Sharonm745

Eva said that they couldn't share the murder with the doctor because he would be obligated to go to the police.  I'm thinking they will work on the other issues from their past with the doctor.  God knows they have enough to keep them in therapy for years.  Gideon and Eva will work through Nathan's demise between themselves once they communication lines are more open. 

I don't want to go on and on about Monica again but really??? If it actually is true that Nathan violated Eva while the parents or Monica a herself were at a social function don't you think little Eva would have been clinging to her leg in tears or hysteria for her parents not to go out and wouldn't they have found that odd ?? I just don't get it . Let me put it this way , if GidEva ever have children, I don't think Monica will be called upon to babysit No Fu$kin way!!!!!!!

 

My guess is Eva didn't cling as much to Monica as should would have if her abuser was someone not in the house.  Nathan knew how to scare Eva and even went so far as to kill her cat when he recognized signs that she might tell.  My guess she was getting clingy and Monica guessed it.  I'll be that is when Nathan killed the cat and Eva backed away.  It is surprising how much children will try to protect their parents when it should be the other way around. 

 

I don't hate Monica as much as many of you do.  I think Nathan was controlling enough to get Eva to keep their secret.  Keeping the secret most likely, required Eva to act in a way that didn't alert her mom to any problems. 

I think Gideon contacted Giroux.  Eva suggested that Gideon wean Corinne off him so he is turning to her husband.  One thing I thought Corinne was already divorced.  I have to go back and read that section when I have a break.

Maybe now that Gideon is in a solid relationship with someone else Corrine's husband feels empowered to fight for her.  Gideon told Eva that he didn't understand how Corrine's husband let her go.  Gideon said if Eva loved someone else he would rather have a part of her than nothing at all. 

Re: Geoffrey Cross' suicide, I wonder whether Cross blew his head off at home, that Gideon (only five years old at the time and likely home himself) heard the shot, and ran to investigate -- and saw his dead body. This might explain what Gideon was a hot mess even before getting sexually assaulted. Perhaps the first childhood trauma he suffered wasn't simply the loss of a parent at a young age, that what happened was far, far more complicated and much worse.

 

Re: Monica, in Eva's nightmares, she's cried out for her mother and said stuff like "where's Mama." I wonder whether Monica was so into going to high society functions very often that Eva and Nathan were left home barely supervised by servants or a babysitter. Perhaps every time Nathan knew Monica and his father would be out very late, he took the opportunity to rape Eva?

 

I kind of think Gideon found his father.  I had a close friend in middle school who came home and found her father had hung himself.  She ran across the street to our house and my mom called the police.  I remember she went through a few years when she was acting out aggressively on occasion.  I suspect a young child wouldn't know how to articulate his/her feelings and would naturally throw things in frustration.

Or even, maybe by the time Eva was 10 years old and Nathan was 12 years old, Nathan was appointed to babysit Eva. Age 12 is around the neighborhood of when kids are old enough to be responsible for younger siblings, and is around the age that kids (especially girls) will start earning money by being babysitters. I myself started babysitting at age 12.

 

This is my thought too.  The first time I read it I thought Nathan was given responsibility to babysit Eva giving him more power over her.  I thought that Monica often attended functions to represent the family even when her husband was out of town.  Monica's desire to be with the "right people" left Eva & Nathan alone way too much.  It also broke my heart when Eva said the help had to know and they never told.  She was so alone.

One thing that bothers me about Corrine is Gideon's description of her.  "She's beautiful and sweet, and never had an unkind word to say about anyone."   She wasn't sweet and kind to Eva and Gideon didn't seem to recognize it.

What?? Who is that???

 

Is this Deanna (reporter) Johnson?  Is she going to reveal secrets?  These clues are making me nervous.  I hope we don't have to wait until book 5 before there is some happiness for Eva & Gideon.

OK ladies I signed up for audible books and received Reflected as my book.  I figure I'll start with the one we are going to start reading instead of the one we are finishing.  I use to get books on tape when I had an hour and a 1/2 drive to work but now I'm only in the car about 15 minutes.  Maybe I'll take the long way for the next couple weeks.

SD said it would be up to them. But she will do her part and have the book in by the deadline..! She says she's almost done writing book 4 so maybe we won't have to wait that long for it..! I'm assuming well get it after, Afterburn but MAYBE before Aftershock.. And the 5th book at some point next year..!? ( just guessing)

 

I would love to have the skill and imagination to tell stories like this.  I admire good writers.

Actually, the cop wanted to cite them for public indecency, based on Eva straddling Gideon's lap, Gideon running his hands all over Eva, the pair of them visible through the windshield (they were in the driver's seat). They were pulled over, not blocking traffic. The cop let them off with a warning instead - telling them to knock it off and move on. (Page 321). The cop may have run the license plate.

 

I remember I'm just thinking that he cut them some slack because of the rain.  They were dressed.  I'm sure there is more to it but I hope not.

I looked at the picture again and it looks like a dance pose.  There was a snippet about them dancing around the kitchen island making their own memories.

 

 

 

I think Gideon's life would have unraveled eventually regardless.  There would have been another catalyst that would have brought all the baggage out at least Eva loves him and will help him through it.

He'd resumed spiraling out of control again near the end of Reflected -- two days in a row, he did a very dangerous thing by approaching Eva in front of witnesses, including having lengthy contact with her the second day.

 

His whole stupid plan of pushing her away was insane to begin with, but he ought to have come out and asked her for a "break" in the relationship. Barring that, he ought to have cut off all contact as soon as he killed Nathan. He at last figured out he needed to by the weekend, because Detective Graves was already starting to suspect he still was in love with Eva.

 

For eight days, he managed to control himself, whatever the agony to himself. He had absolutely no contact whatsoever. But then the specter of Brett declaring publicly he and Eva had reconnected and he planned to woo her sent Gideon into a panic. He changed his tune from "trust me" to "wait."

 

I wonder whether the cop who spotted the pair of them looking practically indecent in the front seat of his Mercedes Tuesday morning ran the license plate -- and thus that tender-looked-like-sexual contact got back to Graves. Perhaps that's what triggered Graves approaching Eva on Wednesday evening, setting in motion Graves' plan to undo the lie Gideon left Eva.

 

I'm not sure the officer would run the plates.  It was pouring down ran and I suspect he wanted them to just move on so traffic would flow.  The patrol cops that I know would let that slide but then again, they aren't NYC cops. 

I have a question. 

 

Does anyone know anything about the publishing business?  Sylvia said she is halfway through Book 4.  If it takes 2 or 3 more months for her to finish (I don't know if that is reasonable since she has so many other books in the works) how long does it take for a finished manuscript to get to the publisher & then to market?  I know ETY is not the norm this has taken way too long.

Has anyone else thought it could be Christopher Vidal Snr afterall Gideon is major stockholder in this company, maybe that is his payback and the house gives Gideon bad memories, maybe that is all tied in together.

 

Just a thought .....

 

I think this sometimes.  Maybe his father threatened Jr. so he wouldn't confirm what was going on, however, the book seems to indicate it is the doctoral student. 

 

One thing I've noticed on the re-read that Gideon doesn't really hate Jr.  He said he has tried over the years he has tried to right their relationship with money, time, conversation, etc. but Jr. just won't have any of it.  Instead Jr. tries to hurt people who are close to Gideon.  I'm thinking that C.Jr is have issues dealing with what he knows happened to Gideon.  He probably didn't understand what was going on when he was 5 but now, as an adult, he has put it all together. 

To answer can secrets protect or harm?  I think both.  It depends on the secret and the reason for not sharing. 

Can secrets protect or harm?

 

 

I think it is Gideon's office too.  I do hope the frosted glass is a little heavier than this.  If not, Scott will have a good show.

LN Cronan

One thing that does bother me though is Gideon sneaking into Eva's apartment in the middle of the night, that week he started deliberately hurting her, to try to soothe her by making love to her for hours. Soothe her even though the very next day, he was going to act like she didn't existed in the middle of an important business meeting and then was going to take Corrine to that party, making sure he got photographed looking like he and Corrine were intimate. Gideon, Gideon, Gideon -- still thinking making love to Eva is the cure for her insecurities. What he did that Wednesday night in a way constitutes a so-called "mercy f***" -- slang for having sex with someone fully intending to let them down afterward.

After you mention that night, and how badly he treated Eva. There is a paragraph I love from that night

Tears slid in rivulets down my temples, the protective numbness I'd felt earlier falling away, leaving me exposed. I'd been withering without him, the world around me losing its vibrancy, my body hurting from its separation from his. Having him with me...touching me....was like rain in a drought. My soul unfurled for him, opening wide to soak him in.

I loved him so much.

Oh Gideon?

Just a couple comments after reading posts from today.

 

Dr. Lucas—He knows that he lied about Gideon’s abuse as a child.  Not only does he know about the abuse but he intentionally lied about it.  His lies kept Gideon in the abusive environment which meant the abuse continued for some time.  Like Eva said, Gideon & Anne Lucas were adults and made a consensual decision to enter into an adulterous relationship. 

 

Dr. Lucas knows the reason Gideon struck out at his family but he is unwilling to take any responsibility for his own actions.  Let’s face it for all we know Anne may have wanted to get back at her husband for some reason too.  In my opinion it is easier for Lucas to blame Gideon for his shortcomings than to look inward and take personal inventory.  Generally this type of person is weak and looking for a way to gain power.  I suspect that is why Lucas turned to the reporter.  He is still trying to gain power over Gideon.   If I remember my psychology class (from many years ago) this type of personality is sometimes a predator.  Knowing that fact can shine a different light on the great (or not so great) Dr. Lucas.  Not only that it must drive Lucas crazy that Gideon went from an abused young child to one of the most successful men in the country.  Gideon has real power.

 

Gideon – I know many are upset with the way he treated Eva (I’m one) at the Waldorf but in all fairness Gideon is learning things about relationships that many of us learn as we grow up.  I’m not sure that there was a lot of love in the Vidal household and if there was I suspect that it was withheld from Gideon.  He didn’t have relationships with young girls as a teenager.  His first consensual relationship was with Corrine and, in all honesty, that wasn’t completely healthy or satisfying for either of them. 

 

I think Gideon was trying to do the right thing by Eva. He didn’t want Corrine to hurt her and therefore tried to manage Corrine. I believe that he thought as long as he held Eva’s hand she would understand that he was thinking about her.  Unfortunately he was wrong.  Then to compound the problem, Gideon didn’t share the Nathan issue with Eva and she was completely blindsided by his change in behavior.  I still think his heart was in the right place but he screwed up royally. 

 

Corrine – hate her.  Enough said.

 

Magdalene – I haven’t decided about her yet.  In some ways I think she is on Eva’s side but, then again, I think she was in cahoots with Corrine in the beginning.  I think I have to wait for the next book to see how she shakes out.

 

Det. Graves -- really hate her.  I'm praying she gets demoted back to traffic cop. 

Part of me thinks, and I've said this before, that they will marry so Eva can't testify against Gideon. Perhaps her way of taking control is for her to initiate the wedding to save Gideon from prison. Proving how much she loves him.

Yes I know its not very romantic, Gideon saved her life, she could save his.

Thy can do a romantic wedding at a later date properly.

 

It wouldn't help to marry now to keep from testifying.  As I understand the law, it doesn't cover crimes committed before the marriage occurred. 

She knows now Gideon loves her, has loved her all along. She knows he risked everything to save her. All along she's known he would never deliberately physically harm her.

 

But she knows he deliberately emotionally harmed her. There's a difference between forgive and forget. She's forgiven him for pushing her away, and she's decided to go back to him. But she's smart enough to not let what happened simply slide, now that she's seen that manipulative side of him. She's smart enough to not simply trust it could never happen again.

 

Gideon is going to have to work harder than he's ever worked for anything else to earn back her trust. He'd been begging her, while in the midst of hurting her, to "trust" him. I think now he realizes that in fact he destroyed her trust.

 

In the meantime, New Eva isn't ever going to put up with his control-freak attempts to micromanage her ever again. She's not going to enable his dysfunctional behavior in that department any more. This is a very good thing, I think that will make it possible for them to work out long term. 

 

I agree that Eva is going to start to set some guidelines for their relationship and Gideon is going to work hard to follow them because he sees that his way was not good for their relationship.

Regarding Gideon/Eva/Brett issues. I believe Eva is very aware of how her actions can hurt others (thanks to Dr. Travis's therapy).  She loves Gideon and she won't lead Brett on.  With regards to the question can a song change the way you feel?  I think Eva answered that question already when she told Cary it's better than a song titles "Tapped That". 

I don't see Gideon as a murderer. I see a man who was protecting the love of his life. Eva has been failed by her mother. I would do the same for the people I love. What we need to understand here is Nathan was going to kill Eva. Gideon acted quick and thank goodness.

 

I agree.  He explained that the options were a restraining order or increased security.  Restraining orders rarely work when a stalker is a real nut case like Gideon and increased security would make Eva crazy.   I think that is the one thing that Graves was honest about "Nathan Barker was going to kill you.  Maybe not next week. Maybe not next year.  But someday."  Gideon wanted Eva safe even if it meant he lost her.  Even if it is legally "justifiable homicide" I consider it justified murder.

Snippet two goes with snapshot two IMO

 

Part of the snippet says:

His eyes opened, stunning me with those vivid blue irises. He gave me a lazily seductive onceover that made my heart skip a beat. “Hmm… You’re wearing the ###### me look,†he drawled.

“And that would be because you’re so extremely fuckable,†I shot back. “Waking up to you is like… presents on Christmas morning.â€

 

Here's the snapshot:

 

I know.  I was in a hurry when I posted and didn't proof read.  I was responding to a post that thought the man's hands clenching the sheets was to chapter 2 but it is labeled chapter 15.  Thanks for correcting.