GiGi

She didn't. Victor and Dr. Travis and all of the other people who helped her did.

Ciao Gabri, You make a very good point about Eva and her wanting to be a dutiful daughter. I wonder whether her entire experience of having been raped and brutalized for so many years affected her outlook on life in that she may have felt that somewhere deep down she got what she deserved. Victims often feel like they must have done something to deserve being raped. Eva was at such an impressionable age and I think that there must have been a lot psychological torture that Eva endured while being raped.  I also wonder whether Eva feels guilt for her mother's decision to keep her. Had Monica not gotten pregnant, she never would have been disowned by her family. Therefore if Eva had never been born, all things in Monica's life would have gone more smoothly.  I think that Eva also feels guilty for being raped in that her mother left the marriage when she found out about the abuse. Eva stated in the book that her mother left a happy marriage, so I think that must have coloured how Eva dealt with her mother. It seems that Eva's origination was the source of many problems for Monica. I think that Eva may have connected the two thoughts together, so she strived to be the good daughter and tries not to cause her mother too many problems. What do you think? What does everyone think?Â

Hi Julie54, I think our Eva had the advantage right from the very beginning! I just don't think she knew the power that she wielded over Gideon. I still wonder whether she realizes just how much power she has over Gideon. What do you think? What does everyone think?

Hi everyone, My favourite quote from Chapter 3 is:  "Oh, Eva." Cross spoke my name in a decadent purr. "You're determined to drive me to my knees aren't you? What will it take to talk you into a threesome with B.O.B.?"  Ok, one more quick quote here:  "B.O.B. and I have a longtime understanding-when we're done with each other, we know exactly which one of  us has been used, and it isn't me. Good night, Gideon."   I really like those two quotes because I think it is the first time that someone had openly challenged Gideon and didn't just fall at his feet when he made a play for sex. Way to go Eva!Â

Hi Donnad, That's exactly why women wear garters on their wedding day/night. They don't stay on for long but the packaging looks great in the mean time. I would suspect that many, many, many men would enjoy this. Â

 Hi Kirsten, I was wondering do you think that Eva still holds a torch for Brett or do you think that given the circumstances Eva decided to punish Gideon for how he had been acting towards her. When I went back and read the scene over again, it was Brett who grabbed Eva. Brett closed in on Eva's space and Eva had nowhere to go or no way to retreat. If I am not mistaken it was Brett who initiated the kiss as well.  It seemed like Eva was going to get kissed whether she wanted to or not. Could it be that for one split second, Eva fell back into that submissive role with Brett. He took what he wanted without taking Eva's feelings into consideration (just like he used to treat her like crap when she slept with him wherever and whenever he could and then went and bragged about it to his friends).  Eva never mentioned Brett and she found out about him and his band she did everything within her power to avoid him. The memory of Brett and how she acted while she was with him, brought back memories of shame and regret. Eva didn't really mention a physical attraction until he forced his kiss on her and she finally responded. Is that really attraction or is that just a fond memory being relived? What do you think? What does everyone think?Â

Hi everyone, Something else just occurred to me, we are all basing our speculations on snippets. Is our Gideon as insecure as he appears to be or are we all being sent on a wild goose chase? All we have to go on are the final words that Gideon and Eva spoke to one another at the end of RIY and those words seemed very positive to me. It didn't seem like one or the other was going to leave their love. He caught me to him, his arms banded tight around me. His face pressed into my throat. "Where do we go from here." I held him. "Wherever this takes us. Together." Those words seem really positive to me. I also think that there is a lot of hope for these two. Could it be that there won't be as much drama in the next book? What does everyone think?

Hi everyone, Just when I thought I was going to get a reprieve here, I lost yet another one of my postings. So here I go again (one day I will learn to copy and paste my responses just in case I lost yet another posting).  If Gideon did in fact kill Nathan for Eva (to be confirmed June 4th), then what difference would it make to Eva to have all of the information about what happened to Nathan? Eva would have known that on some level, Gideon loved or still may love her. Gideon never killed for Corinne or anyone else (we the reader know of or have speculated about). Gideon never slept with Corinne anywhere else but at the hotel.  Gideon slept with Eva in many different locations and both initiated s** equally. Whatever Gideon may have been saying to Eva, his actions spoke volumes. He eliminated Eva’s greatest physical threat. Would those actions not have been enough to allay Eva’s insecurities? Would Eva need to know everything all at once or could she look at the situation and say to herself that she will eventually get all of the pertinent facts from Gideon one day?Â

Hi Sscrph, Is it me or does Gideon have some inkling that Eva isn't going to leave him for good? Sylvia described the final scene in EWY as Eva saying Where ever this takes us together." Wouldn't that have been enough of a clue for Gideon to know that Eva wasn't going to leave him? Is Gideon aware that the detective had been spilling her guts about the murder or did Gideon not bother to ask why Eva had come to his apartment?

Hi Kirsten, I am glad you got a good laugh out of it. I am sure that all the downtown business executives got a great laugh out of it too!  Picture me having one stocking completely rolling down my leg and me looking like a zeebra, one white leg, one black leg, it being the dead of winter and me having to take my shoe off in the middle of the street so I could yank that stocking off...sigh! I then had to yank the other one off because I would have looked even stranger walking around the downtown core with only one stocking on. Sigh!  I console myself by thinking that I am not the only woman in the world that this happened to. Surely this thing couldn't have only happened to me.

Hi AMC, Do you think that is why Gideon could never love Corinne? She looked too much like his mother? What does everyone think?Â

Hi Ript, Here we go again. What I had posted earlier and had disappeared was that regardless of what kind of apparatus Eva uses or one might use, I highly suggest using an actual garter belt system. I once used the "self adhesive" type or stay-up type of stocking. What I wasn't warned about was the fact that one of my stockings didn't want to stay up. I constantly kept having one stocking rolling down my leg, therefore giving one of my legs a nice wrinkly appearance (sort of like an elephant's knee), all while I was walking on a very busy dowtown street. I was trying to tame one wildly wayward stocking all while a bunch of business executives were watching this under garment fiasco play out. They were all just roaring with laughter and I was trying to pick up my stocking and quash my embarrassment. It was quite a sight!

Hey everyone, Did anyone see my "elephants knees" posting or did that disappear into the cyber space? This is what I get when I am just writing something off the cuff. Some of my best thoughts just vanish into thin air...or should I say cyber air.Â

Interesting. Is that a European saying or is it more universal? I always thought that being a brunette meant that person had some form or various of brown hair. Good point. Â

See what I mean? It seems that nothing is impossible when it comes to Gideon and Eva and the Crossfire series.Â

Hi Ript, I agree I hope that Sylvia addresses this whole mother daughter relationship in one of her upcoming books. It would be nice if Monica could get her act together. I am not holding my breath, but anything is possible and I can't judge Monica for something she hasn't done.Â

Hi Jls1216, One can only hope that the sequel will be released in August. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Hi Sscrph, I also just wanted to add that I think that regardless of where Monica started out she probably wasn't living in the same state as Victor during the time that she was married to Barker. I think that if Monica was living in th same state as Victor, then the temptation to keep tabs on Monica would have been too great. Victor would have had a police department at his disposal and as such I think he would have availed himself of all the perks of being an officer.  I also think that if Monica was living in the same state during the time when Eva was being raped and then Nathan charged, I get the feeling that Victor would have found out somehow. I think that someone would have tipped him off. I think that Victor is a good cop and probably has many friends on the police force and also friends at the DA's office who would have quietly slipped him the "head's up" about what was going on. I have absolutely nothing to go on other than how Sylvia presented Victor and I think that Victor is "good people". What do you think? What does everyone think?

 Hi Sscrph, I don't quite know what the system is like in the US, but in Canada, in order to graduate from either a four year degree program, a person would have to have a thesis (especially if they wanted a degree with honours). They would also have to argue said thesis in front of their faculty, but I can only speak from a scientific perspective. I had to argue a thesis in front of my faculty but it wasn't as in depth as say a Master's level degree would be argued in.  So I don't know how each University or each department handles their "programs" specifically.  Each department may do something different. I am not sure.  Sylvia didn't mention Eva arguing (or presenting her thesis) her thesis. Now maybe that is just splitting hairs, but most people who take their Masters degree usually reference that by saying they had to argue their thesis.  I think our US posters could probably address this with a little more knowledge. If she did do her Master's then yes, she probably would have been 24 years old or so, but again, the age of the graduating highschool student tends to be different between the US and Canada. We have a few differences in our schooling systems. Â

 Hi Sscrph, I really never thought about it before. I always thought that maybe Monica was from the east coast but who knows? Nothing is said or written about Monica's life other than the fact that she was disowned by her family for having Eva. I always figured that Victor was nothing more than a fling. I didn't read Monica's reaction to Victor (when she saw him at Eva's apartment as that of being regret over a lost love.  I found the writing of that entire scenario as being very odd. If Monica did love Victor then why not at least keep up some friendly contact with him. They share a child. So why the tight lip? If Victor had gotten over the fact that Monica tossed him off to the side then why not have contact with the mother of your child for the sake of the child? Why are these two avoiding each other? Something doesn't add up.  Could Monica have possibly had an affair with Victor every so often either during or in between her marriages? What do you think? What does everyone think?

Hi Sscrph, Isn't it funny (and somehow sad) that all Monica would need to do is to start actin like a mother. I know that she can't go back and do the things that mothers did with their daughters when they are small, but Monica could try and somehow she doesn't even seem to want to, or maybe she has just given up. I am not sure.Â

Sleep well. We wil catch up tomorrow.

You never know. Just when we the readers think we have everything figured out Sylvia throws us all a curve ball. At this point nothing would surprise me. You could tell me that Angus was Gideon's real father and that he had an affair with Elizabeth Vidal and somehow I probably would buy it. Sigh! How many more days until June 4th?Â

It is so strange because somehow I don't think that Vidal Sr. adopting Gideon would have solved anything. I think that Vidal Sr. didn't want Gideon to start with and I also think that no matter what Gideon may or may not have done wouldn't have helped the situation.   I really believe in my heart of hearts, that it takes a very special person to raise another man's son. I just don't think that Vidal Sr. was that type of man. If we look at Gideon's behaviour, it sounds like a kid who had given up all hope. What's the point of being a good kid when no one wants you and everyone hated your real dad?  I think that the problems with Vidal Sr. and Gideon began at the very beginning. Maybe he laid down and law with Gideon and Gideon balked. He was a five year old child after all and I would think that given all of the emotional upheaval that Gideon had suffered, he may have had a temper tantrum or two, because he verbally and emotionally didn't have the skill set to express how he felt. That type of scenario could have spelt a recipe for disaster (which in hindsight may have). What do you think? What does everyone think?

Hi Kirsten, What Sylvia describes is more of a friendship type of relationship than a mother-daughter relationship. It is incredibly odd, because the only other time that I get a sense of any kind of mothering is Eva's mothering of her mother. She is the one who takes her mother's feelings into consideration, she is the one who alters her actions and reactions to spare her mother's feelings. It is almost as if Eva walks on egg shells where her mother is concerned.  The only way that Eva seems to defy her mother is in the way that she deals with her relationship with Gideon and also through her fashion. She shows up in sweats and tells Gideon off, acts like herself (doesn't hide herself) just to appear like the "perfect" or "ideal" girlfriend. What do you think? What does everyone think?