of the Crossfire two days before Entwined started. Putting a hand at the small of someone else's back is a sexually-proprietary gesture, a gesture Gideon started pulling with Eva that very first week he started in on her, trying to seduce her.  So yes, on a low-grade level, Gideon has been physical with Corrine and thus untrue to Eva. But she got physical on a more serious  level with Brett, so she's not exactly blameless in the ex-lover department.

Too, among the many people 100% convinced there is no Eva and Gideon is Brett along with Cary.  I think Cary definitely is on Team Brett right now. As far as Cary knows, Brett's only past sin was a history of being promiscious (something Cary's never gonna hold against Brett, given that Cary likes to screw around himself.) The worse Brett did was view Eva as just another groupie at a time when Eva wanted to be Brett's girlfriend. Well now, Brett's been making it crystal clear he wants a full-fledged relationship with Eva.  Yes, Cary knows Eva is still in love with Gideon. And Cary did see some of the happiness Eva had when things went well with Gideon. But Cary's also seen Gideon suffers from sexually violent nightmares that have proven to be a threat to Eva's physical and mental safety. He's seen how much Eva suffered when things were going badly between her and Gideon. And he watched from the sidelines as Gideon coldly broke Eva's heart.  Eva's still working through her post-break-up issues with Gideon. She's still processing what happened, and Cary, ever a sympathetic ear and sounding board for his BFF, is listening to Eva without judging her. But inside, I'm convinced Cary truly hopes things really are finished this time between Eva and Gideon. And waiting in the wings is Mr. Rebound, someone who could once again rock Eva's world sexually and who would treat Eva with respect. I think Cary will try to do what he can to help Brett get a shot at what Cary believes Gideon threw away with both hands.

 Yes, everyone thinks there no longer is any Eva and Gideon. Not only all those strangers who avidly follow Gideon as a celebrity and can't get enough of his billionaire playboy lovelife, but even people close to Eva and Gideon. Cary himself thinks that's true -- and judging from what we saw in Chapter One, Eva is going to keep him in the dark, because she feels she has to -- to ensure keeping the secret Gideon killed Nathan.  So everyone who knows Eva believes she is struggling to heal her seriously broken heart. And everyone believes Corrine and Gideon got back together. Eva's shielded herself from reading any more coverage of Gideon's lovelife, but certainly there's probably been wild speculation Corrine is poised to become Mrs. Gideon Cross. The billionaire playboy has finally been landed by the long-lost love of his life.  It's ironic that now a reporter who Gideon probably hurt is probably seeking revenge by planning to mess up, among other things, Gideon's relationship with Corrine. I think Deanna wants to nuke Gideon's plans to finally get married. And I think Eva's gut reaction, that Dr. Terry Lucas is somehow involved, is dead on. Lucas did what he could to try to mess up Gideon's dating relationship with Eva. I think Lucas is bound and determined to try to help destroy what he would view as Gideon's marriage plans with Corrine.  Lucas knows stuff about Gideon's past. He's always been convinced Gideon is a seriously mentally ill man - ill as in being a ruthless hater of women and manipulative S of a B who gets off on hurting women. Lucas probably does have a lot of inside knowledge about how genuinely screwed up Gideon was as a kid and teen-ager (which Gideon was -- damage done by his father's death already messed him up, causing among other things a serious anger problem. Then Gideon got raped, which would have made matters worse. Throw on top of the pile the fact Gideon's own mother was convinced he was a messed up little liar, not a sexual assault victim, and that would have further messed up the poor kid.)  My theory is a Lucas is pulling Johnson's strings to create an expose of who the "real" Gideon Cross is underneath. He wants to paint Gideon as a disturbed individual. And just as Gideon appears poised to soon get married, Lucas wants to portray Gideon as an emotional abuser of women.

Chapter A Day Re-Read Project - Today is Chapter Sixteen of Bared  This chapter unfolds Sunday (day 14)  Key plot developments: This chapter continues one of the longer scenes in the book, Gideon and Eva in the library at his parents' library. In the last chapter, he'd begged her to give him another chance, and they had make-up sex. In this chapter, they continue making love. But this time, both of them are -- at Eva's request -- testing limits. It's the start of the dominant-submissive dynamic. Later that night, Gideon would directly broach the subject with Eva: he's a dom and she's a sub. An important early clue about what's behind Gideon's sexually violent nightmares comes out -- something happened to him in that library sometime in the past. This chapter is the first time we see Gideon interact with his mother and his sister, showing he's distanced himself from his mother and is a stranger to his teen-aged sister.  Once each of us has read Chapter Sixteen, our homework assignment from Sylvia herself is for each of us to pick our favorite quote or paragraph. (Of course, tearing ourselves away, if possible, from Chapter One and the part of Chapter Two of Entwined that got released yesterday. SQUEEEEE!!!!  The chapter re-reads also have been the springboard here for lots of discussion. We're continuing to touch upon the chapter of the day, but even more, discussion has been jumping backward into the earlier chapters and forward in the story (even into Reflected and the Entwined snippets) as the re-reading leads us to analyze how different parts of the Crossfire saga have been connecting.

Chapter Fifteen of Bared To You - The Readers Guide  This chapter starts Friday (day 12) and goes into Sunday (day 14)  Key plot developments: Gideon ended four days of zero contact with Eva on Sunday, tracking her down at the afternoon party his family was holding at their estate. Gideon begged Eva for another chance, sorry about how things had gone Wednesday night (her walking out on him) and Thursday (him dumping her via a "Dear Jane" note.) As a show of his commitment to work on their relationship problems, he'd entered individual therapy and had set up couples therapy. They made love in the library of his parents' mansion.  New characters: Gideon's family members were mentioned in passing earlier in the novel, but previously, only his half-brother showed up directly in a scene. In Chapter Fifteen, the rest of Gideon's family members appear directly for the first time: Elizabeth Vidal Christopher Vidal Sr. Ireland Vidal  Eva (and Cary) meet Gideon's family Eva went through with going to the music industry party for Vidal Records held Sunday afternoon on the grounds of the Vidal estate, the party Gideon's half-brother invited her (and Cary) to. At the time she accepted the invitation, Thursday, she hadn't yet been dumped by Gideon - that happened later Thursday. Eva went through with the party because she'd been told Gideon never attends such events, so she wasn't afraid of running into him. Looking at the Vidals lined up, she realized Gideon strongly resembles his beautiful mother, especially in coloring. His half-sister looks like their mother too. Christopher Vidal Sr. comes as a surprise - looking more like a "college professor than a music company executive." (page 220). Christopher Jr. resembles his father, not his mother. Elizabeth came off as too touchy-feely for Eva's comfort level, to the point where Eva's anxiety level about people touching her got triggered. Christopher Sr. comes across as harmless. Christopher Jr. continued to flirt with Eva. From the questions Ireland asked Eva, it became clear Ireland barely even knows Gideon. He'd moved out when she was little, and he's obviously had next to no contact since then. Interesting is that Vidal Records isn't a privately-held family business. It's a publicly-traded company, which means it's owned by shareholders. The biggest shareholder - Gideon. He owns so many shares he's got controlling interest of the company. This raises Cary's eyebrows - what's up with that. It's something Eva would wonder about too: what is Gideon's motive for getting control of his stepfather's business.  Gideon shows up unannounced Eva was startled on the dance floor to find an angry Gideon had marched up to her, demanding to know why she's there -- and telling her he doesn't want her to be. It would turn out he's angry not at her but at the fact she's at the Vidal family home. To Gideon, his parents and half-brother are poison, his half-sister is a stranger, and no way does he want Eva anywhere near the Vidals. He's mad because he's afraid for her. However, Eva most definitely interpreted things as him being angry she'd dare try something to continue to try insinuate herself into his life despite the fact he'd rejected her for good. She ran away from him with the goal to reach the safety of the car before she start crying and have the driver take her home (her mother's driver brought her and Cary.) He caught her as she fled, and so she turned her bitter fury on him, her insecurities raging, saying vicious things to wound him. She was so upset that her anger problem escalated to physical violence. She slapped him very hard across the face, and when he tried to kiss her, she bit him hard enough to draw blood. Trying with his body to say communicate the feelings he couldn't verbally, he carried her into the library. There the fight went out of her. It took him continuing to kiss her and hold her to get her to calm down enough to talk.  Gideon's side of the story He thought she ran out on him Wednesday over disgust about the nightmare she saw. He didn't know how to handle it. He expected she'd come back -- even despite what he'd done Thursday. He didn't understand it actually was a break-up. He went after her Sunday because he couldn't stand being apart from her any longer. He was bound and determined to make her want him again. Gideon sought out Dr. Petersen on Friday for a consultation. Petersen agreed to take Gideon on as an individual patient -- and if Eva is willing, Petersen also would accept them for couple's therapy. Then he begged Eva with his body as well as his words, making love to her there in the library. In the middle of it, unbeknownst to him but spotted by Eva, Magdalene walked in on the pair of them, saw what Gideon was doing to Eva, and ran.  Eva's side of the story She told him the real reason she left that night was because he lied to her and shut her out. She thought they were over, because he dumped her. When he learned the lying -- not the nightmare -- was how he screwed up, he promised to try to let her in. But he pointed out, truthfully, her tendency to run away is how she in turn keeps screwing things up between them. Unbeknownst to her, his own big issue is abandonment. " .... your first response when I screw up is to run away. You do it every time and I can't stand feeling like any moment, I'm going to do or say something wrong, and you're going to bolt." (page 226-227). When he told her this, she realized he's right - her runners are as much of a problem as his shutting down. She gave him the hard truth - they need real help, because they're seriously dysfunctional and cannot keep going on through the highs and low. The end result of their talk is to agree to get professional help via Dr. Petersen.  In the news Even out in San Diego, via the media grapevine, word reached Eva's father that she supposedly was dating Gideon Cross - something she denied. (With honesty - she and her Dad spoke Saturday night, she and Gideon already were broken up.) The media frenzy surrounding Eva helped Cary's own career, because he'd come up in some of the stories as supposedly another one of Eva's boyfriends. Thanks to her, Cary was a hot commodity.

 Interesting observation that both Gideon and Corrine are guilty of manipulating situations. Both of them very calculatedly hurt Eva.  Gideon did it because he believed he had to for Eva's own protection: her physical safety (eliminate the Nathan threat to her life forever) and her legal safety (make sure that if he got caught, she wouldn't go down with him too for having been involved.) But there were selfish motivations in there too -- trying to control her so that he could forever shut her out of yet another set of his dark secrets, and to keep her waiting in the wings for him. Especially to keep her in limbo because an ex-lover, Brett, was after her.  Start to finish, Gideon really screwed up on many different levels. If he felt he absolutely had to create a safety-zone between him and Eva, and to use Corrine as a cover story to protect himself from motive, then he ought to have had the decency to have asked Eva for a break in their relationship. Let her assume he wanted to attempt to work through his unfinished business with Corrine. Yes, Eva would have been insecure and jealous, but she also might be more apt to believe Gideon was staying platonic with Corrine. He'd have stood a much better chance of getting Eva back, as soon as the coast was clear, by kicking Corrine out of his life permanently and telling Eva he wants her (Eva) as his wife.  Instead, Gideon tried to manipulate Eva's emotions and sent her mixed messages that just made matters worse, leaving her writhing. Then he lost control of the situation when she found out about the rape photos and assumed the worse -- including that he was a cheating coward. His attempt to keep her on hold blew up in his face and broke her heart.  He's got to now live with the ramifications of that for a long time. Even though she knows now why he felt he had to do it, she also knows he committed a form of emotional violence toward her -- he very calculatedly used her own feelings of love to manipulate her and hurt her. She knows he's capable of it, and she's afraid it could happen again. There he was, so afraid she'd think he was a violent person because of Nathan. In fact, she's now afraid he's capable of emotional abuse.  As for Corrine, her motives for hurting Eva were entirely selfish. She very carefully laid out a plan to destroy Gideon's new relationship. Corrine hurt Gideon too -- Corrine sparked some very serious fights between Eva and Gideon and undermined Eva's trust in him. And triggered very deep demons inside of Eva, which prompted Eva to fall into old destructive patters. Like slapping Gideon, pulling runners, turning to an old lover to get revenge. Corrine, of course, had no way of knowing the basis for Eva's awful insecurity problem. All Corrine knew is that Eva did have a serious problem, and Corrine used it as a weapon.  Even if Gideon does the decent thing of letting Corrine down gently as he can as soon as it's safe for him to do so, still Corrine is going to come out of this situation devastated. Gideon's actions led her to believe she'd succeeded in winning him back. He even let the whole world believe it. I'm willing to bet, too, he's been brutally manipulating her ever since he became chief suspect in Nathan's killing. The week before, he was taking her out as a friend. Now he's got her believing she's his girlfriend. They may not be sleeping together yet, but they are a couple once again. When what's really going to happen is Gideon is going to reject her for Eva. Years ago, Corrine had walked away voluntarily. This time she's going to get rejected -- and thrown out of Gideon's life forever. She won't even have friendship left. She bet it all, and she's going to lose it all.

 Johnson's definitely gunning for Gideon, not Eva, digging up stuff on his "dark past." All she wants out of Eva is more dirt on Gideon -- specifically dirt on how Gideon used Eva to make Corrine jealous enough to run back to him. Johnson has every reason to believe Eva was another one of Gideon's rejects.  Johnson's counting on Eva jumping at a chance to get even with Gideon. Eva's probably correct in her suspicion that Johnson herself wants revenge on Gideon for also having been one of his sexual rejects. Apparently, the thought of Gideon and Corrine getting married is upsetting -- someone wants to try to nuke things. My bet: Dr. Lucas is behind it -- from the night he saw Corrine and Gideon with one another again (the fundraiser Corrine crashed) Lucas started plotting how to ruin Gideon's would-be-marriage in revenge for Gideon having all but ruined the Lucas' marriage.

 And it's sometime more than a week but less than two between the time Corrine showed up back in New York and Gideon started taking her out again. Things were going OK between Gideon and Eva, but their relationship disappeared from public view - disappeared because (unknown to Eva) Nathan had come to New York. In fact, it was noontime the day after the fundraiser fiasco that Nathan was in Gideon's office. As part of Gideon's increased protection of Eva, the pair of them went into low profile mode.  So anyone relying on public photos proving Gideon was dating Eva -- the last photos that exist are red carpet shots of them walking into that fundraiser. The whole crowd inside would have seen the celebrity Gideon spend an inordinate amount of time with Corrine while ignoring Eva. Some people could be led to believe that night was the new beginning for Corrine and Gideon and the beginning of the end for Eva and Gideon.  No wonder that nasty Deanna thinks that all along, Gideon had plotted to successfully lure Corrine to return to New York, now that Corrine's marriage had fallen apart. Got himself photographed for a couple of weeks with some hot blonde, then Corrine comes back, and ..... well.

Part of the fun of going over each novel (Bared and Reflected) one chapter per day is I'm building a master timeline. Here's the Bared to You timeline.  Week one: Gideon spent Monday through Friday chasing Eva in vain. Saturday, he got her -- and immediately lost her. Week two: Gideon spent Monday through Wednesday being a boyfriend. Then he dumped her Thursday. Week three (partial): on Sunday, Gideon convinced Eva to take him back. That's where we currently stand, reading Chapter 15 today. Later this week (Wednesday night) is when Bared to You ends.  So the whole early part of their relationship ran about 2 1/2 weeks.

 It's been only about heading toward three weeks that Gideon has been seeing Corrine again, not three weeks he'd been with Eva.  He and Eva became involved with one another while Corrine was still over in France.  It's possible they may have spoken on the phone after that fundraiser fiasco, but Gideon obviously didn't see Corrine since he left her sitting there at the dinner table to race after Eva. He continued to spend all his free time with Eva, up to and including that weekend away to North Carolina.  Timeline for Corrine going out with Gideon again: Monday - Gideon finds out Nathan beat up Cary. He took Corrine out that night so that a photographer could see them together, and it's probable he leaked her identity as his former fiancee so that the news would get out right away -- would get out to Nathan, to help defuse Nathan while Gideon desperately figured out what to do next. Thursday - Gideon takes Corrine as his date to the party, making sure they get photographed together. This is the night Nathan died. Saturday - Eva dumpes Gideon after seeing the picture of him and Corrine together at the party. Eight day stretch - Gideon has no contact with Eva after she called him to dump him. Also, Eva quit reading about Gideon anymore. So whatever stories and photos had been running since then, Eva never saw any of it. But Gideon almost certainly was continuing to spend time with Corrine during this time period. He had to. He was now chief suspect. Monday two weeks to the day since Gideon first took Corrine out to dinner. Gideon parades Corrine through the Crossfire lobby for the benefit of the security cameras after 5 p.m., likely to counter the fact that earlier in the day, he approached Eva in the lobby. When he walked Corrine out to his car and climbed into it with Corrine, he knew Eva had left the Crossfire for the day. Unfortunately, she hadn't left the immediate vicinity outside, and so she caught sight of him and Corrine -- and got angry, flipping him off. Wednesday night: this is where we now stand. And from what that evil reporter said to Eva, the whole world knows Gideon is back with Corrine.  Eva and Gideon's involvement has gone on longer than three weeks.Â

 Gideon broke more than her heart. He broke her trust. She's right to still be leery. They're still trapped in the middle of the whole mess. Quite frankly, it'd be unhealthy for her to just "let it all go." She's got gaping, bleeding wounds still, that need healing. To just let it go would be denial -- it'd be shoving that pain down deep inside to fester, and then grow malignant.  Part of healing her broken heart is to process the emotions, which include a lot of anger. Thank God Eva has, through the help of therapy, developed ways of doing so. Though she still sometimes slips into her older, destructive patterns, there are other times when "New Eva" is the one who prevails, the healthy part of her.  And New Eva definitely had come out as she faced Gideon. Here's my thoughts on a key part of the conversation:    â€œYou cut me off. Shut me out. You and me–†Eva telling him what he did to her was wrong.  â€œForever.†His fingertips pressed against my parted lips. “It’s over, Eva. Don’t argue about something that’s too late to change.†Gideon didn't want to go there. Probably because he was scared she was about to say she'd never forgive him for it. He'd pushed her away permanently.  I brushed his hand away. “Is it over? Can we be together now, or are we still hiding our relationship from the police? Are we even in a relationship?†Eva refused to let the matter drop. She demanded an answer from him - has Gideon decided, as part of killing Nathan to save her life, that they can never be together again. After all, Gideon on his own had decided to call all the shots, giving her no choice in the matter. Is the choice he made, which still stands, that he'll stay away forever.  Gideon held my gaze, hiding nothing, letting me see his pain and fear. “That’s what I’m here to ask you.†Gideon's the one who actually needs the answer here -- ARE they finished as a couple forever? He's lost all control of the situation now. As recently as the day before, he'd been promising Eva he was going to go back to her as soon as he could, when whatever reason he had stayed away was done. Now he's scared the door has been slammed forever shut. There's no more "wait." It's "done."  â€œIf it’s up to me, I’ll never let you go,†I said vehemently. “Never.†Eva's angry she never got any say in the matter. She believes she still hasn't got a say in the matter.  Gideon’s hands slid down my throat to my shoulders, blazing a hot trail across my skin. “I need that to be true,†he said softly. “I was afraid you’d run… that you’d be afraid. Of me.†Gideon's terrified he's the one who lost all say in the matter. This is his worst nightmare.  â€œGideon, no–†It dawned on Eva what he's scared of - that the violent thing he'd done would mean she'd never feel safe around him again. She's now stopped arguing, recognizing what's really going on here. Yes, she still is entitled to a lot of answers out of him concerning how he emotionally mistreated her, but he's in front of her asking the hardest questions of his life.  â€œI would never hurt you.†He's begging her to not be afraid of him. But he's so convinced she is -- how could she not be.  I caught the waistband of his sweats and tugged, even though I couldn’t budge him. “I know that.†She's trying to convince him she isn't physically afraid of him ever raising a hand to her.  And physically, I had no doubts; he’d always been careful with me, always cautious. But emotionally, my love had been used against me with meticulous precision. I was struggling with reconciling the absolute trust I had in Gideon’s awareness of my needs and the wariness that came from a shattered heart still healing. Inside, she's convinced he's not capable of violence against her. But she knows he's more than capable of mentally/emotionally harming her, has already in fact very deliberately done it to her. So she's scared of that - scared of his control pattern, which including manipulating her in order to control her.  â€œDo you?†He searched my face, as attuned as always to what wasn’t said. “Letting you go would kill me, but I wouldn’t hurt you to keep you.†He can see in her face, in her eyes, that a part of her is afraid of him emotionally. He no longer deserves her trust. So he's letting her know he's not going to try to manipulate her anymore as part of what's still going on, try to force her emotionally to do what he wants. If she wants out, he'll set her free. She won't have to spend the rest of her life being followed by him.  â€œI don’t want to go anywhere.†Yeesh, what's it going to take to convince the man Eva is staying put this time. She's not going to run anymore. She doesn't want him gone for good. She wants him.   He exhaled audibly. “My lawyers will be talking to the police tomorrow, to get a feel for where things stand.†OK, so he's kinda convinced now she actually may mean it when she says she still wants him. So now he's switching to practical matters - what's being done about the criminal case, the big mess that now they're both in.  Tilting my head back, I pressed my lips gently to his. We were colluding to hide a crime, and I’d be lying if I said that didn’t seriously bother me – I was the daughter of a police officer, after all – but the alternative was too awful to consider. She understands now she's actively playing a role, after the fact, in Gideon's plan to get away with what he did. She's got two choices now - help him or stand back while the cops take him down.  â€œI have to know that you can live with what I’ve done,†he said softly, wrapping my hair around his finger. He's being realistic here. Even though she says she still wants him, what has happened could eat away at her, eat away at them. Can she spend the rest of her life with someone who killed a person?  â€œI think so. Can you?†She's being honest. She's pretty sure she can. Certainly, she's willing to try. She wants to know if he thinks that he in turn can live with what he'd done.  His mouth found mine again. “I can survive anything if I have you.†As long as he has her, nothing else matters. He'll get through anything.

 Whatever was contained in that interview Brett gave the radio station in Florida four days prior to Entwined opening, Cary knows exactly what was said. Cary read an actual transcript. Gideon obviously did too. And it's possible other media have already started picking up on that original interview, now sniffing around for more stuff. Eva Trammell and Brett Kline is such a yummy story!!!! If Cary's caught wind of any of that, he hasn't said a word about it to Eva. And, of course, Eva has been avoiding reading anything about Gideon/Corrine -- so she's also been avoiding reading any of the stories that included her in them, as in how Gideon dumped her. Thus Eva also wouldn't have looked for any stories that mention her, period. Brett's probably out there talking about "Golden" now. And if he's not, his band members probably are. They saw the whole fight, and they also know all about Eva's and Brett's shared history back four years ago in San Diego.

I'm wondering whether Corrine is desperately thinking up ways to further mess with Eva, because of what happened two days before Entwined starts. Â All Corrine knew is that for at least two-plus weeks, Eva was GONE and Gideon was now taking her (Corrine) out again, the only woman he was spending time with. Just when Corrine thought she'd succeeded in driving Eva away forever, Eva shows up on her doorstep. Corrine now knows Eva saw right through all of her (Corrine's) machinations. But Corrine also still has every reason to believe that Gideon isn't even talking to Eva right now, much less spending any time with Eva. Â Corrine's thus got some room to pull something, gambling on the fact she'd get away with it (well, get away with it as far as Gideon is concerned, and he's the only one who counts.)

 Too, this long-overdue conversation is going to be about more than just Corrine -- it's going to be about Brett too. Eva (and thus we readers) probably will hear about how incredibly jealous and insecure Gideon has been too over Brett.  Because Eva deliberately hurt Gideon by taking Brett out to lunch -- she did it for immediate retaliation over Gideon having taken Corrine out to dinner. Gideon and Eva never got to even talk about how she hurt him. Two wrongs don't make a right. And what exactly does Gideon now know about Brett that scared him (Gideon) so much he took that huge risk of approaching Eva in that crowded elevator, breaking more than a week of for-their-own-safety absolute zero contact? Why was Gideon so scared that he put the promise ring back on Eva's hand and begged her "wait." Eva may have kept her head in the sand about Brett, but I'm sure Gideon hasn't.

 I'm sure Eva's going to tell Gideon all about her run-in downstairs with Deanna Johnson -- after she (Eva) and Gideon are done having lots of make-up sex. I'll bet Eva will ask, too, whether Deanna is an ex-lover, and thus has an especially big ax to gring. Plus, given what Deanna said about Corrine, I think this will be when Gideon and Eva have the long-overdue talk about what's been going on with Corrine all these weeks -- and exactly what went on with Eva and Brett when she took him out to lunch.

 I think that what Lucas saw at the fundraiser the night Corrine crashed it convinced him (probably convinced a lot of other people there too) that Gideon was beside himself happy Corrine was there. Lucas starting asking himself "How can I mess things up for Cross?" Gideon and Eva disappeared for a short time - had a big fight in private? Gideon ignored Eva in favor of Corrine throughout dinner (yes, he did -- the idiot!) When Lucas called Gideon on the fact he (Gideon) was so focused on Mrs. Giroux that he totally ignored Eva, Eva agreed with Lucas right to Gideon's face. Then she left. Gideon never took Eva out in high society again. No more fundraisers. No more photos of them in public. A couple of weeks later, Lucas ran into Eva at the hospital (while Cary was a patient.) She looked awful and Lucas intuitively sensed  Gideon was making Eva deeply unhappy (which Gideon actually WAS at the time -- he was already going out with Corrine again, online photos/stories showed.) Lucas probably thought something along these lines: OK, Corrine came back, and within a couple of weeks, she and Cross got back together for good. They're possibly engaged again in all but name -- they're just waiting for her divorce to go through. Cross is going to marry Corrine. So Cross thinks -- hah!! I've got his number. It's payback time. I'm going to expose him for the misogynist and sociopath he is. I know of at least one woman he screwed over, Deanna Johnson, who would be interested in what I happen to know about Cross' teen-aged years. I'm going to nuke his plans to marry Corrine.  I'm not sure if Lucas had time to speak with Deanna yet about Gideon fetching Eva from his (Lucas') office. The incident happened Tuesday morning. Deanna looked up Eva on Wednesday evening. It's possible, but on the other hand, Eva showed Tuesday that she's fully prepared to dig into Lucas' own background of Lucas' involvement with the Vidal family.