LN Cronan

We are about two thirds of the way into the novel now -- usually crisis city. Â Bared Chapter 14-15: He dumped her in Chapter 14 rather than talk about his violent sexual nightmares. In Chapter 15, he "rescues" her from the clutches of his family at the Vidal's garden party. Â Reflected Chapter 14-15: Eva reaches her agony point over Gideon pulling away from her while openly spending time with Corrine again. Chapter 15 starts with what would turn out to be Thursday that Gideon kills Nathan, and the chapter ends with the cliff-hanger in Eva's apartment the following night: the cops telling her Nathan was found dead.

 Because the NYPD investigation has something to do with Chapter 14. Stress could be a trigger that sparks a nightmare in Chapter 15.

 Corrine never stood a chance at a second relationship with Gideon. She never was in the race to begin with.  But at least Magdalene came to her senses that all she (Magdalene) ever had was friendship that crossed over into platonic dating for social purposes. The only relationships where Gideon ever combined sex and dating were Corrine, his first attempt, and then Eva, the love who broke through every boundary he'd never, ever been able to break through before.

#15Â http://www.sylviaday.com/2013/05/06/entwined-snapshot-15/ Â Man's hand (must be Gideon's) gripping a bedsheet. Â More hot sex, I hope, not a nightmare.

Magdalene knew when to throw in the towel. I think she really did so right after she accidentally walked in on Gideon making love to Eva inside the Vidal mansion the afternoon of the garden party. Â As she cried to that snake Christopher Jr. immediately afterward, she told Christopher she believed Gideon was in love with Eva. Gideon definitely was treating Eva differently than any other woman, Magdalene admitted. Â We're lead to believe Magdalene really threw in the towel when Corrine came to town. But Magdalene would have already gotten that new haircut (to quit trying to look like Corrine) even before the night Corrine showed up. Corrine crashed that event unannounced. Â I think that night, when Magdalene was being so nice to Eva, Magdalene was sympathetic to the fact that Eva at last (so Magdalene would have believed) had a real rival (Corrine). Magdalene figured, correctly, she herself was out of the running, and the contest probably was now down to Eva and Corrine.

Hey Mrs. C, you always have excellent luck in getting into the snapshot/snippet site right when new stuff goes live.  Any chance tomorrow you could do a a copy/paste of the text of Entwined Chapter One and save it for if (actually when) the stampede of fans to the site suddenly swamps the server and the site goes down temporarily?  I'm going to attempt the same thing, but you seem to have better luck that even me, so if any of us here is going to succeed, it'll be you. Plus I have a medical appointment about an hour after release time, and so I'd have to tear myself away from any efforts to get into the site after the first 30 minutes of trying unsuccessfully.  I figure as an emergency aid to the hardcore fans here, if practically none of them can get in immediately after Chapter One hits would be to paste the text into this special spoiler thread you created. It'd have to be done in chunks of posts (because of maximum limits on how many characters each post here can handle.) But if worse came to worse, it will be a way for all of the fans on these threads to be able to read at the same time instead of having to keep working on trying to access http://www.sylviaday.com/category/snippet/ if it's tied up.

Even before Nathan re-entered the picture, Gideon was worried about Eva's physical security, something that was reasonable, given his celebrity status. She'd be a magnet for nuts. Him too, probably having had to deal with some past incidents of some mentally ill people fixating on him. It was reasonable to assume any crazy stranger stalking him, especially a woman, might pose a risk to her. Â Angus is an armed bodyguard in addition to driver. Eva, showing what a good person she is, struck up a conversation with Angus the first time she was alone with him -- that is the first time he was assigned to take her home after work while Gideon was elsewhere. (Previously, she'd been with Gideon each time Angus was driving, and she'd naturally been focused on Gideon.) Â The first time it was just Angus and her, she politely struck up a conversation, asking him how long he'd worked for Gideon. As they climbed into the car, she spotted the gun holster under his jacket, and instantly recognized his bodyguard status. Her own mother's driver, Clancy, also is an armed bodyguard, which is why Eva recognized the fact Angus is too. Â Interestingly though, the last time Gideon allowed himself to be photographed with Eva was walking the red carpet into the fundraiser that Corrine ended up crashing. The next day was the day when Nathan appeared in his office. Gideon was never photographed again in public with Eva, obviously because his concern for her safety level skyrocketed -- and probably because he knew right away his being with Eva was a trigger for the mentally unstable Nathan. Â An interesting twist then comes with what happened later, when Gideon started taking Corrine out places where the pair of them were photographed on "dates" (deliberate manipulation of the media on his part.) Those pictures serve as documentation of when he and Corrine definitely had "re-united." Â The prosecution wouldn't have any new photos of him and Eva that same time period. It could be twisted that the night Corrine came back to him in front of a high society crowd also was the night he "supposedly" started pulling away from Eva. Never again after that night did Eva appear on his arm on another red carpet nor out on dinner dates.

 It was blood, but on one of the cuffs of the shirt he'd been wearing, not the collar. When he'd showered in his private bathroom, he'd thrown the shirt into a hamper. Eva marched in there, fished the shirt out, saw a little bit of bright red on the cuff, concluded it was Corrine's lipstick (Corrine had been wearing bright red lipstick) and showed it to Gideon, along with the cell phone picture she'd shot of Corrine downstairs, using both the shirt and picture as evidence he was "busted."

Eva blew things as much as Gideon did right after the nightmare, I think. Her running away tapped right into his fear that if a woman knew about his deepest shame, she'd turn away in disgust. Â Trying to prevent that shame from ever getting out had been ruled the way he ran his sex life throughout adulthood. He refused to spend the night with his first lover, a refusal he kept up the two years they dated and then the third year, when they were engaged. In the end, Corrine did run away from him. Since then, he'd refused to have sex with any woman he dated, lest this can't-sleep-over pattern repeat itself with the same ending. Another full-fledged girlfriend would have the same "expectations" as Corrine. Â So he dated platonically, and when he wanted to get laid, he continued to use a hotel room for quickies. To make sure those sex relationships didn't lead to dating, he refused to even do "friends with benefits." None of those sexual relationships lasted very long either -- he'd reject every one of those short-term partners, I'm guessing the instant each sex partner showed the first sign of growing attachment. Maybe he even avoided that. Magdalene probably told Eva the truth that as soon as Gideon "stuck his d***" into a woman, he was done with her. Â Granted, he was as much at fault as Eva was during the argument. Hours earlier, he'd asked her to give him guidance about how to handle things. Here in the middle of the first crisis, she tried -- she explained what "right" answers he could have given, when pressed to talk about the nightmare. Those included talking about it later if he wasn't able to talk about it then. Even after she explained that, still he kept trying evading and lying. Â That's when she walked, which just made matters worse.

Chapter A Day Re-Read Project - Today is Chapter Fourteen of Bared  This chapter unfolds Thursday (day eleven.)  Key plot developments: Rather than open up about what's behind his sexually violent nightmares, the day after Gideon dumps Eva via a "Dear Jane" note at work rather than talk to her again. Gideon does however, talk to Stanton about what Eva revealed about Nathan. We hear about this Gideon-Stanton talk second hand from Monica, who is mortified Eva revealed the secret. Gideon's half-brother, Christopher, invites Eva and Cary to a music industry party the Vidal will hold that coming weekend at their estate. Christopher knows, and tells Eva as much, Gideon won't go. Eva joins her mother for the joint therapy appointment she (Eva) requested with Monica's therapist because of Monica's recent phone cell stalking stunt.   Once each of us has read Chapter Fourteen, our homework assignment from Sylvia herself is for each of us to pick our favorite quote or paragraph.  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 Thirteen of Bared - The Readers Guide  This chapter unfolds Wednesday night (day ten).  Key plot developments: This chapter continued the talk Eva has with Gideon about Nathan, which started in Chapter Twelve. Sexually, Gideon reassured her the revelations have not made him want to turn away. If anything, he wants her even more, recognizing her as being very courageous. However, sexual demons erupted that night in Gideon's bed, where he has another nightmare, much worse than the one he's had Monday night. But he refused to talk about it, and when pressed, lied. Eva, hurt by his dishonesty only hours after she'd revealed her darkest secrets to him, pulled a runner.  New characters: None in this chapter  Eva's willing to trust Gideon with her dark secret brings them closer Gideon made passionate love to Eva in order to prove to her that what she told him about her past has not changed how he feels about her. Afterward, they talked some more. Eva explained therapy helped her heal, but she also explained there are some triggers she'll never get past. She begged Gideon to avoid making this into a problem itself by trying to second-guess everything now and to walk around constantly scared of triggering her. She warned him constant walking around on eggshells would eat away at their relationship. But it already became something he does fear. He's horrified in hindsight some of the things he did in the prior days would have triggered her , like his aggressive and crude sexual propositioning of her. When Gideon asked her what he can do to help, she asked him to go to couples therapy with her. "Eva, don't let me blow this. Don't let me chase you away." (Page 188.)   Dinner date conversation - more of Eva's story After the agonizing talk, they continue with the plans Gideon had envisioned all along for the evening - taking Eva out on a "real" date, an intimate dinner for two. As they talked over dinner, more of Eva's back story emerged: Her friendship with Cary started when they met in group therapy in San Diego. Her father was the one who convinced her to get help, and he specifically chose Dr. Travis because of the therapist's reputation of working well with troubled young people. Victor had never been told Eva's a rape survivor. But he could see surface results of the underlying damage. "He knows I was an angry troublemaker with self-esteem issues, but he doesn't know about Nathan," Eva explained (page 193). The rationalization for keeping Victor in the dark was that he couldn't change anything, Eva said. Nathan was prosecuted and Nathan's father payed huge financial damages. Eva attended San Diego State University, choosing the school so she could live near her father, who she hadn't gotten to spend much time with growing up. Another reason for moving to San Diego had been to get out from under her mother's smothering influence.  Gideon's refusal to trust Eva with his own dark secret tears them apart Mere hours after Gideon begged Eva to not allow him to blow things and drive her away, he did both. Monday night with Eva in his bed, he'd had a nightmare that was mild in comparison to a more brutal one he'd have Wednesday night. This time Eva recognized it for what it was - a very violent sexual dream. Knowing it to be a sign something serious was eating away at him inside, Eva pressed him to confide in her. But he wouldn't open up. When she kept pressing, he lied to her, claiming he didn't even remember what the dream had been about. . The lying set her off, especially because she'd been so honest about her own darkness mere hours earlier. She told him she would have accepted answers such as "talk about it tomorrow, talk about it this weekend" or even "I'm not ready to talk about it yet." But a lie is something she would not accept - and worse, by his going on the defensive, he'd tried reflecting blame on her (for them arguing). So she pulled a runner. Clad only in a silk bathrobe and clutching her purse, she left, and took a cab home. From there, she texted him that she got home safe. Cary was expecting her when she arrived, because Gideon called ahead to ensure Cary was home to let her in (Gideon still had her keys, which she'd loaned to him.) She told Cary how Gideon had a bad nightmare, then denied, lied, and treated her like she was nuts. Already cooled down however, Eva hadn't given up completely -- especially because Gideon agreed to go to therapy with her. In a prophetic statement of her own, Eva told Cary, "I want it to work out between us. I want to be with him, but lying about serious issues is a deal breaker for me." (page 199).

  We're getting the snapshot today, probably at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time based on when all the other ones thus far have hit the Internet. Word is that Chapter One of Entwined will also hit, tomorrow, at 9 a.m. Oh the site could kah-rash!!!! I'm going to try to copy the text in case of emergency.  Today will be a glimpse into Chapter 15. Recap of the snapshots of chapters 1-14:  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. An elevator lobby 13. Pieces of women's clothing scattered at the foot of a bed. 14. An NYPD detective shield (badge).

Excellent!!! We're good to go!!!

   Hmmmmm Gideon in a kilt.  Oh my .........

 If he were charged, he'd have to surrender his passport - provided he even got bail to begin with. Often, people charged with first-degree murder are held without bail.  Technically, he could leave the country, but in practical terms, he'd most likely have been told by the cops to stick around and warned by his defense lawyers to not do anything that might look like he was trying to flee, lest prosecutors decide to jump the gun and charge him. The defense strategy at this point would be to prevent him from even getting charged. Fleeing (or even looking like fleeing) looks guilty as h*** and might push a prosecutor over the edge.  In fact, I wonder if his traveling might provoke the crisis showdown for the prosecutor - does he/she "go for it" and charge Gideon Cross with murder -- or -- does he/she decide against charging, because crucial evidence can't be used against him (and so there's no way the prosecution could get a conviction.)  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 Julie. The leaders who founded the United States of America out of what had been, before then, thirteen British colonies on the eastern side of North America, did incorporate much of the what they liked about the British system, and even more than two centuries later, there still are many similarities in how things are done on "both sides of the Atlantic." Even much of the legal heritage is based on many centuries of English history.  And .... we do have an Aston Martin that's a clue to Entwined. So it could be some of the plot takes place over on your side of the ocean. You could be helping us with background stuff less than a month from now.

Re-reading some things about Monica's background reminded me that for all her short-comings as a materialistic person, she is a loving person. And I imagine some trouble in her own childhood may explain why she mishandles things sometimes and makes bad choices -- every bit as much as Eva has (and Gideon too). Â We know most of Eva's bad choices, past and present, driven by childhood demons. Troublemaker, anger problem, promiscuous, low self-esteem, over-reacts. She's come a long way but still does bad things. Like kissing Brett. She's slapped Gideon twice. She ran out of his apartment late at night dressed only in a bathrobe to take a cab home. Those are the things I can think of off the top of my head. She's a good person who sometimes is a bad girlfriend, is the bottom line. Â Monica is a good person with flaws of her own. Here are some theories I have about what has driven her, good and bad. Â Childhood? She came from money and was a debutante, which indicates she came from "old money" -- high society. Appearances meant everything to her family, it would appear, so much so that to avoid the "shame" of Ms. Monica Trammel getting "knocked up" by some "grease monkey" (Victor was a mechanic when they met) her family tried to force her to get an abortion. And disinherited her when she refused. Nathan got disinherited from his rich father for good reason. But Monica? Simply because she chose to keep her baby. Â Victor? OK, so she wouldn't marry him or even give the baby his last name. But she did name the girl Eva after his mother. Victor was allowed to be a part of his daughter's life. And Monica genuinely loved Victor. He was more than just some fling to her. She wasn't some rich girl using some guy for sex. She was honest, though, that she wanted things in life he couldn't provide. Â First husband, Barker? From what Eva said, her mother had been happy in the marriage. She got the financial protection that I'm sure she craved by then, having been rejected by her own family. And she was willing to take over the day-to-day raising of both Eva and Nathan while Mr. Barker travelled for work. Yes, by far the worst mistake Monica made was to not be paying close enough attention to both those children. However, once she did find out, she took immediate action to protect Eva -- protect her then and protect her in the future too. Made sure of Eva's financial security. And cut all ties to the Barker family, not just Nathan. Â Stalking Eva? Monica went from one extreme to another over extreme guilt. Having failed to protect Eva, now Monica is hopelessly trying to over-protect Eva. She's literally sick about it -- sick in that with good reason, Dr. Petersen is treating her for unhealthy obsessive behaviors. Like the cell-phone stalking thing. Eva made a good point when she accused Stanton of keeping her (Eva) sick too when he enables Monica's sickness. Is it any wonder everyone kept Nathan's reappearance a secret from Eva? Because Eva herself enabled people to over-protect her. Instead of standing up to her mother, she usually backed down. Instead of demanding honesty from Gideon, she either backed down, or worse, bailed.

Oh we'll all have weeks of savoring second helpings here by discussing Entwined. SQUEEEEEE!!!!!

 No, not easily accessing regular computer records. The best he might come up with through main everyday channels is an indication some sort of juvie criminal record exists. But none of the details, and certainly not the full court files themselves. The fact they're sealed records means that even insiders cannot just get at them.  It's a little like Top Secret documents. Only people with proper clearance and proper reason to do so can get access to top secret documents. The same sort of principle applies with sealed court records.  From the time Nathan's criminal case and Monica's damages case against his father settled, to the day Nathan turned up murdered,  all those sealed court records basically were buried. No one had legitimate reason to go into them, and they were kept separate from other files, physically and electronically. But because of the nature of his death, now there are people with legitimate reasons to be in there, and there are even copies floating around now (such as in the murder investigation files.)  Victor couldn't just get into them himself -- but -- it wouldn't be too hard for him to get them through back channels. In fact, he'd have a much easier time than some reporter at getting his hands on them. It wouldn't be too hard to convince someone on the inside to give him the information. Why not? He's a police officer who happens to be the father of a rape victim, the rapist has turned up murdered, and the chief suspect in the murder is his daughter's ex (so he'd think) boyfriend. Who wouldn't want to help out a fellow officer of the law wanting to protect his daughter? Especially someone who might fear Gideon's very dangerous himself.

Many of the criminal legal rights Gideon (and by extension Eva) have are covered under various parts of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendments, which collectively govern how any criminal investigations, charges, and trials, must be fairly handled by the police and prosecution. Â Many of the rights that would protect the press' ability to report the truth about the whole legal mess, past and present, if the press so chose to do, all fall under the First Amendment.

 You're welcome, Julie. I know there's a huge international following here, with regulars from England (like you), Italy, South Africa, Australia .... Crossfire is a global phenomena.  Because I have years of actual professional experience with some of these constitutional rights that govern the criminal courts and the press in the United States, I can recognize the way many things in the fictional story could unfold in real life in the U.S. But other nations have their own systems too, and some of those systems handle things differently.  It makes me smile that you're British, because the way things used to be run in your nation two centuries ago was perhaps the biggest factor in the decisions made by the American leaders who created this country's constitution. The founding fathers didn't want a monarchy, they wanted a democracy. They came up with a system they thought would best protect a democracy -- protect the citizens against possible abuse of power by the rulers of the government.  The main body of the Constitution itself created the system of government: Presidency, Congress, U.S. Supreme Court. The Amendments are additions to it. It's been amended 27 times thus far over the years, changes that did things such as outlaw slavery and give women the right to vote.  But the first ten of the Amendments came in one fell-swoop at the beginning in order to try to guarantee crucial rights citizens have to protect them from possible abuses of power. We call those first ten The Bill of Rights, and even 200+ years later, they're still in every day use.  Among the Bill of Rights guarantees are: free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, right to bear arms, rights of individuals accused of crimes to have fair and open trials, the rights of individual states to have their own state government systems .... yada, yada, yada ....

On a different topic .... Magdalene .... Â Doing this re-reading project has made me re-examine many little details in a new light. The Chapter Twelve mention of Magdalene smiling as she talked to Gideon (that photo a paparazzi got) coupled with the Chapter Fourteen incident where Magdalene shows up unannounced at Eva's office, trying to see Eva, is something I'm reconsidering. Â Before now, I viewed that incident in the same class as what Corrine did do later: pull a stunt to mess with Eva at the Crossfire, the goal being to drive a wedge between Eva and Gideon, using Eva's insecurities as a weapon. Magdalene never did get to see Eva, and Megumi later reported Magdalene appeared to get mad when she (Magdalene) failed. At the time, I thought -- good for you, Eva! Sic Gideon's own staff on Magdalene to make the b**** go away!! You go, gurl! Â By now, I'm thinking the whole reason Magdalene showed up was because, as a real friend to Gideon, Magdalene knew she'd hurt Gideon when she'd verbally attacked a woman who turned out to be someone Gideon cared very deeply about. She tried to see Eva that Friday morning in order to try to get Gideon out of any more trouble he might be in with Eva because of her (Magdalene). And the reason she got mad when she realized she wasn't going to get to even talk to Eva was because she (Magdalene) now was frustrated and afraid she'd no longer be allowed to be friends with Gideon. Â I saw the Magdalene-tried-to-see-Eva in a new light based on what Magdalene did do not too long later, which was to call Eva up at work. Magdalene called Eva the morning after the whole mess of what happened the night before with Corrine - Gideon had (stupidly) allowed Corrine to monopolize his attention, something that got Gideon into real trouble (for good reason) with Eva. When Magdalene, who had eavesdropped on the whole thing the night before, called Eva up the next morning to gossip, I think Magdalene's real purpose was to get Gideon off the hook. And I saw Magdalene as having told the truth when Eva asked her why she was doing it. Magdalene explained she and Gideon were very old friends -- and so Magdalene didn't want things to be awkward when she was around Eva and Gideon in the future. Â Bared timeline of Magdalene and Eva Saturday (fundraiser): Magdalene essentially called Eva as s*** and claimed she (Magdalene) was the one he respected. Being a b****? yes. But dishonest? No. Magdalene had herself fooled into thinking she was somehow filling the hole Corrine left years ago, and she had every reason to believe Eva would go right on the reject pile like every other woman Gideon f****. Monday lunchtime: (Eva and Gideon become a couple): Eva expressly warned Gideon she had a problem with Magdalene, including telling him almost word for word what Magdalene had said, details he hadn't known about. He got mad about what happened and promised to deal with Magdalene, so moving forward, Magdalene would not be a problem. Monday afternoon? I think Gideon called Magdalene, chewed her out and informed Magdalene that Eva was now his full-fledged girlfriend. And I think Magdalene believed him, felt a little bad about how mean she'd been, and promised him she'd treat Eva with respect moving forward. Sure, Magdalene probably hoped the Gideon/Eva thing was just a fling that would burn itself out. But she valued her old friendship with Gideon enough that she didn't want to endanger it. By Tuesday morning: Plastered all over the Internet are pictures of Gideon kissing Eva and stories that they're serious. Tuesday night: Magdalene ran into Gideon at the restaurant where he'd attended a business meeting. Outside, they talked, and they both looked happy. Gideon later tried re-assuring Eva the happy look in his eyes was because he was talking about her (Eva). I think that even though Magdalene undoubtedly was jealous, she was happy for him. But .... the two of them standing there together looked incriminating in a paparazzi picture someone got By Wednesday morning: Plastered all over the Internet are false stories and pictures Eva and Cary have something going on and that Gideon had run right to Magdalene the night before because of it. By Thursday morning: plastered all over the Internet are pictures of Gideon and Eva arguing out in public - stuff that includes them passionately making up. Friday morning: Magdalene shows up at Eva's office to try to talk to her. Â I think Magdalene's main motive was to make sure Gideon wasn't in trouble anymore because of those pictures of him talking to her (Magdalene) that hit the Internet on Wednesday. Perhaps Magdalene might wanted to make sure for herself, too, those rumors Eva was juggling two boyfriends (Gideon and Cary) weren't true. Because Magdalene cares a lot for Gideon as a friend.

One more thing, this about Monica's paranoia the seals on court records were broken by Nathan's death. Â This does not mean the records all of a sudden became public - that any reporter could now simply go to the courthouse(s) and ask to see the files. But what it does mean is now is that certain insiders within the courts have very valid reasons for looking into files normally they'd be forbidden to open. Court personnel aren't allowed to look into sealed files just for the h*** of it. But when they have very valid reason to, they most certainly are. Â The pool of insiders who know about the old Nathan records just got a whole lot larger. Now it's not just the folks who had been involved a decade ago, whose promise to silence Stanton bought. Now there are some people who presently work in the courts who now know about the old records, because of the murder investigation. Additionally, there are now cops (like Detective Graves) who have seen (and gotten copies of) all the records. The circumstances under which Nathan died made his legal past an open book to the NYPD. Nathan's records have gone from buried in the archives to suddenly going through the hands cops/court insiders.

All those old court documents are sealed, so why is it Eva's so paranoid the media could find out all about it? She's right to be scared, because there is a serious paper trail that an investigative reporter could follow through interviewing some people with inside knowledge of the case, protecting those people as "unnamed sources." Especially damning would be if a reporter were able to get his/her hands on copies of leaked documents, because Eva's name would be all over them (and Monica's to a lesser extent, most especially though in the monetary damages case.)  If you fellow fans can stand a little more about applicable U.S. constitutional law, read on ....  The Sixth Amendment that I talked about the other day, the one that protects the right to a lawyer for anyone accused of (or even suspected of being involved with) a crime? That one that Detective Graves violated when she questioned Eva? The Sixth Amendment guarantees additional rights that include a "public" trial. The government isn't allowed to hide prosecutions of citizens behind closed doors.  If the government is going to attempt to send someone to prison, the government must handle the whole case in the open where all citizens can see. This is a protection against government abuses of the court system. What this means iis that with only few exceptions, all criminal cases are public proceedings, and nearly all the records are public documents. Any member of the public can watch in court and can read the files. Most especially the press.  The major exception to public criminal cases is juvenile cases, which technically are "delinquency" instead of "criminal" proceedings. Juvie cases are handled in closed courtrooms, the files are non-public, and the fact a child was accused of and/or convicted of delinquency is secret. Unless they have an actual reason to, court clerks aren't supposed to root through those files. At best, cops may know someone who goes on to become an adult criminal has a juvie record, but even then cops need good reason to be allowed access to the records.  In addition to the criminal case against Nathan, Monica sued his father for damages. There's less secrecy protection there. However in a civil proceeding, the settlement terms can be made a secret if both sides agree and the judge agrees to seal it. This happens quite regularly when someone (here Nathan's father) wants to settle instead of risk going to a civil trial where a jury could possibly award the plaintiff (here Monica) every last cent the defendant has. So it's to someone's advantage to settle -- settle confidentially, lest someone else get ideas about bringing another lawsuit hoping to get big bucks.  So if a journalist poked around, he/she would be able to easily determine the existence of a civil suit in which Monica sued her husband. But when a reporter tried to see the court records, nearly all of them would be confidential -- not just because the sides agreed to confidentiality, but the judge signed an order to seal.  So how is a journalist supposed to "get the dirt." People who had been involved and know details could talk under circumstances where the journalist would publish the details but keep secret the name of the person who spilled the details. That's an "unnamed source." Too, someone could leak copies of the paperwork they, for whatever reasons, still had copies of. When Stanton paid people money to keep their mouths shut, he was banking on those people being afraid to cooperate with any journalists, lest they (the sources) somehow get caught doing it.  The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects, among other things, freedom of the press, and it's those rights that journalists fight to protect when someone tries to force a news organization, by bringing them to court, reveal unnamed sources. Judges are reluctant to order media to reveal sources, especially because it usually doesn't work -- journalists almost always will go to jail for contempt of court than reveal a source. The media also relies heavily on the First Amendment any time the government tries to prevent the media from having access to open government proceedings -- including criminal cases.  Bottom line in Eva (and Monica's) situation. There's a legal paper trail about everything that happened after the abuse was uncovered, and there were a lot of people involved who would remember. The danger exists any one of them could talk to and/or leak copies of records to a journalist who would keep secret the name(s) of the person(s) who leaked the info. And there are news organizations unscrupulous enough to use the info to create a scandal instead of following the usual media standards the mainstream media abides by - refusing to name sexual assault victims unless the victim specifically wants his/her name revealed.  Increasingly, some victims do ask journalists to use their names, wanting the shame assigned to where it belongs -- with the rapists, not the victims -- and wanting everyone to know details of the terrible things the criminals did to them. However, most victims are reluctant to be named. The cases may still get reported, but the widespread voluntary media practice is to leave the victim names out.  "Voluntary" is key here. The media is free to report anything about criminal cases, even the names of victims. All cases, including rape. No laws exist forbidding the media to report facts. Even if the media obtains confidential information, still they can report what they want -- as long as what printed is true, journalists commit no crimes by running the stories. When the framework of the U.S. Government was built through our Constitution over 200 years ago, the founding fathers, aware of press censorship under feudal systems in other countries, sought to guarantee the government cannot muzzle the press. Centuries later, the government still finds it hard to impossible to be able to legally try to stop the media from running stories, even stories that contain government secrets.

The Chapter A Day Re-Read of Bared To You - Today is Chapter Thirteen  This chapter unfolds Wednesday night (day ten).  Key plot developments: This chapter continues the talk Eva has with Gideon about Nathan. Emotionally and sexually, he's able to reassure her that the revelations have not made him want to turn away. However, sexual demons of another sort erupt that night in Gideon's bed, where he has another sexually violent nightmare, this one far more brutal that the one he'd had two nights earlier. But he refuses to talk about it, and when pressed, lied about even remembering it. Eva, hurt by his dishonesty mere hours after she'd revealed her darkest secrets, pulls a runner.