LN Cronan

Agh! Snippet site temporarily down. Happens whenever a new one gets posted and it gets flooded with folks clicking the link.

I'm re-thinking Monica so much I'm going to have to go back and read all passages in which she appears, looking for clues. Clues about both her and Stanton. I'm still firmly in the Gideon-did-it camp, and I also think Argus may have helped. But I'm now seriously wondering how much interaction Monica and/or Stanton had with Gideon. Even if they weren't involved in the murder, they most certainly must have been involved in the plan to deal with Nathan before that. To keep his presence in New York a secret from Eva. And to keep an eye on him in order to find out where he had hidden the original copies of the photos/video of Eva.

 

How did Gideon find out it had been Nathan who attacked Cary? Gideon must have had Nathan under surveillance. No one had been able to reach Gideon by phone that weekend. But early the next morning, he got a phone call at the hospital. See page 215 of Reflected. I believe that's when he got the news.

 

The hotel fire was at the one where the vodka party was, not the one Nathan stayed at. Gideon owned both buildings, however he knew like the back of his hand the party hotel. He started using that place while still in college as his %#@! pad, his first sex partner there being Corrine. And he obviously bought the place later. I'll bet that once he became famous enough to be tabloid fodder, he was careful about his comings and goings there, slipping out side doors. It'd be pretty easy for him to sneak around and set a fire himself.

 

I think he picked the hotel for that reason, to be able to sneak in and out unnoticed that night. But he took a huge risk in the Eva department by arranging for him and Corrine to be photographed there. Eva knew all about Gideon's past history there, including Corrine. So naturally, she assumed the worst.

 

But what she didn't know is Gideon had cleaned out the room he maintained there. The room came up the first time they had a couples appointment with Dr. Petersen. Later that night, while she was asleep, he slipped away to clean the place out. But when he returned to Eva's place, he found her in the middle of a Nathan nightmare. So he never told her that night about his trip to the hotel. And it didn't come up for discussion since then, not until near the very end of Reflected (page 328) when Gideon told her, told her the day he'd finally started opening up to her as a means to get her to agree to wait for him to come back to her.

WOW! LN I didn't even think about how his answering his phone @ the station would appear. Now I definitely think they're being set up. Why wouldn't the police tell Gideon and the Stantons they were dropping the case?

You guys are good!

I think I'll go to sleep now and not wake up until June 4th.

 

So why the heck did Gideon do something so stupid as to answer his cell phone while at the police station, knowing from the caller ID that Eva was phoning her apartment. I think for the same reason he later chased Eva to Dr. Lucas' office when she was on her crusade to go after people in his past. And definitely the same reason why he sneaked into her apartment, though it was dangerous to do so, in the Entwined excerpt/snippets we've seen.

 

The answer, I believe, lies in the one glimpse we've seen into Gideon's head, in the special New Year's teaser Sylvia gave. He had to know if something that happened had torn them apart for good. "I couldn't wait. Not knowing was ripping me apart."

 

The phone call: The risk Gideon had taken going to Eva's the night before to meet her Dad blew up in his face when the cops showed up and asked him right in front of her if he knew Nathan. And then when they asked where he'd been the night before, he refused to say in front of her, instead opting to talk to them downstairs. I'm sure he hoped Eva wouldn't ever find out Nathan approached him with blackmail material. And he probably had hoped to brush off as just a social function the party he'd been at with Corrine the night before. (Really stupid: he asked Eva to quit looking for gossip/pictures online, as if she would.) But being put on the spot to explaining his whereabouts in front of her and refusing to do so led her to conclude the worst. The last he saw of her the night before, she'd wordlessly shut her bedroom door in his face. Now the next day, he needed to know how badly she was taking the night before. And boy did he get his answer too. She assumed all the worst, and she ended their relationship because of it.

 

Going after her later in Reflected: first he finds out Eva read his mother the riot act for failing him as a child. He's still mulling that over two days later when he gets caught red-handed by Eva escorting Corrine out of the Crossfire (a move I'm sure was simply for the benefit of security camera footage. He thought the coast was clear because Eva left for the day, but instead of going home she went to buy candy and walked back toward Crossfire at the wrong moment.) Eva gets angry and flips him off. Next morning, she shows up unannounced at Corrine's door, and she next heads straight to Dr. Lucas' office. Via GPS tracking of the Bentley, Gideon knows where she's been going, and he may have even gotten an angry call from Corrine. He had to know why Eva was going around stirring up people. And he had to see her in person right away to judge by her reactions to him what half-truths or even lies Corrine and/or Lucas told Eva. This all led to a semi-reconciliation as he found out she was being an avenging angel, but she also made it clear his continued silence meant she was moving on with her life instead of waiting for him. He opened up some, and in return she agreed to wait for him to come back to her.

 

At her apartment, the evening she'd found out from the cops all about how and why they believe Gideon murdered Nathan. Keeping in mind that not all of us are in the Gideon-did-it camp and we may be in for some huge Entwined plot twists, what little info we have right now points to Gideon having done it. And him being desolate she now knew, because he never, ever wanted Eva to know he'd committed murder. He feared he'd lose her forever if she found out. Now she had, and he needed to know if all his hopes of getting her back were ruined beyond repair.

The Crossfire series is romance, and romance ultimately ends happily. Maybe the luggage tags on the cover of Entwined signify a honeymoon ending (literally). But for right now, the early glimpses we have of Entwined involve Gideon and Eva back together but hiding their relationship. Which is very romantic in its own way, secret love. And meeting illicitly means really hot sex too.

I've got a theory about Nathan's attempt at extortion ...

 

Eva became fodder for the tabloids as soon as she started dating Gideon. The existence of sexually explicit photos of her (especially if they were taken in a way that did not clearly show she was underage) would be incredible tabloid fodder, embarrassing Gideon as well as her socialite mother, Monica, and Monica's rich husband, Stanton. Remember, the child rape was all a secret. It would be all too easy to convince the tabloid sleaze that Eva was some sort of .... well I'd use the word that starts with an "s"

 

Nathan, the disinherited former rich kid, went after both of the extremely wealthy men in Eva's life: her billionaire boyfriend and her financier stepfather, figuring both would be willing to (and could afford to) pay him millions in exchange for making sure the photos never saw the light of day.

Thanks for the timeline, LN Cronan, that really helps keep things in perspective. So looking at the timeline brought a question to my mind.

 

Since it appears Gideon was trying to give the appearance of being broken-up with Eva, why did he go to dinner at her house on that Friday? I know he wanted to meet her dad but surely he knew Nathan's body would be found and with all the pictures of Eva laying around the cops would seek her out first. Wasn't he worried about the cops finding him at Eva's in the mist of a family dinner?

 

Then Eva breaking up with Gideon after the fact makes his running around with Corinne pointless. Especially when he had such a noticable reaction at the police station. I would think the cops would see his heartbreak and then guess his motive was for the woman he loves and be able to put it together that Gideon was just trying to make them think he was involved with Corinne which should have raised and waved a red flag over his head "big time!"???

 

Then after that he went back to worrying about being seen with Eva - doesn't make sense - and, add to that he still had his driver trying to give her rides only reinforces that the ties between them weren't fully cut.

 

Gideon ought never to have answered his cell phone at the police station. He left the room, but Detective Graves watched him, watched his face. Right then and there, he blew his cover story he no longer wanted Eva, had already broken up with her and had already gone back to his former fiance. That cover story was supposed to have removed his motive for killing Nathan - why would Gideon kill a man over a woman he no longer loved, maybe never loved.

 

I think the detective seeing his face confirmed her suspicion Gideon killed Nathan. And it explains why she kept attempting to break his alibi. To Eva, she admitted that she (Graves) went back three times to question the staff of the hotel where the vodka party took place Thursday night before she finally found out a small kitchen fire disrupted the place for about an hour sometime that evening.

 

As for having Angus offer Eva rides, well that could be accounted for by guilt. And after all, there's video of Angus picking up Corrine outside the Crossfire just after she got back to town but prior to Gideon going out with her again. 

 

Gideon was very careful about approaching Eva after he came under suspicion. Only three times did he go near her: 1. cornering her in an elevator at Crossfire to place the promise ring back on her hand and ask her to "wait." 2. following her to Dr. Lucas' office in the face of her going after people she blamed for contributing to Gideon's issues (his mother a few nights prior, Corrine first thing that morning, and now Dr. Lucas.) 3. meeting with her out of sight in the security office at Crossfire right after she came back from having lunch with Christopher. When she asked Gideon why the hiding in the office, his answer was "plausible deniability."

 

Meeting number two was more carelessness on Gideon's part, being seen with Eva publicly, including taking her for a ride in his car. Indeed, a beat cop interrupted a close embrace between them as Eva was comforting Gideon who had just spoken for the first time about the abuse in his past. I wonder whether the cop ran the plate, and that got back to Detective Graves too.

 

It also was super risky of him to go through with meeting Eva's father at her apartment Friday evening. Nathan's body was found that morning, and Gideon would have known that sooner or later, the cops would approach Eva. He miscalculated how soon, and so the situation blew up in his face. When the detectives started questioning him about his whereabouts the night before, he hustled them out of the apartment and went downstairs with them

Throwing out for discussion today Gideon's hastily thrown together plan of giving the appearance he dumped Eva and how the plan didn't go according to his control-freak expectations. Here's a timeline based on the plan starting after Gideon and Eva returned from their weekend in North Carolina, because Sylvia revealed that taking Eva away for the weekend had not been part of that plan.

 

Friday night: Gideon and Eva leave for North Carolina after the concert. Sometime that same night, Cary was attacked.

Over the weekend, Monica tries phoning Eva and Gideon, but they're both out of phone contact the whole time.

Sunday night just before midnight: they arrive home and Gideon gets his phone message about Cary.

Monday morning, before the workday starts: Gideon sees Eva at the hospital, tells her he spoke to her boss so she doesn't have to go to work that day, and leaves for work himself. As he's walking away, he takes a phone call from someone (his security team?)

Monday night: Gideon takes Corrine to dinner at Tableau One, his friend's restaurant, making sure they sit at a front table and a picture gets taken. He doesn't go to the hospital after work nor call Eva that night.

Tuesday morning: Eva notices he hasn't called/texted in almost 24 hours. She leaves the hospital to go to work. Gideon freaks when he learns she left the hospital, calls her angrily, has Angus pick her up on the way, and calls him to make sure he's got her.

Tuesday lunchtime: Eva finds, via Google alert, an online picture of Gideon with Corrine the night before. By co-incidence, Brett shows up at Crossfire looking to talk to Eva. She forwards the photo to Gideon's email, and she takes Brett to lunch. Before lunch is even over, Gideon finds out.

Tuesday after lunch: When she tried returning to her office, the elevator takes her up to Gideon's floor, and they argue in the hallway. During the fight, he demands she eat lunch at her desk moving forward. She knows something's wrong, but he refuses to say what. As she leaves and the elevator doors close, he says "Trust me." 

Tuesday after work: She goes to the hospital. She calls Gideon at home, and he cuts the conversation short, but not before she figures out he's not alone. She fears maybe Corrine's there. In fact, Gideon was meeting his security people there (Sylvia posted this.)

Wednesday: in the morning at the hospital, Dr. Lucas poisons her mind about how Gideon is treating her. Midday she has her weekly lunch with her boss Mark and his boyfriend Steve. When she gets back, she gets another angry call from Gideon about not following his orders to eat at her desk. "Are we done," she asks him, a question with double meaning.

Wednesday night/early Thursday: she sends him a distraught email about how hurt she is over Corrine. He shows up in the middle of the night and makes love to her all night, but in the dark. She asks why he's acting the way he is, and he responds, "It has to be this way." He leaves before she wakes up. 

Thursday daytime: She attends a meeting about the vodka campaign. He ignores her completely in front of her boss Mark and one of the agency owners. She later calls him, and he promises to meet her at Dr. Petersen's office for their weekly therapy appointment.

Thursday night: he blows off the appointment and instead parties with Corrine at the vodka publicity mixer held at the hotel where he used to take women (including Corrine years ago.) A picture of them huddled close together is taken by the press. Note: Sylvia later posted the publicity mixer was separate from the agency work on the account, which is why Eva's boss Mark hadn't known about it.

Thursday night/Friday morning: Nathan is murdered Thursday night in his hotel room, a building Gideon owns and is within 15 minutes walking distance of the vodka party. His body is found Friday morning.

Friday daytime: Eva picks up her Dad at the airport before work (refusing a ride from Gideon's other driver, Raul, and telling Raul to tell his boss to "go #&@! himself.") 

Friday night: Dinner at Eva's. Gideon and Eva both tense, but he tries a couple of times to touch her, only to have her freeze him out. The police show up, and Eva finds out Nathan is dead. The police ask Gideon whether he knows Nathan. "You wouldn't be asking that question if you didn't already know the answer," he tells the cops in front of Eva. But he won't answer in front of her where he was that night. Downstairs, he gives some sort of answer about where he was Thursday night. When he comes back up, Eva refuses to talk to him; instead, she locks herself in her bedroom. She assumes (correctly) he had been with Corrine Thursday night.

Saturday morning: Her mother shows up at her apartment (while her father is out running.) She tells Eva about Nathan - that he had photos/video of her and tried blackmailing Stanton. Eva guesses correctly Gideon saw the pictures too. Her Dad arrives back, Monica leaves, and then her Dad shows her online the photo of Gideon and Corrine on Thursday night at "that" hotel.

The break-up: Gideon is at the police station (we find out much later) when she calls him on his cell phone. Confirms he saw the pictures Nathan had of her. Calls him terrible things for not having the decency to end it with her before he started sleeping with Corrine again. But tells him she understands why he can't bear to be with her anymore because of those photos. (We find out much later that Detective Graves watched him take that call and that he looks like someone just died. She guesses that call was Eva dumping him, something she later confirms from Eva herself.)

 

My basic theories about things Gideon counted on happening:

• That press photos of him out to dinner Corrine on Monday and snuggled up with her at a hotel party Thursday provided proof he was spending intimate time with her.
• Him publicly cutting Eva out of his life would be bolstered by gossip from his good friend Arnoldo (who owns the restaurant) and by Eva's own coworkers. 
• He did still plan to secretly spend time with her at her apartment. Even with Corrine in the picture, Eva would hold on and settle for pieces of him.
• He counted on her not running away on him this time, because she'd already broken that habit.
• He counted on the cops buying his alibi and quickly crossing him off the suspect list.
• Once the coast was clear, he'd start making up to Eva all the hurt he caused.
• She was never, ever to know he killed Nathan.

 

Things he didn't count on as various parts of his plans blew up in his face:

• Her dumping him. She'd warned him that he could push her away, but he didn't take it seriously enough, just like he hadn't at first taken seriously enough her warnings about her jealous nature.
• Her finding out about the photos Nathan had and wrongly assumed they were the tipping point for him ending their sexual relationship.
• The cops figuring out so quickly ties Nathan had to him, Eva and Stanton. So quickly they ended up coming to her apartment the Friday night Gideon was at her place meeting her father.
• The cops aggressively trying to break his alibi, thus it being too dangerous to see Eva or even phone her.
• Brett staying in the picture by going to lunch with Eva and later giving a radio interview he wanted to get back together with her.
• The detective telling Eva about how and why they believe Gideon murdered Nathan.

 

OK, fellow posters, jump in.

I'm going to throw this into the mix.

In Bared to you Eva says that Nathan was lawfully punished

Then in Reflected with you the last time she saw him was in a court room eight years ago.

Anyone else think that Nathan has been in prison .

And now out he sees Eva life is good she's dating a billionaire loved by her family and he just can't stand that her life is good when his isn't disowned by his rich father what does he have but to cause pain to Eva and extort money from her family.

 

Possibly juvenile detention. Your post got me rethinking my supposition that everything was quietly handled in civil court with a confidential agreement that amongst other things had Nathan's father paying $5 million in damages to Eva (well, to Eva's mother on behalf of Eva, who was still a minor.) But an agreement like this wouldn't need Eva's presence in a courtroom: if both parties agreed, a judge would simply sign off. A juvenile criminal case, however, would involve hearings in a closed courtroom. And the entire criminal proceedings would be kept secret. 

 

BUT .... doing a little math, I wonder whether the last time Eva saw Nathan wasn't at his sentencing hearing, but rather, at a hearing on whether he should be continue to be held civilly as mentally ill dangerous once he reached adulthood.

 

The present day Eva is 24 years old. When she first told Gideon about being raped as a child, she said Nathan was two years older than her and she was 10 the first time. That makes Nathan 12, maybe pushing 13 then. The rapes continued until Eva was 14, when she had the miscarriage and an emergency room examination revealed vaginal and anal scarring, trauma signs of ongoing sexual abuse that involved repeated forcible rape. Nathan would have been 16 years old, maybe even recently turned 17 by then, old enough to be prosecuted as an adult in many jurisdictions. But also under age 18, and so possibly being handled in juvenile court instead. Criminal proceedings would fit the bill of "lawfully punished."

 

Nathan was murdered Thursday night and his body was found Friday morning. Friday evening, the police showed up at her apartment, and among the questions they asked her was when was the last time she saw Nathan. "Eight years ago" she told them, and though she didn't tell them where, she said to herself, "In a courtroom"  Subtracting eight years, that makes Eva 16 and Nathan 18 at the time of that courtroom proceeding.

Is snippet two from the morning after Gideon and Eva have had what was sure to be no-holds-bared make-up sex the night before? (The night she found out what the cops think happened and then soon after, Gideon had snuck into her apartment.)

 

Here's the link: http://www.sylviaday.com/2012/11/22/entwined-snippet-2/#.USi1vDA4R8E

 

" ... muscular back adorned with scratches and crescent marks from my nails."

 

(Eva says) "Waking up to you is like..... presents on Christmas morning."

This is so much fun, swapping theories. GiGi put it well, "I think that we are dissecting everything to smitherines which actually helps to pass the time and gives us an opportunity to let our imaginations run freely." Keep us all amused and hooked until June 4.

 

These are romance novels, not crime novels. But in every novel, the protagonist(s) faces some sort of challenge/battle to win (in happy endings) or lose (in tragic downfall endings). Both Bared and Reflected end happily with Gideon and Eva reconciled. In each book, the battle to be won for both involves crimes past and present (child rape, stalking, extortion, murder). So they are crime novels too.

 

Some of the latest theories that clicked with me: 

 

ShazScott1980 is right, I think, that Nathan would have opened the door to anyone he thought was about to pay him: Monica, Stanton, Clancy, Angus, even Gideon.

 

Here's an additional theory for the pile: what if Gideon simply let himself into the room with a master key? He owns the building. And we know he regularly resorts to using an elevator master key to corner Eva when he needs to talk to her and can't get her alone any other way.

 

mrsmajessick makes an excellent point about Nathan being desperate for money. He was a rich kid completely disowned by his father.

 

Chiara is on to something too, I believe, about Nathan's ultimate goal was to get Eva. Nathan trying to get Gideon to drop Eva as damaged goods. And as Nathan beat Cary with the bat, he said words to the effect of "keep your hands off her" (meaning Eva: remember, some of the gossip sites speculated Cary and Eva were more than roommates).

 

Throwing out two theories for discussion, both involving what did Nathan plan to do if he got both the money and Eva? Keep in mind, both involve his crazy, sick thinking, not reality:

1. Drag her away somewhere, maybe even out of the country, having enough money to be able to control her into staying with him?
2. Exact his revenge for her ruining his life by raping her again, killing her, and then using the money to flee the country?

I agree with you LN Cronan. I also think Gideon killed Nathan and I think he was controlled and percise with a single stab wound to the heart. Had Nathan been stabbed repeatedly then I would cast a side eye at Gideon because that wouldn't fit in with his controlled demeanor. I'd read a book a few years back in college entitled "When Women Kill" and it talked about how women were more passionate about killing someone who hurt them; that is to say they are more likely to stab their attacker multiply times or empty the clip if they shoot them. All the foreshawdowing that takes place prior to Nathan's death leads us to Gideon.

 

And, while it is not really clear, I was the one who suggested that perhaps Gideon also killed his abuser. If not killed him then his dreams make it sound like he retaliated in a violent manner. Even Gideon is afraid Eva will run away if she knew his dark side. And, I think his dark side is really dark. If he killed his abuser and Nathan then in fact that would made him a serial killer, but this is a romance novel and through suspension of disbelief we (the readers) are suppose to look at this as an Alpha man doing what an Alpha man does - takes care of his woman and all those who would go up against him.

 

Now in real life if he was our boyfriend and we found out he killed two men - well I would find the nearest police station and live there until he was behind bars. But, this is great fiction so I think we may have to over-look the part of him being a possible psychopath and see it has a form of justice. I know, doesn't sound right to me either, so I guess we'll have to wait until EWY comes out.

 

I'm hoping in EWY that we see that to some degree Gideon, Stanton & Monica were in communication with one another. I think Gideon probably was the one who convinced them to go ahead and pay Nathan off knowing that was never going to happen because Gideon already had designs to get rid of Nathan permanently. I think this was just another ruse for the police to follow that leads nowhere.

 

I would be surprised as all get out to find out Monica did it. She just strikes me as the nervous kind and I would imagine it takes a lot of force to stab someone in the chest deep enough to kill them with one blow. Woud Monica be able to excert that kind of strength?

 

Gideon's motive for killing Nathan wasn't revenge, it was to save Eva's life. Therefore, I can't see him killing his own abuser. I can, however, see him ruining the guy's life.

 

But I think you are on to something about Stanton and/or Monica being involved somehow in Gideon's plot to deal with Nathan. Why else would the police be investigating Stanton every bit as aggressively as they have been Gideon. Could be that in Entwined, we're going to see some big plot twists involving Eva's mother and stepfather.

 

Plus, I'm pretty sure that in Entwined, we're going to learn much more about Gideon's abuser. It wasn't until near the very end of Reflected that he finally started talking to Eva about what happened. But that conversation didn't last too long and it barely scratched the surface.

GiGi has got me thinking about fight in Gideon's office. How badly -- or not -- did Gideon rough up Nathan that first time. Did Gideon maybe land one good punch and then with a supreme force of will pull himself back and decide: not here, not now. I'm going to come up with a better way to get this guy. Or at least restrain himself knowing that if he beat Nathan to a bloody pulp right there in his office, he'd have a lot of explaining to do when Nathan crawled (or was carried) out of the building.

 

Think about what Eva saw in Gideon's office shortly after he'd attacked Nathan there. One of the couches knocked a few inches out of line. A single couch pillow on the floor. And just a small amount of blood on one of the cuffs of the shirt Gideon had thrown into the laundry hamper of his office bathroom, a smear so small Eva mistook it for lipstick. (Remember, she came charging into the office because she'd just seen Corrine downstairs, leaving the building looking like she'd had a nooner with Gideon.)

 

I think about what Angus said to Eva as she begged him to stop the brutal fistfight between Gideon and Brett, "He knows when to stop, Eva." So Angus, who's known Gideon since grade school, has witnessed Gideon being able to shut down his violent side like turning off a switch.

 

And what Detective Graves said to Eva about Nathan's death, "Barker was taken out by a single stab wound to the chest. Right in the heart. Would've taken no more than a minute. No defensive wounds and he was found just inside the door. My guess? He opened the door to Cross and it was over before he could blink."

Waiving "hi" to new member MrsCrossfire. As long as your first name isn't Corrine, we're good, LOL. 

 

Now that Nathan's dead, Christopher is about the only halfway nasty villain left among the current cast of characters. Well, him and maybe Dr. Lucas.  

 

Someone's got to take over as chief protagonist for Entwined. My first bet is it'll be Detective Shelly Graves, who will try to take down Gideon. Another possibility, delving into Gideon's past, would be the pedophile who abused him: where is that guy now.

 

But I can also see Christopher and Lucas harassing Eva some more in their attempts to twist Gideon's tail. Christopher especially could turn nasty - we've seen what he pulled with Magdalene. Eva taking him to lunch near the end of Reflected may come back to haunt, because I can envision Christopher seeing that as an opening to start chasing her. 

I think she will have a 4th book. Like someone else said on a post, unless the book is 1000 pages, it's going to be kind of hard to fit all the questions needed to be answered in this one book. Unless Gideon gives some long dialogue about everything which I really hope does not happen. Plus I just have a strange feeling that she will do it. There is so much more to Eva and Gideon than just three books! Heck, it could go all the way up to five and I would not mind! I really enjoy series. It sucks to say goodbye to characters you enjoy.

 

Last night on Twitter, Sylvia responded yet again to a fan question whether Entwined will be the final book in the series. Her answer: "There's definitely more room for growth."

 

I'm taking that to mean the Crossfire series isn't going to end with Entwined. That there will be at least a fourth book. SQUEEEEEE!

 

And in another Tweet last night, Sylvia promoted this fan site, saying "If you like chatting with others about Crossfire,

there's lots of fun speculation here: http://sylviaday.net"

 

She must be reading these threads. Double SQUEEEEEE!

I doubt Gideon said anymore than he was just having dinner with Corinne to Arnoldo and letting him make of that whatever he wanted to in light of what he witnessed between Gideon & Eva after the concert. Gideon doesn't strike me as someone who lies to his friends other than maybe withholding which could be a form of lying by omission I suppose.

 

Boy does Gideon withhold information, even from people he cares most about. It's part of the rigid shell he built around himself to protect the wounded boy inside. But his defenses are too rigid and dysfunctional, because he's been unable to open up and trust. And at times, the withholding of information has risen to the level of lying by omission.

 

This pattern of refusing to open up and lying by omission kept driving a wedge between Eva and him, and nearly destroyed what they had. But his love for her repeatedly gave him the courage at times to try opening up, though usually out of fear and desperation every time she pulled one of her runners. 

 

Even Corrine recognized that Eva had gotten Gideon to open up. The night she met Eva at the Waldorf dinner, Corrine told her, "He tells me you've inspired him to start opening up. I'm grateful to you for that."

 

Sylvia keeps saying Gideon has room to grow. I'm looking forward to seeing him really opening up to Eva in Entwined. She now knows the absolute darkest deepest secrets he has. Secrets he feared would make her run away forever. Instead, she came back to him. What a great lesson in the rewards of honesty and trust between two people who love one another.

 

Getting back to Arnoldo, I agree with you that he didn't tell Arnoldo a thing, instead leaving his friend to jump to the wrong conclusions. Gideon desperately needed Arnoldo to assume he'd left Eva because everything counted on Gideon's cover story, the cover story whose purpose was to negate his motive to kill Nathan.

 

Here's some more fun speculation: did Arnoldo later end up gossiping to Corrine about the whole mess, words to the effect of "Eva kissed her rock singer ex boyfriend in an alley outside a concert we went to. Gideon caught her red-handed. He beat the guy up, and he told Angus and me to throw her in his limo and drag her away. Good for him having us get her out of his sight. Far as I know, that's the last he had to do with her. I think it's over between them, and I'm glad. Because she hurt him badly."

 

Wow LN Cronan, you've done your homework! Lol.

 

I'd think that Nathan was outside of the Crossfire the second time b/c Gideon would have told security to not let him in again. Maybe to see Eva b.c Gideon and Stanton weren't giving in to his demands. Could you imagine if Eva ran into him in an elevator? I'm sure Gideon wouldn't want that to happen. Eva never follows up on the video again after asking Gideon about it. Wonder why? She just forgot?

 

Also, is it a coincidence that Gideon took Corrine to Tableau One that Mon to be photographed? Is it b/c he hasn't spoken to Arnoldo since that Fri. and maybe he needs him to think that he and Eva are over too? B/c of all the places to take her, he takes her to his friend’s restaurant after all that mess after the concert.

 

 

 

Sylvia's said repeatedly that Gideon does everything for a reason. I'm certain he picked Tableau One to help bolster his ruse he was finished with Eva. His good friend who owns the restaurant, Arnoldo, witnessed the entire fistfight Gideon had with Brett on Friday night. What Eva did, kissing another man, certainly was motive for Gideon to wash his hands of her. And Arnoldo justifiably was furious with Eva. Arnoldo was the perfect choice for someone to gossip "Good riddance to that Eva woman."

 

I wonder whether Gideon even called Arnoldo later Friday night, after the brawl was over, but I'm guessing not. Because within the hour, Gideon and Eva had their sex-fueled fight in his limo and immediately left for North Carolina, where Gideon stayed totally out of contact with the outside world the entire weekend. They got back Sunday night, immediately found out about Cary, and went straight to the hospital late that night.

 

So now it's Monday. In the morning, Gideon stopped calling/texting Eva's cell phone, our first evidence of exactly when he began distancing himself from her. On Monday night, I'll bet Arnoldo was not surprised to see Corrine instead of Eva. Because he is a close friend, he'll have known who Corrine is and what she used to mean to Gideon. And that they were still good friends. And that she was getting divorced and had moved back to New York. If Gideon were to turn to any female friend after what happened late Friday night, Corrine is the logical choice. 

 

I'm sure Arnoldo would have asked his friend what was going on. What I wonder is how did Gideon answer. Did he feed Arnoldo lies? Or did he refuse to talk about it, instead retreating behind his mask and let Arnoldo make all the wrong assumptions. My guess is the latter. Gideon's usual M.O. is to clam up and refuse to answer questions. Besides, if he told Arnoldo lies that he wanted Corrine back, Arnoldo likely would have repeated that to Corrine sooner or later. And I can't see Gideon telling a lie like that to Corrine nor allowing a lie like that to get back to her second-hand.

Hi GiGi!

 

Maybe instead of composing in Word, running your spellcheck there, then copying into the text box here, instead write your post here, copying into Word to spellcheck, make any corrections here and then hit post.

 

What version of Windows does your laptop run? Did you install the new Windows 8, or are you running whatever earlier version of Windows came with your laptop when you got it a few years ago.

mrsm-now that I'm thinking about this, I don't think the second time Nathan was there it was to see Gideon. I'm going with Eva. Everyone seems to go to

lunch at the ad agency at 12:00. He probably couldn't get in and she wasn't there, plus she was with Megumi-the receptionist. Later that night she asks Gideon to review the tapes from outside the building because something frightened her mom. I think when Gideon does he sees it was Nathan and the wheels start turning-maybe he starts to formulate a plan. I don't know-so much surmising-so little time-wait-we've got a lot of time! Until June 4th!!!!!

 

Interesting theory, azmich! Maybe to increase the pressure on Gideon and Stanton, both of whom Nathan was trying to blackmail, maybe Nathan was trying to see Eva this time and to make sure Gideon knew it. Nathan would have figured out, because he was stalking her, that she had no clue he was in town.

 

Here's the stuff we definitely know about Nathan at Crossfire, between what is contained in Reflected in You plus additional material Sylvia has given fans in response to spoiler questions:

1. It was lunchtime both times (that we know of) Nathan showed up at the Crossfire.
2. The first time, Nathan did meet with Gideon in his office, and a fistfight ensued.
3. The first time, Gideon last-minute cancelled a lunch meeting he had scheduled off premises (Angus had been waiting downstairs to drive Gideon to his meeting.)
4. Both times, Eva happened to be out of the building at lunch.
5. The second time, Eva's mother plus the Stantons' driver/bodyguard Clancy, spotted Nathan on the sidewalk outside the Crossfire.
6. Eva, curious about what badly spooked her mother, asked Gideon if it was possible to look at security footage to try to figure out what it was Monica saw. Gideon promised he would.

A few additional things we know (between the book and what Sylvia has posted.)

1. The hotel where Nathan stayed (and where he died) was owned by a Cross Industries subsidiary.
2. The security cameras in that hotel had been down for an upgrade that had been in the works for months.
3. Eva and Gideon were away on the weekend trip to North Carolina when Nathan beat Cary half to death.
4. Gideon found out it was Nathan very soon after he and Eva arrived back home Sunday night.
5. It was at that point Gideon felt the danger level was too high, and he set in motion the plan to kill Nathan to save Eva's life. 
6. It was sometime Monday morning Gideon started his act of cutting off Eva. He quit calling/texting her cell and stopped showing up at the hospital, where she was staying by Cary's side. And he took Corrine to dinner Monday night, making sure a photographer got a picture of them together.
7. Prior to Monday, he hadn't been pulling away from Eva. The North Carolina romantic weekend away was not part of the plan (i.e he didn't take her away to lessen the blow of what would happen next.)
8. Eva called Gideon at home Tuesday night. At the time, he was meeting with his security people there, so he cut the call off almost immediately, but not before Eva figured out he wasn't alone.

Throwing out some questions for discussion:

 

1. After that first meeting at Crossfire, did Gideon put up Nathan at his hotel as a means to keep him under close watch?
2. Did Gideon pick that hotel so that there wouldn't be any security footage of Nathan being there?
3. Had Gideon been secretly been meeting with Nathan there?
4. When Nathan showed up the second time at the Crossfire, did he see Monica Stanton outside on the sidewalk? Did he also spot her driver/bodyguard?
5. Did Nathan ever even enter the Crossfire that second time to ask for Gideon and/or Eva? Or did he simply take off instead?
6. If he never did enter the Crossfire the second time, did Gideon know at the time he was out on the sidewalk? Or was it Eva asking about security footage that led to Gideon finding out Nathan had appeared?
7. What had Gideon been planning to do about Nathan prior to the attack on Cary? Was he planning to ultimately kill him even then? Or did he have something else in mind, but rejected that plan once Eva's life was in danger?
8. How much did Angus know? How much did Gideon's security people know?

Begging Sylvia to jump in here with spoiler-question answers about one or more of the questions above

Plus, here's a link to the main page for all snippets on sylviaday.com   http://www.sylviaday.com/category/snippet/

 

The links on this page include the "Special Teaser for New Year's". It's the same scene as the book excerpt, with Gideon and Eva alone in her bedroom the evening she found out the cops believe Gideon killed Nathan. But this scene is from Gideon's point of view, not Eva's. Thus far it is the only material we've seen from inside Gideon's head.  I'm hoping there will be more such scenes in Entwined, giving a deeper look inside him.

 

The link for the New Year's teaser is here www.sylviaday.com/2012/12/31/special-teaser-years/

GiGi: Are you copying/pasting from a Word or Note document into the text box? Or are you entering text directly into the website box?

 

Also, what device are you using: tablet, laptop, desktop? Finally, what operating system: Windows 8 or an earlier version of Windows? Apple? A mobile operating system, such as Android?

 

It could be a matter of how this site translates what you provide. Some experimenting might get around the issue.

More sass from Eva early on when Gideon was first trying to get her into bed: "Go spend time with a woman who salivates at your feet and makes you feel like a god. #%$! her until neither of you can walk. When you see me on Monday you'll be totally over it and your life will return to its usual obsessive-compulsive order."

 

Zing!! And what wouldn't I give to read that scene from Gideon's point of view. Eva just nailed exactly how he's treated sex partners in the past. It must have unnerved him how much she could see right through him.

The math on Gideon's age sounds right, age 10 or 11. And while he never said how old he was at the time, he did say Christopher was 5 and his mother pregnant with Ireland when he (Gideon) was placed in therapy. The conversation happened near the end of Reflected in You when Gideon finally opened up to Eva about what happened to him.

 

Eva was 10 the first time Nathan raped her. She was 14 when she had the miscarriage. She gave those ages during the conversation in Bared To You when she first told Gideon about Nathan.

 

Pediatrician Dr. Terrance Lucas is 45 at the time of Reflected in You (Eva found his age via a Google search). Subtract 18 years and he would have been 27 at the time he had been one of the two doctors Elizabeth Vidal had examine Gideon. So he would not have been that far out of medical school. Note: Sylvia has posted that Lucas was not the doctoral student who abused Gideon. But I wonder whether the doctoral student knew Lucas from school. Purely a guess on my part, but the therapist called in might have been a psychiatrist -- that is, a medical doctor who is a specialist in mental health. What if the doctoral student also was studying to be a psychiatrist? Certain branches of specialty medicine involve advanced study beyond basic medical school.

Hi GiGi, It is very possible that Christopher was also abused. He was so young at the time I just keep wondering how much he would have even understood if it was only Gideon? If he was also being abused it would explain why he lied to Elizabeth, a young child was probably scared to death to say anything much like Eva. But, there's always one of those with this cast, wouldn't he be more apt to stand with his brother in telling the truth - especially given his age?

 

I keep going back to thinking that Elizabeth is just flat out lying to Eva and that she never asked Christopher. I think for some unknown reason Elizabeth is the "how" Gideon was able to gain controlling interest of Vidal Sr. company. Now here's some real delirium - lol - Maybe Elizabeth was having an affair with the mysterious pervert grad student and didn't want it to come out or the grad student had something he was holding over Elizabeth - like maybe she knew Gideon's father was stealing money. She may have even sacrificed Gideon to keep from compromising herself in his father's mess. Who knows except for Sylvia - and she ain't telling, at least not yet!

 

But I do think it was pretty clever of Sylvia to keep Eva from confronting Christopher outright; keeps the mystery going that way.

 

So, I have a question for anyone who cares to speculate. Who messed Nathan up? Was Monica highly sexualized (is that a word) around the boy and realized it only after the fact? And, that's why she's so overkill protective now? I can just picture Monica running around the house in tight dresses acting all Marilyn Monroe-ish. Which just made me think that's interesting about Monica that she seems to only know how to appeal to men in a sexualized way. Okay that was three questions I'm gonna shut up now.

 

I think Nathan was a true psychopath, a bad seed from the very beginning and not the result of his environment (though environment worsened it). One of the red flags of a psychopath is killing animals. Nathan killed Eva's pet cat, breaking its neck and leaving the body on her bed. That said, I'm sure Monica becoming his stepmother could have been a trigger to his eventually turning sexually violent - her so beautiful and sexy and his father so enamored that he paid little attention to Nathan once Monica entered the household.  He was 12 years old and thus barely pubescent when he began raping his two-years-younger stepsister.

 

Regarding the majority ownership of Vidal records .... the helplessness Gideon went through as a child (his father's crimes/suicide and then the sexual abuse) left him with very serious control issues, and not just in the bedroom. He equates wealth with a sense of security, and he has a tendency to use money to seek to control people. Look at how he first got access to Eva, by hiring her boss for the vodka PR campaign. It makes sense he would exert control over his family through his own massive wealth. I hope we learn more of the Vidal records backstory in Entwined: did Christopher Sr. ask Gideon to bail out the record company, or did Gideon seize control on his own? My guess is the latter. And how old was Gideon when he did this? I'm guessing early 20s - as soon as he had enough money to buy the shares. Is this the reason he chose entertainment companies as the foundation of his wealth, to get back at his mother and stepfamily?

 

Christopher was only five years old and Elizabeth was pregnant with Ireland when Gideon was put into therapy. The main therapist who was supposed to work with Gideon ended up spending all her time with Elizabeth to help her through a difficult pregnancy, and the doctoral student who was the abuser was left alone with Gideon. I think Elizabeth Vidal lied through her teeth to Eva about having asked Christopher anything. Remember, at the time of the confrontation between the two women, Elizabeth knew (because she asked Eva) that Gideon hadn't told Eva anything. Eva's suspicions were all based purely on witnessing Gideon's nightmares. Eva ultimately decided against confronting Christopher because "He'd been a child himself, living in a dysfunctional home." (Reflected page 326)

I'm curious about Gideon's remark "come home and be bad with me." Home where?

 

His apartment is what I gather, from the hint she dialed his cell because it was the number she "had memorized." But if it's dangerous for him to be at her apartment, wouldn't the reverse hold true, it being dangerous for her to go to his? 

 

So, has he figured out a way to sneak her in and out of his apartment. Or is "home" actually a third place, a secret love nest the pair of them have together?

Sylvia posted somewhere (Facebook or Twitter) that Entwined will pick up immediately where Reflected left off without a break in the story.

 

Reflected picked up nearly where Bared left off. Bared ended with Eva and Gideon resolving (for then anyway) the fight they had over the fact Eva got blindsided about Corrine's existence. As Bared ends, they left for his apartment to stay the night. Reflected begins  the next morning at his place.