LN Cronan

Hey GiGi, my favorite fellow poster ... Â Let's agree to disagree on just how angry I think Gideon is at Corrine just like we can agree to disagree on who killed Nathan. Â I'm the captain of Team Any Kind Feelings Gideon Had For Corrine Are Gone Because Corrine Very Deliberately Hurt Eva. Â You're captain of Team Monica Killed Nathan. Â !!!

My first guess is that by Chapter 5, they've worked out a way for Eva to consistently be able to sneak in to see Gideon in his penthouse -- using the service entrance to the building. In fact, after that first night at Eva's, they're now avoiding meeting there and instead are spending their time at Gideon's place.  When I saw the towels neatly tied up, my first thought was "linen service" which then quickly lead me to think "household staff."  In Snippet #7, Eva is on a girl's night out in one of Gideon's clubs, and she jokingly drunk dials Gideon to tease him that she's "being bad." He says "Come home and be bad with me." Given that it's nighttime and probably the weekend by now, it's likely he's home. So his asking her to come home to him means they've already started seeing one another there instead of her apartment.  My theory is that after the night they reunited, with him sneaking into her apartment the evening the cops spilled the beans, they haven't dared use it since, because Cary would still be staying in every night continuing to recuperate at home from his broken bones and other injuries. Basis of this theory:  It'd be too risky to let Cary know the "truth" at this time. And not just because of the fact the more people know, the higher the danger. Cary is already inexorably tied to the case because of the beating -- that beating is the basis of Gideon's motive to kill Nathan. So just like Gideon had been keeping Eva in the dark for her own legal protection, Cary still needs the same legal protection. If the cops found out he knew Gideon and Eva were secretly involved again and had always been in love period, they'd try to make Cary a key witness for the prosecution. Cary might -- MIGHT -- be captain of Team Brett right now. Especially if Cary thinks that Gideon's sneaking in to spend the night with Eva earlier that week was nothing more than the same thing Gideon had done three weeks earlier: "bang" Eva and then reject Eva the day after, because Gideon's "girlfriend" now is Corrine, not Eva. If Cary (falsely) believes Gideon is using Eva just for sex, something that would continue to agonize Eva, Cary likely would be even more inclined to push Brett as the rebound boyfriend for Eva. Cary wants what's best for Eva. If Cary believes (falsely) Gideon is continuing to hurt Eva by confusing her sexually and still rejecting her publicly, Cary would turn very anti-Gideon. Thus, Gideon shouldn't go over to Eva's apartment anymore. The natural alternative is for Eva to go over to Gideon's place.  Remember, Cary has seen most of the ugly (including Gideon's nightmare violence) and very little of the sweet. Just recently, he watched Eva suffer in deep pain for two weeks. Cary was encouraged that after two weeks of the worst, Eva began turning into New Eva, moving on.  Now Brett's back -- and Cary thinks Brett has settled down from the wild guy Brett was four-plus years ago, when Eva had been throwing herself at Brett. Plus Brett now is enjoying commercial success. And a part of Eva is still warm for Brett's form. Plus she forgave Brett (over lunch) for how things had ended four years ago. In Cary's eyes, Brett's the natural choice now.  Ah, if Cary only knew the truth about Gideon. Problem is -- at this early part of the story, the truth is a deeply buried secret between Gideon and Eva -- and the cops.

As expected, the rush of fans racing to the site to see Snapshot #5 has overwhelmed the server, so you may have to wait until later to see for yourselves. Â The picture is of a pile of three white terrycloth towels, either hand towel or small bath towel size. They're very neatly folded in a pile and tied up together with red ribbon. Â That's what we've got for a clue into Chapter 5 of Entwined.

It's Tuesday, fellow fans -- meaning we're due to get our bi-weekly snapshot. Snapshot #5 due out any time now.

Hi GiGi: Â Snippet 2, which we now know is from Chapter Two of Entwined, very strongly suggests it's the morning after the couple re-united and Gideon woke up in Eva's bed the next day.

 My guess is it was the other way around -- Brett tracked down Cary down via the Internet, finding out which modelling agency represents Cary and getting hold of Cary that way. This method -- use the Internet to discover where someone works -- is exactly what Brett did to track down Eva so he could talk with her a few days after the concert.  Here's a thought: Cary was the one who told Eva he'd found online a transcript of an interview Brett gave a radio station, an interview in which he revealed he was seeking another shot at Eva. Cary made it seem to Eva like he simply stumbled across it. But what if that wasn't the case -- Cary already was in direct contact with Brett and was already planning to play matchmaker.  Here's a timeline of what I think might have been going on in the background:  Over the weekend following the fight, Brett started researching Eva (and by extension Gideon) online, discovering photos and stories the pair started dating earlier that summer. However after only a few weeks, Gideon no longer was photographed with Eva (this was because Nathan showed up, but no one else would have known.) Brett wondered whether this meant the relationship was already starting to fizzle even before the concert -- lack of new photos plus eyewitness accounts from his bandmates that during the fight, Gideon had people throw Eva into his limo and get her out of his sight. This suspicion the relationship was in trouble was the reason why he sought Eva out a few days later. He found out where she works and he showed up there. Over lunch, he asked her point blank whether the relationship was serious. The answer he got was Eva was in love, but she was unsure how serious the relationship was (this was true -- remember, Gideon had already begun pulling away and had taken Corrine out the night before. When Eva had lunch with Brett, Eva was feeling very insecure and hurt.) Out on the road, Brett continued to check -- and kept finding stuff that Gideon was with Corrine while Eva was nowhere to be found. As the concert tour neared its end, Brett got Cary's phone number via Cary's modelling agency and called Cary to ask about the Eva-Gideon status. Cary told him Eva had ended things with Gideon. So Brett now knew the coast was clear to go after Eva. That's when Brett used an interview as a public opportunity to state his intentions toward Eva. When Cary told Eva about the interview Monday after Eva got home from work, Cary casually suggested Brett was all lined up to be a rebound guy. Maybe Cary by then was actually secretly working with Brett to try to help Brett. I think that particular interview, given over the weekend just days before Reflected ended, was the first time Brett had actually come out and said he wants Eva back. Knowing the coast to Eva was clear and the concert tour nearing its end, Brett began laying his groundwork to publicly woo Eva. What makes me think this was the first time he told a journalist something like that is because of what happened the following Monday. Gideon finally broke his absolute no-contact with Eva in order to give her back the promise ring and ask her to "wait." I'll bet Gideon had been following Brett online too, and Gideon panicked upon reading for the first time Brett making it clear he'd reconnected with Eva and was seeking another chance (remember, Gideon does not know what Eva and Brett discussed over lunch.) That was Monday. Two days later (Wednesday evening) Reflected wrapped up. The Brett re-appearance is early in Entwined (everything points to it happening in Chapter Four). So my guess is the Times Square event takes place maybe on Friday night or over the weekend. Gideon may have already known even back on Monday, via Vidal Records, the Six-Ninths tour was done and Brett was due back in New York for post-tour publicity.

Hi GiGi! Â Re: the case against Gideon -- two words: circumstantial evidence. Prosecutors do manage to get convictions based on that alone. They face a bigger uphill battle when they lack direct evidence (stuff from forensics) to bolster. About the only slam dunk evidence is a confession. Â And it is possible the detectives do have additional evidence that Eva (and thus we readers) doesn't know about. If Detective Graves is trying to trap Gideon via Eva, I'll bet she fed Eva only enough info to send Eva running back to Gideon. Graves will have known that everything she did tell Eva would get back to Gideon's defense lawyers. So I doubt the detective would have put all her evidence onto the table.

 This is why the Brett cover story would work much better than Gideon's original plan, the Corrine cover story.  The cover Corrine cover is flimsy at best -- taking care to be seen in public with her, make sure some pictures get taken, carefully planting some gossip seeds to folks can run with the story. That's about it. Plus the timing's just a little too "convenient." Not a lot to go on and easily able to be dismantled by a prosecutor.  By contrast, the Brett cover story includes a serious fistfight witnessed by a lot of people who saw Gideon absolutely furious. Those same people saw Eva being dragged off by Gideon's old friend and Gideon's driver/bodyguard -- literally thrown into the back of the limo and removed from Gideon's sight while he continued to try to kick the s*** out of "the other man." Add on top of that Brett has written Eva a love song that's now a hit single, and well .... even a guy like Gideon Cross conceivably could be suffering wounded pride serious enough to want to dump the girlfriend.

 Your question about whether Gideon is capable of being vindictive, mean, or calculated toward Corrine: In order:  Vindictive - ask Dr. Lucas whether Gideon Cross is capable of being vindictive. But toward Corrine, probably not based on her current level of messing with Eva's mind. Mean - no, Gideon doesn't do mean. Mean is petty. Cold - OH H*** YES. Gideon's been cold even to Eva. Turning icy and retreated deep into his protective shell is Gideon's dysfunction default setting -- just like Eva's default setting is running. They're both working on it. But bottom line, if Gideon is capable of deliberate coldness even toward Eva, he can do it to anyone. (Re-read most of the sex-fueled fight in the limo after he'd caught Eva passionately kissing Brett. Think about what he did to Anne Lucas, sending her back broken to her husband.) Calculated -- that's exactly what he'd doing. As part of the Nathan plot to do away with the motive part of the case, he calculatedly manipulated Corrine and Eva as well into playing roles he needed them to. He'd figured the cops would quickly eliminate him from the list of possible suspects within a day or two. Instead, he's become the chief suspect, and the weeks later, the cops continue to move closer to trying to establish enough evidence to charge him.  They've already found a hole in the alibi, and the fact they approached Eva shows they're now looking to punch holes in the Corrine cover story.  P.S. Gideon saw Eva regress into a lot of unhealthy behaviors because Corrine deliberately hit Eva's buttons. Yes, yes -- Eva's over-reacted a lot. But Gideon understands all too well why: Eva's a trauma victim still struggling against her inner demons. Look what happened within the first 24 hours alone after Corrine blindsided Eva at the fundraiser plus messed with Eva's mind the next day. Eva old anger issue erupted (she actually hit Gideon.) Also, she had first Nathan nightmare she'd had in a long time. Then there was the whole Brett thing soon after -- out of confusion she kissed an ex she used allow to sexually degrade herself to.

 It's circumstantial evidence, which isn't as strong as other forms of evidence (like forensic evidence, eyewitnesses and most especially confessions). But cases are brought to trial on the basis of circumstantial evidence. It's risky to do so -- but trust me, in the real world, it's done.

 Some ambitious prosecutors get stupid enough to pursue high profile cases they think they can win. Gideon is a celebrity, not just a billionaire. Plus his father, a notorious financial criminal, "escaped justice" by killing himself. There are some prosecutors who would consider him  a career-making trophy.  The detectives DON'T have the final say on whether or not to proceed on this case. It's the district attorney's office that has the sole power to make that call. If authorities really had decided to drop the matter, the district attorney's office would notify Gideon's lawyers. Not have some cop indirectly notifying Gideon via his now-ex-girlfriend who dumped him a couple of weeks ago.  A simple check of the phone records would show a call from Eva's home to Gideon's cell that he took while at the police station. From the devastation on his face, the detective guessed correctly Eva had called to dump him. When the detective later "ran into Eva" (cough, cough) she tricked Eva into confirming Eva dumped Gideon after Nathan was found dead, not Gideon dumped Eva while Nathan had still been very much alive.  Besides, the prosecution may question whether the means justify the ends. Though his goal was to save someone else's life, Gideon took the law into his own hands and committed one of society's worst crimes: first degree murder.

An interesting theory I've developed about the Krav Maga is maybe Gideon's knowledge Eva can defend herself against violent attack is what will allow him to dare sleep alongside her again, knowing that if he a violent nightmare, she's not defenseless. This could enable him to regain a comfort level of sleeping alongside her while he undergoes treatment with Dr. Petersen to address the underlying issue of the parasomnia. Â We're assuming the Krav Maga is so Eva can kick some bad guy's b***, but what if it turns out to be something that makes it safe for Gideon to actually be able to share a bed with her. And thus share a home with her. Â Parasomnia covers a bunch of different behaviors, among them sleepwalking. But it also includes a form where a person with the disorder engages in sexual behavior. In Gideon's case, that sexual behavior is very violent. Â He'd already started treatment, including sleep medication, but he had a particularly bad nightmare during which he nearly raped Eva. What stopped it was her using her Krav Maga to defend herself. When she counter-attacked, that woke him up. Â After that nightmare, he wouldn't risk sleeping alongside her all night. But because he now has started opening up about the childhood sexual abuse itself, treatment has a much better shot at working. So maybe he'll be willing to resume sleeping in the same bed with her as treatment progresses, knowing that even if he were to have another nightmare bad enough he'd try to hurt her, she'd be able to stop him from actually hurting her.

^^^ THIS. Agree with every point except Clancy as a suspect. I think Angus was an accessory, though I believe Gideon alone entered that room alone.

 The Cross apartment and every valuable they owned was purchased via money stolen from investors. Like the real-life Bernie Madoff, all their assets would have been immediately seized by the courts. Elizabeth would have been left literally penniless and without a place to live. Even any assets she brought into the marriage would have been frozen too, allowing for the opportunity for for the criminal courts to fight over how the status of those assets may have changed as a result of her getting married.  Christopher Sr. immediately swooped in, obviously to get a trophy wife on sale.

I started listening to Bared on audiobook this past weekend while traveling, and I picked up on something about the advocacy dinner about Magdalene and Christopher Jr. Â The story strongly suggests Magdalene showed up without a date, and judging by the way Christopher Jr. was hitting on Eva, it's safe to say me probably didn't have a date either. Plus, until the last minute (when he asked Eva to go with him) Gideon didn't have a date. Â So .... did Magdalene go with Christopher under cover of family friends (just like Cary and Eva originally planned to go with Cary as friends.) Â My guess is yes, because Magdalene probably knew Gideon decided well ahead of time to go stag because he was giving a keynote speech (and thus would be busy). Magdalene decided to show up in order to latch right onto Gideon. So what a nasty surprise for Magdalene to see Gideon arrive with Eva, whose existence Magdalene may have not known about before Gideon and Eva walked in the door together. It definitely was a nasty surprise, given the cat fight in the ladies room later, Magdalene guessed correctly Gideon had actually brought a woman he'd f****** as a date somewhere, breaking his own rule of automatically tossing onto the discard pile women he's slept with.

 It's healthier than Cary's relationship with Trey. Tatiana accepts Cary as he is and is not making demands on Cary beyond their current status of friends with benefits.  Trey is hoping to change Cary's sexual orientation from bisexual to gay. Trey has got insecurity issues about Cary's sexual preferences including attraction to women. That unto itself is "bad"  but trying to get someone to suppress a natural part of an individual's sexuality is wrong.

No way in h*** did Gideon invite Corrine to that fundraiser. Eva didn't even know Corrine existed yet, because Gideon hadn't gotten around to talking about Corrine to Eva. (In fact, Gideon refused to talk about most of his past period -- gotta wonder how long he was planning to wait before he told Eva, "Oh by the way, seven years ago my first serious girlfriend broke off our engagement, married some other guy, who I knew, and moved overseas.)  Why the heck would he even allow insecure, jealous Eva to get blindsided by Corrine? Whenever Eva got insecure and or jealous, she'd react with her dysfunctional coping mechanism of running away. And Sylvia told us Eva's runners absolutely terrified Gideon.  Gideon hadn't even known yet on the night of that fundraiser Corrine had finally followed through on plans to leave France and return to New York for good (she'd been leaving him phone messages at home he'd never gotten). He was totally caught off guard when he spotted Corrine talking to Magdalene as he and Eva left the dance floor. Then he scrambled to try to conceal the real nature of his past with Corrine so that he could later talk to Eva in private. Which only ended up making matters worse, because his immediate attempt to hide it ratcheted Eva's anxiety level even higher.  Besides, people buy tickets to fundraisers, not get invited. It's a public event, not a private function. Corrine took advantage of the opportunity to show up at something where she simply could buy a ticket, not need an invite. The latter ran the risk of Gideon finding out via gossip ahead of time Corrine would be attending. Paying to get in guaranteed the element of surprise, especially if Corrine bought a ticket at the last minute.

 Excellent question -- one I hope we readers learn the answer to when Gideon finally has a long overdue talk with Eva about everything he'd concealed from her the prior three weeks, including the murder itself. Now that she knows about it and still plans to be with him anyway, no longer is there a need to lie by omission.

From snippet # 2, GiGi: Â "His arms were wrapped around his pillow, showing off chiseled biceps and a muscular back adorned with scratches and crescent marks from my nails."Â Â More recently, when she started combining snapshots and snippets, Sylvia connected the dots for us that snippet #2 is from Chapter Two of Entwined. Â The snippet also makes clear they're in Eva's bed and very strongly suggests it's now morning, with Gideon waking up there after the pair of them repeatedly had sex the night before. Here's the link to the full snippet: Â http://www.sylviaday.com/2012/11/22/entwined-snippet-2/

 By the time they ended up at that hotel, they most definitely had become boyfriend/girlfriend. Gideon decided to further break all his rules by combing sex and dating. He did that sometime over the weekend after leaving Eva at the advocacy dinner -- and he had to work like crazy to change Eva's mind, because after that dinner disaster, she'd initially decided she was cutting him off.  Friday evening in the nightclub, Eva had agreed to a fling on the modified condition Gideon at least get to know her a little. They specifically agreed getting to know one another a little bit would NOT be dating. They were going to be sex partners who were friendly to one another.  But sometime Saturday, Gideon further bent his rules by taking Eva out as a social companion -- a public date in other words. His practice was he didn't sleep with women he dated and didn't date women he slept with. He ended up doing both with Eva that night, then proceeded to go on a headtrip that almost ruined everything.  Eva had refused to have lunch on Monday -- he got her to change her mind. But she went up to his office to tell him to his face she didn't want to see him anymore. He got her to change her mind again by making it clear they would be a couple in bed and out of it. And during lunch, they decided that plans after work would include sex that night.

 Sylvia said that about the character of Corrine as she was in Bared -- only in Bared, and this was before Reflected had been released. Sylvia did not say "Corrine will always be a good person - nothing will change that." There is a difference.  In Reflected, Corrine turned selfish and mean because she snapped when she saw with her own eyes Gideon actually was deeply in love with Eva, loved Eva in a way he'd never loved any woman, not even Corrine herself. A good person would have been happy for him and backed off. But Corrine set out to deliberately ruin what he had with Eva so that Corrine could keep him for herself. Twice she did something calculated and cruel by using Eva's mental/emotional issues as a weapon against Eva.  Corrine's character changed after Bared, and not for the better. She had become a different person in Reflected. And she'll likely become yet another person in Entwined once she figures out for certain she won't ever, EVER, have Gideon. She's already emotionally effed up -- ten years of obsession with Gideon has finally made her that way. Will she become a broken person when she realizes she was used? Or will she become someone who finally gets help in order to become capable of healing and moving on? Whatever she will become, she's not the same "good" person who got off that flight from France back to New York for good.

Leaving Eva is separate from the alibi. Leaving her is his cover for the motive side of the criminal case. The alibi is for the opportunity side. Â The prosecution would need to persuade a jury beyond reasonable doubt of two legal elements to get a murder conviction: motive and opportunity (the latter means a defendant could actually be at the crime scene and have the means -- like a weapon -- to commit the killing.) Â The police allege Gideon's motive was Nathan had become a danger to Eva's life and he loves Eva so much he killed Nathan to stop Nathan from ever being able to harm Eva. Gideon left Eva and fooled everyone into thinking he resumed his old relationship with Corrine, doing this while Nathan was still very much alive. This was the part of the plan to prevent a prosecutor from being able to establish he had motive -- why would he kill a guy over some now-ex girlfriend he didn't want. Â The alibi he set up was to deal with the opportunity side of the case. This was to try to fool the cops into thinking there was no way he went near Nathan that night -- during the window of a couple of hours when Nathan died, Gideon was somewhere else, a party, and there were witnesses at the party to prove he was there. In fact, Gideon went above and beyond by making sure the press got a photo of him at the party.Â

 Gideon had been very possessive of Corrine back in college. So it must have really bothered her that ultimately, he stood back after she broke the engagement, started dating some guy he knew and ultimately married the guy (Giroux). My guess is back then, it took her dating the other guy and Gideon NOT being possessive that was the point when it dawned her on that Gideon wasn't going to chase her. Breaking the engagement had backfired.  Soooooooo ..... Brett in public hot pursuit of Eva could play out two ways. Gideon is going to have to struggle to control himself, because it's too dangerous for the cops to see he cares. Corrine is going to either see he's struggling hard and thus figure out on his own Gideon is feeling possessive of Eva (and thus still loves Eva) -- OR -- Corrine is going to focus on the fact Gideon isn't chasing Eva because of Brett, and thus Corrine's going to further fool herself into thinking Eva's gone for good.

 If definitely had been a sleep med, one to be taken on an as-needed basis (i.e. to put him deeply asleep so he wouldn't become violent) Not every night (because he didn't suffer insomnia) nor an anti-depressant. He was treated for a sleep disorder in the same overall class as sleepwalking, though what Gideon had was rarer.

 Oh he'll try, but I doubt he'd ever succeed. I think Magdalene was a unique case. He had much better access to Magdalene (families are close and mothers are best friends) -- and Gideon wouldn't have been at any family gatherings. Creepy Christopher probably spent years slowly wearing Magdalene down as Magdalene put up with years of knowing Gideon was getting laid elsewhere while Magdalene was keeping herself unattached.