Now, who wants to talk about how pathetic Magdalene is (on the female side) vs Trey (on the male side)?

[LN Cronan]

If anyone will push Corrine over an edge, it'd be Christopher Jr. Who is probably already at work effing with her mind in order to try to ruin (so he thinks) Gideon's chances of marrying Corrine.

 

Christopher is the guy who took shameless advantage of Magdalene's sexually-frustrated obsession with becoming Gideon's wife some day. And from the day Gideon started seeing Eva, Christopher has constantly been trying to find weak spots with Eva in order to exploit -- just because Eva had been Gideon's girlfriend.

[AMC]

He'd never sell out Eva literally. Nor ever deliberately trash Eva. But he's possibly a terrible gossip surrounded by other beautiful people who also are terrible gossips and who sometimes may pump him for inside info on the deal between his socialite roommate and her celebrity boyfriend.

 

 

Agree! And because of Cary's gossiping weakness coupled with occasional drug use, I think that Cary will inadvertently betray Eva and put their relationship to the test...

[LN Cronan]

Agree! And because of Cary's gossiping weakness coupled with occasional drug use, I think that Cary will inadvertently betray Eva and put their relationship to the test...

 

Cary quit doing drugs as a result of getting help from Dr. Travis, just like Eva quit being promiscuous. But lately, Cary has been in a precarious spot where drugs are concerned, and I'm worried he might start using again. Consider this:

 

• During the orgy, Cary was drunk and at least one of the other participants (the other guy) was high.
• Near the very end of Reflected, Eva had to remind Cary he can't drink while on his prescription pain pills (in fact, Eva made a point of bringing home sparkling cider instead.)
• Cary himself knew, and admitted openly to Eva, that the pain pills were high risk.

 

Sadly, it's not uncommon that people who successfully stop using drugs addictively end up relapsing over medically-necessary pain meds - that they don't stop taking the pills once they're not needed anymore. Because addiction has gotten them by the throat again. If this happens to Cary, he'll need Eva (and Dr. Travis) now more than ever.

[LN Cronan]

Hi LNCronan,

That theory is plausible but from the perspective that Corinne deluded herself from the beginning that she could have Gideon. I just think that Gideon didn’t help her along by falsely dating her. I think that maybe she had those thoughts to begin with, became disillusioned and then finally snapped.

I think that someone helped her go “over the edge†though. If it wasn’t Gideon who helped Corinne go over the edge, then who did the honours? It will be really interesting to see how the Corinne storyline plays out. What do you think? What does everyone think?

 

Corrine tried figuratively to make Gideon chase her all those years ago. She broke off the engagement, in order to force Gideon to fight for her. It was the biggest mistake of her life -- years later, she still regrets he never chased her.

 

The first time (and only time) Corrine has ever seen Gideon with Eva was at the fundraiser. Where she literally saw Gideon chase Eva when Eva fled -- that on top of literally fighting for Eva when another man (Lucas) was trying to take Eva away from the table and buy Eva a drink.

 

And I'm sure as soon as Gideon tore out the door, Magdalene, who had eavesdropped on the entire dinner, including the fight, would have told Corrine that in all the long years Magdalene has known Gideon, he had NEVER chased a woman before, despite several of them pulling just that sort of drama stunt.. Certainly, Magdalene told Eva herself on the phone the next day that Eva is the only woman she ever saw Gideon chase.

 

Watching Gideon run away from the dinner to go after Eva, and then being told on the spot by a "frenemy" Gideon has never ever chased a woman like that is what I believe made Corrine snap. She walked into that dinner a "good person" and walked out a "desperate woman." Who started fighting dirty for Gideon the very next day.

[GiGi]

 

I'm not making the mistake of thinking that Corrine must be normal, or even better that lesser mortals, just because she's stunningly beautiful, polished, comes from money and could have her pick of any man. And so she's not going to settle for anything less than worship from Gideon -- and that she's about to walk because after only a few weeks of seeing her again, Gideon has not yet proven his desire by making her his lover.

 

 

Truth of the matter is judging by the way she desperately chases Gideon, she's got even less self esteem on a good day than Eva on a bad one.

This is a woman who devoted three desperate years chasing Gideon -- to get him to even go out with her, then to sleep with her, then agree to marry her. Finally after three years, she threw down an ultimatum "start spending the whole night with me or I walk." She quit chasing -- and that's how she lost him. Biggest mistake of her life, she believes. Now she's chasing again, desperately chasing. The last thing she'd do right now is "prove you want me by making love to me or else I walk." 

Corrine is dysfunctional. So is the beautiful, polished, comes from money Eva -- though Eva has gotten help for it and thus made progress, she's still hot mess as the result of having been brutally victimized when she was. young. Gideon, who is ultimately hot and insanely rich is an even hotter mess because of the same sort of demons. Who knows what demons drive Corrine to avoid looking inward and instead focus all her attention outward on chasing another human being just out of her reach. Who has always been just out of reach.

I think the very fact Gideon still is just out of reach is what will continue to make Corrine keep trying desperately now to land him. In her own twisted way, she probably believes that if only she tries hard enough, she will finally reach him, and getting him will magically fix what's broken inside of her, making her life perfect. An all too common dysfunctional way certain codependent people self-sabotage their own relationships and their own lives.

 

She's in the same lather-rinse-repeat cycle she started a decade ago:  she if she chases, the same thing will happen: Gideon will openly make her his girlfriend, then he will sleep with her, and ultimately he will marry her. It could take months to become the girlfriend/lover and maybe a couple of years to become the wife, but she'll wait.

 

Hi LNCronan,

“...Worship from Gideon...†easy now sister! Come back from the edge (just kidding)! Again you have completely vilified a woman who did nothing but fall in love with a man who didn’t love her! No, sorry I don’t count... “I guess “I loved her in my own way...†as love! I think that Gideon may have wanted to love her but in the end he just wasn’t able to. There are several references in RIY which allude to this sentiment, which I won’t bore you with, but I can go and hunt them down if you wish.

You either love someone or you don’t. Gideon didn’t! Gideon was never able to open up to Corinne allow her to see the real him, never slept with her at his apartment, never spent an entire night with her, and never confided in her about his past! All those actions show that Gideon didn’t love Corinne! That isn’t sinister, Gideon just wasn’t capable of love at that time and she wasn’t the one that was supposed to bring that out in him. It was a bad situation that Gideon made worse by staying in the relationship.

Have you ever thought that Corinne may have started out alright but slowly lost her self esteem and self respect because of the way that Gideon was treating her during their relationship? Corinne would have been a young adult at the time and as such maybe wasn’t a seasoned pro at the relationship gig. She meets Gideon and falls instantly in love with him and does what most women would do, she chased him and caught him. Only the relationship wasn’t panning out the way she was hoping. Gideon used a lot of psychological control techniques on Corinne.

• Gideon controlled the s**

• Gideon controlled where they would have s**

• Gideon may have shut down when Corinne would ask or try to initiate something new in the bedroom.

• I think that Corinne DID TRY to talk to Gideon about what was going on in their relationship but Gideon most likely shut her down.

• The theory presented makes Corinne sound like a mindless Stepford Wife- she was a young, beautiful woman who would most likely have been raised to voice her opinions and express her feelings.

• I think that inadvertently Gideon took that away from her.

It is like you said, Corinne was young, rich, beautiful and on the way to becoming well educated. She could have had anyone that she wanted. There would have been no way that she would have been that twisted from the get-go. I think that Gideon may have had a serious hand in making her that way.

[GiGi]

 

He'd never sell out Eva literally. Nor ever deliberately trash Eva. But he's possibly a terrible gossip surrounded by other beautiful people who also are terrible gossips and who sometimes may pump him for inside info on the deal between his socialite roommate and her celebrity boyfriend.

 

Hi LNCronan,

I could completely buy that scenario. :)

[GiGi]

 

Agree! And because of Cary's gossiping weakness coupled with occasional drug use, I think that Cary will inadvertently betray Eva and put their relationship to the test...

 

Hi AMC,

I could totally see something like that happening. I know that Cary had a substance abuse problem, but I don't know if he was completely abstaining from alcohol use.

When he and Eva got on the plane to go to Vegas, he had an alcoholic drink. Eva warned him then about mixing over the counter medications and alcohol. I wonder what kind of scenario Sylvia might come up with to play that storyline out? What do you think? What does everyone think?

[GiGi]

 

If anyone will push Corrine over an edge, it'd be Christopher Jr. Who is probably already at work effing with her mind in order to try to ruin (so he thinks) Gideon's chances of marrying Corrine.

 

Christopher is the guy who took shameless advantage of Magdalene's sexually-frustrated obsession with becoming Gideon's wife some day. And from the day Gideon started seeing Eva, Christopher has constantly been trying to find weak spots with Eva in order to exploit -- just because Eva had been Gideon's girlfriend.

 

Hi LNCronan,

How would Christopher Jr. gain Corinne's ear? Thus far, the reader is led to believe that Christopher Jr. and Corinne may have never spent any real time together. Gideon wouldn't have taken her home to meet his family or invited his family over to his house.

Somethng else just came to mind, if Gideon explicitly warned Eva to stay away from his brother, then wouldn't Gideon have done the same to Corinne? Why would Gideon want to put Corinne in harms way by having contact with his younger brother?

If Corinne had indeed been warned about Christopher Jr. by Gideon, why would she disregard that warning? Something about that doesn't make sense. What do you think? What does everyone think?

[LN Cronan]

   

Hi LNCronan,

How would Christopher Jr. gain Corinne's ear? Thus far, the reader is led to believe that Christopher Jr. and Corinne may have never spent any real time together. Gideon wouldn't have taken her home to meet his family or invited his family over to his house.

Somethng else just came to mind, if Gideon explicitly warned Eva to stay away from his brother, then wouldn't Gideon have done the same to Corinne? Why would Gideon want to put Corinne in harms way by having contact with his younger brother?

If Corinne had indeed been warned about Christopher Jr. by Gideon, why would she disregard that warning? Something about that doesn't make sense. What do you think? What does everyone think?

 

I'm basing my theory on something Eva knows (and thus we readers know) -- Christopher has had a habit of taking every opportunity he can to approach Eva, from the advocacy dinner that was her first date with Gideon to the supper club she was at post-Gideon break-up. On his own, Christopher got Eva to attend that garden party, knowing full well Gideon would never show up (hah! - wrong about that!). Twice, he's jumped at the chance to go to lunch with Eva.

 

Too, judging by the fact Christopher had successfully seduced Magdalene, who to the world appeared to be Gideon's most serious girlfriend before Eva arrived on scene, it's safe to say he had been relentless in his pursuit of her. I can't see Magdalene as having started out chasing Christopher -- it must have been the other way around, with Christopher looking for vulnerabilities to exploit.

 

Why wouldn't he try similar techniques with Corrine , approaching her every chance he could, inviting her places, like he had with Eva (and obviously did with Magdalene as early steps to seducing her)?  Christopher is very charming, and it would be child's play to manipulate Corrine into thinking she ought to get to know him (Christopher) better -- after all, some day he'll be her brother-in-law (hah!)

 

As for Gideon's repeated warnings to avoid Christopher, at first Eva herself repeatedly disregarded Gideon's order. Gideon never revealed any good reason why she should stay away. Because he refused to talk about family dirt period. Eva found out on her own, thanks to Cary's video tape, the "real" Christopher is a creep.

 

So why should Corrine automatically blindly accept Gideon's order "stay away from Christopher." Gideon isn't going to give her any actual reasons why. Corrine might simply think it's Gideon being his usual possessive self, nothing more. Even Eva herself guessed (wrongly) Gideon's stay-away-from-Christopher was possessiveness -- Gideon just not liking the fact Eva danced with the guy and accepted a party invitation from him.

[LN Cronan]

If anything, Corrine might latch onto Christopher efforts to "bond" with her as a means for Corrine to ingratiate herself into the Vidal family. She'll probably try anything to tie herself to Gideon, and becoming close to his family would be yet another way to forge a connection (she'd foolishly think)

 

Especially because Corrine's goal is to marry Gideon -- and so she'd be marrying into the Vidal family. He might not like his family, but the estrangement is not absolute. He does have some contact, even though he refuses to step foot into the family home. But they are still his close blood kin, and Corrine has no clue his past history with them is actually so ugly it would be reasonable for him to disown his family (except maybe Ireland), blood kin or no.

 

Back in the day when she'd been Gideon's girlfriend and then fiancee, Christopher was just some kid in his early to mid teens. There wouldn't have been much reason for Corrine to spend one-on-one time with him. However, now he is a grown man, perfectly capable of on his own developing an adult tie with his possible future sister-in-law.(Hah!)  He could take Corrine out to lunch, meet her for coffee, or for a quick drink. It's just the sort of thing he'd do -- twice he jumped at the chance to have lunch with Eva.

[LN Cronan]

One more point to consider is Elizabeth Vidal could do the exact same thing as Christopher Jr. -- take the initiative to reach out to Corrine first. Elizabeth might not want to wait until the point where Corrine and Gideon marry (as Elizabeth surely hopes - hah!) in order to get to know Corrine.

 

Elizabeth could invite Corrine out to lunch, for coffee, spa days, shopping, all sorts of things that rich women of leisure do spending time with female peers. Especially in order to bring Ireland along so Ireland can get to know Gideon's "good" girlfriend Corrine. Ireland had gotten to know Eva just a little bit and in that short time got to really like Eva. But now Eva is just some crazed ex of Gideon's who got into Elizabeth's face and made wild accusations about old abuse claims that had been fat lies. All the more reason for Elizabeth to take the initiative on her own to reach out first and get to know Corrine better. Elizabeth would be making an ally of Corrine against Crazy Eva The Ex.

 

P.S. If Elizabeth were to spend "Ladies Who Lunch" time with Corrine, surely this would include Elizabeth's best friend, Mrs. Perez, who could bring along her daughter, Magdalene. Wouldn't that be a hoot!!! Two-faced Corrine being oh-so-sweet to poor dejected Magdalene, who never really had a shot at Gideon. Magdalene, with nothing to lose by being catty, pushing Corrine's buttons about the hot passion Gideon had shown for Eva. Hah!!!

[LN Cronan]

   

Hi LNCronan,

“...Worship from Gideon...†easy now sister! Come back from the edge (just kidding)! Again you have completely vilified a woman who did nothing but fall in love with a man who didn’t love her! No, sorry I don’t count... “I guess “I loved her in my own way...†as love! I think that Gideon may have wanted to love her but in the end he just wasn’t able to. There are several references in RIY which allude to this sentiment, which I won’t bore you with, but I can go and hunt them down if you wish.

You either love someone or you don’t. Gideon didn’t! Gideon was never able to open up to Corinne allow her to see the real him, never slept with her at his apartment, never spent an entire night with her, and never confided in her about his past! All those actions show that Gideon didn’t love Corinne! That isn’t sinister, Gideon just wasn’t capable of love at that time and she wasn’t the one that was supposed to bring that out in him. It was a bad situation that Gideon made worse by staying in the relationship.

Have you ever thought that Corinne may have started out alright but slowly lost her self esteem and self respect because of the way that Gideon was treating her during their relationship? Corinne would have been a young adult at the time and as such maybe wasn’t a seasoned pro at the relationship gig. She meets Gideon and falls instantly in love with him and does what most women would do, she chased him and caught him. Only the relationship wasn’t panning out the way she was hoping. Gideon used a lot of psychological control techniques on Corinne.

• Gideon controlled the s**

• Gideon controlled where they would have s**

• Gideon may have shut down when Corinne would ask or try to initiate something new in the bedroom.

• I think that Corinne DID TRY to talk to Gideon about what was going on in their relationship but Gideon most likely shut her down.

• The theory presented makes Corinne sound like a mindless Stepford Wife- she was a young, beautiful woman who would most likely have been raised to voice her opinions and express her feelings.

• I think that inadvertently Gideon took that away from her.

It is like you said, Corinne was young, rich, beautiful and on the way to becoming well educated. She could have had anyone that she wanted. There would have been no way that she would have been that twisted from the get-go. I think that Gideon may have had a serious hand in making her that way.

 

^^^^ THIS is exactly why I think Corrine is messed up. She got messed up by becoming deeply involved with a partner who himself is messed up. She lost herself in Gideon. Eva herself feared at times she would lose her own self in Gideon. Corrine actually did.

 

And this is why I believe Corrine would stay in the dysfunctional cycle, desperately chasing him, instead of growing a pair and walking away.

[jls1216]

I'm not sure that Elizabeth would reach out to Corrine. I think Elizabeth knows she is on thin ice with her son and she wouldn't want to push any buttons. I'm sure it made a big statement to Elizabeth when Gideon came to the house to get Eva. Especially since he never goes to that house. Elizabeth may not like Eva, but I'm sure she knows just how important she is to him.

[LN Cronan]

I'm not sure that Elizabeth would reach out to Corrine. I think Elizabeth knows she is on thin ice with her son and she wouldn't want to push any buttons. I'm sure it made a big statement to Elizabeth when Gideon came to the house to get Eva. Especially since he never goes to that house. Elizabeth may not like Eva, but I'm sure she knows just how important she is to him.

 

This is a good counter-argument, because Elizabeth would be running a risk trying to get close to Corrine. I think in Corrine's case, though, she'd risk it. She had to have had some contact with Corrine during the year-long engagement between Corrine and Gideon. Elizabeth probably assumes (incorrectly) Gideon is going to marry Corrine, because Corrine came running back to him, openly chasing him a society function where Gideon paid lots of attention to Corrine, ignoring Eva. Then a few weeks later, Gideon started seeing Corrine again.

 

Elizabeth has no clue how important Eva was (still is) to Gideon. Quite to opposite. Elizabeth met Eva only once, and Gideon was in his iciest mode at the time. For a couple of weeks at the start of the summer, Eva became simply the latest socialite photographed on Gideon's arm. Then nothing, nada, zip -- Eva vanished as quickly as she came (the real reason was as soon as Nathan showed up, Gideon immediately began avoiding any photo opps, posed or candid, with Eva.)

 

A couple of weeks after Eva vanished, Corrine emerged as the sole woman Gideon was socially escorting anywhere. And in order to protect himself from the cops, Gideon has been walking around acting like he doesn't give a d*** about Eva, now long gone from the public eye. Plus, Gideon most certainly wouldn't be denying any of the tabloid speculation he's back with his former fiancee. The whole point of those rumors is to protect himself from being charged with murder.

[GiGi]

 

I'm basing my theory on something Eva knows (and thus we readers know) -- Christopher has had a habit of taking every opportunity he can to approach Eva, from the advocacy dinner that was her first date with Gideon to the supper club she was at post-Gideon break-up. On his own, Christopher got Eva to attend that garden party, knowing full well Gideon would never show up (hah! - wrong about that!). Twice, he's jumped at the chance to go to lunch with Eva.

 

Too, judging by the fact Christopher had successfully seduced Magdalene, who to the world appeared to be Gideon's most serious girlfriend before Eva arrived on scene, it's safe to say he had been relentless in his pursuit of her. I can't see Magdalene as having started out chasing Christopher -- it must have been the other way around, with Christopher looking for vulnerabilities to exploit.

 

Why wouldn't he try similar techniques with Corrine , approaching her every chance he could, inviting her places, like he had with Eva (and obviously did with Magdalene as early steps to seducing her)?  Christopher is very charming, and it would be child's play to manipulate Corrine into thinking she ought to get to know him (Christopher) better -- after all, some day he'll be her brother-in-law (hah!)

 

As for Gideon's repeated warnings to avoid Christopher, at first Eva herself repeatedly disregarded Gideon's order. Gideon never revealed any good reason why she should stay away. Because he refused to talk about family dirt period. Eva found out on her own, thanks to Cary's video tape, the "real" Christopher is a creep.

 

So why should Corrine automatically blindly accept Gideon's order "stay away from Christopher." Gideon isn't going to give her any actual reasons why. Corrine might simply think it's Gideon being his usual possessive self, nothing more. Even Eva herself guessed (wrongly) Gideon's stay-away-from-Christopher was possessiveness -- Gideon just not liking the fact Eva danced with the guy and accepted a party invitation from him.

 

Hi LNCronan,

I think that we are comparing apples and oranges. If we look at Magdalene, then it could be argued that both Gideon and Christopher Jr. had equal exposure and therefore opportunity to have contact with her. In fact, I think that Christopher Jr. had more opportunities than Gideon. If Magdalene accompanied her mother on the visits then the person who would most likely have been at home would have been Christopher Jr. Gideon would have been away at school or out working while Christopher would have been of school age and thus still at home.

For whatever reason, Magdalene developed some sort of sexual relationship and the reader is led to believe that it had been an ongoing thing which suggests that these two characters had some sort of chemistry at least on some level. Even if Magdalene was jealous and needy and Christopher Jr. was “randyâ€, I don’t think that the two of them or either of them would have s** more than once if the s** was bad.

Now Eva, on the other hand was always only attracted and exposed to Gideon. Gideon also eventually convinced Eva that his brother was and is bad. What made it difficult for Eva to believe was the fact that Gideon was so secretive. I think that is why Eva disregarded Gideon’s warnings. She had to see for herself because she couldn’t trust what Gideon was saying. He was too busy keeping secrets.

Corinne on the other hand wouldn’t have had any exposure to Christopher Jr. at all. I am sure that Gideon would have given Corinne the same warning about how dangerous his brother was. Therefore I don’t think that Corinne would have had any voluntary contact with Christopher Jr. At that point Corinne wouldn’t have had any reason to doubt Gideon and they may also have been engaged. So it would behoove Corinne to listen to Gideon. What do you think?

[GiGi]

 

If anything, Corrine might latch onto Christopher efforts to "bond" with her as a means for Corrine to ingratiate herself into the Vidal family. She'll probably try anything to tie herself to Gideon, and becoming close to his family would be yet another way to forge a connection (she'd foolishly think)

 

Especially because Corrine's goal is to marry Gideon -- and so she'd be marrying into the Vidal family. He might not like his family, but the estrangement is not absolute. He does have some contact, even though he refuses to step foot into the family home. But they are still his close blood kin, and Corrine has no clue his past history with them is actually so ugly it would be reasonable for him to disown his family (except maybe Ireland), blood kin or no.

 

Back in the day when she'd been Gideon's girlfriend and then fiancee, Christopher was just some kid in his early to mid teens. There wouldn't have been much reason for Corrine to spend one-on-one time with him. However, now he is a grown man, perfectly capable of on his own developing an adult tie with his possible future sister-in-law.(Hah!)  He could take Corrine out to lunch, meet her for coffee, or for a quick drink. It's just the sort of thing he'd do -- twice he jumped at the chance to have lunch with Eva.

 

Hi LNCronan,

I don’t think that scenario would work. Firstly I don’t think that Corinne had any type of relationship with Elizabeth Vidal and secondly why would Elizabeth Vidal risk her very shaky relationship with her son to befriend Corinne? I don’t think that Elizabeth Vidal would take that risk.

If Corinne and Gideon weren’t dating then how would she explain her contacting them? If Corinne was seeing Gideon as you suggest, wouldn’t it be presumptuous of her to make contact with Gideon’s family without having been invited to do so? Or worse yet, how Corinne would explain talking with Elizabeth Vidal to Gideon. One would just know that Elizabeth Vidal would be on the phone with her son asking about Corinne and talking about how nice it was to meet her or talk to her. I think that Elizabeth Vidal would see this as a positive thing and not an intrusive thing. She probably would have thought that maybe Gideon suggested it in a round-about way.

I could definitely see that kind of scenario backfiring on both; Elizabeth Vidal with her son, and Corinne with Gideon. I just see him hitting the roof! What do you think? What does everyone think?

[GiGi]

 

One more point to consider is Elizabeth Vidal could do the exact same thing as Christopher Jr. -- take the initiative to reach out to Corrine first. Elizabeth might not want to wait until the point where Corrine and Gideon marry (as Elizabeth surely hopes - hah!) in order to get to know Corrine.

 

Elizabeth could invite Corrine out to lunch, for coffee, spa days, shopping, all sorts of things that rich women of leisure do spending time with female peers. Especially in order to bring Ireland along so Ireland can get to know Gideon's "good" girlfriend Corrine. Ireland had gotten to know Eva just a little bit and in that short time got to really like Eva. But now Eva is just some crazed ex of Gideon's who got into Elizabeth's face and made wild accusations about old abuse claims that had been fat lies. All the more reason for Elizabeth to take the initiative on her own to reach out first and get to know Corrine better. Elizabeth would be making an ally of Corrine against Crazy Eva The Ex.

 

P.S. If Elizabeth were to spend "Ladies Who Lunch" time with Corrine, surely this would include Elizabeth's best friend, Mrs. Perez, who could bring along her daughter, Magdalene. Wouldn't that be a hoot!!! Two-faced Corrine being oh-so-sweet to poor dejected Magdalene, who never really had a shot at Gideon. Magdalene, with nothing to lose by being catty, pushing Corrine's buttons about the hot passion Gideon had shown for Eva. Hah!!!

 

Hi LNCronan,

Again, I state that I don’t think that Elizabeth Vidal would contact Corinne because she would be too afraid of destroying her already shaky relationship with her son. That woman walks on egg shells with that boy and rightly so!

I think the fact that Elizabeth Vidal is trying to keep a relationship with her son is one of her redeeming qualities. What I think will be interesting is if Elizabeth Vidal atones for her horrendous mistakes (mistakes…doesn’t even describe just how badly she hurt her child).

If by some strange coincidence Elizabeth Vidal befriended Corinne I think that would be the end of her relationship with her son. I don’t think that relationship could stand another blow. What does everyone think?

[GiGi]

 

^^^^ THIS is exactly why I think Corrine is messed up. She got messed up by becoming deeply involved with a partner who himself is messed up. She lost herself in Gideon. Eva herself feared at times she would lose her own self in Gideon. Corrine actually did.

 

And this is why I believe Corrine would stay in the dysfunctional cycle, desperately chasing him, instead of growing a pair and walking away.

 

Hi LNCronan,

What you are assuming is that Corinne would have stayed broken. I think that leaving the relationship, entering another one (getting married) and physically separating herself from Gideon would have given Corinne the opportunity to gain some perspective on her relationship with Gideon. She had several years to think about what happened during their relationship then and now.

I don’t think that is realistic. Time always gives a person the opportunity to learn and to grow. I think that Corinne jumping back into a relationship with Gideon is what will screw her up again. Not the other way around.

If Gideon is in fact using Corinne then I think that he will be directly responsible for bringing up all of her old insecurities in a very cruel way. Who knows how Corinne will turn out in the next book?

[GiGi]

 

^^^^ THIS is exactly why I think Corrine is messed up. She got messed up by becoming deeply involved with a partner who himself is messed up. She lost herself in Gideon. Eva herself feared at times she would lose her own self in Gideon. Corrine actually did.

 

And this is why I believe Corrine would stay in the dysfunctional cycle, desperately chasing him, instead of growing a pair and walking away.

 

Hi LNCronan,

What you are assuming is that Corinne would have stayed broken. I think that leaving the relationship, entering another one (getting married) and physically separating herself from Gideon would have given Corinne the opportunity to gain some perspective on her relationship with Gideon. She had several years to think about what happened during their relationship then and now.

I don’t think that is realistic. Time always gives a person the opportunity to learn and to grow. I think that Corinne jumping back into a relationship with Gideon is what will screw her up again. Not the other way around.

If Gideon is in fact using Corinne then I think that he will be directly responsible for bringing up all of her old insecurities in a very cruel way. Who knows how Corinne will turn out in the next book?

[LN Cronan]

GiGi you made an excellent argument above about Corrine having had time (years) and distance (the Atlantic ocean between them) to think things over about how dysfunctional Gideon's relationship with her had been.

 

BUT .... As I see it, she never grew. Quite the opposite -- she's worse now than ever. To argue my case, below are your points in bold text with my counter arguments in italics.

 

You wrote: What you are assuming is that Corinne would have stayed broken. My point: That's exactly what did happen here. She spent years (let's estimate at least five) pining for Gideon still, despite all her radical efforts -- marrying another guy, leaving the country. That poor guy never had a chance, because Corrine never dropped the torch. And Corrine destroyed the marriage, leaving the guy, leaving the country -- running back to New York, where Gideon still was. Gideon himself told Eva he believes he was the cause of the marriage failing. THAT was the source of Gideon's guilty feelings, the feelings that Corrine manipulated in order to get Gideon to be a "friend she could lean on in her time of trouble." What Corrine was doing was step one of chasing Gideon again.

 

You wrote: I think that leaving the relationship, entering another one (getting married) and physically separating herself from Gideon would have given Corinne the opportunity to gain some perspective on her relationship with Gideon. My point: see above. The only "perspective" she gained was NO perspective at all. She decided the biggest mistake she ever made was walking away. She figured (correctly) she had blown it years ago when she attempted to manipulate Gideon into chasing her instead. And instead of accepting that fact, she decided to back track by chasing Gideon all over again.

 

You wrote: She had several years to think about what happened during their relationship then and now. My point: all she thought about "then" is how she did the wrong thing. All she's thinking about "now" is how to do the "right" thing again -- chase Gideon. That's what "worked" all those years ago. She bet that's what would work still.

You wrote: I don’t think that is realistic. Time always gives a person the opportunity to learn and to grow. My point: this is never always true. Just the opposite is true for people who stay stuck. And staying stuck is EXACTLY what happened with Corrine. 

 

You wrote: I think that Corinne jumping back into a relationship with Gideon is what will screw her up again. Not the other way around. My point: Oh h*** yes. That's the actual sad reality. Corrine came back to New York every bit as much messed up as when she left, and immediately did something crazy: chased Gideon in a very dramatic way -- in public no less. Crashed a fundraiser where he was certain to be with his new serious girlfriend. And upon finding out she'd blindsided the girlfriend in a horrible way, a girlfriend very insecure and jealous, did Corrine do the right thing by leaving? Oh no. Just the opposite. She monopolized Gideon right in front of Eva. For a brief time sat there in triumph at the dinner table, where he spent the entire meal talking only to Corrine. Other than to hold Eva's hand, he utterly ignored Eva, and everyone could see Eva was miserable. My God, what gossip would have come out of that dinner crowd. Rather than make any effort to include Eva in the conversation, Corrine cleverly steered her conversation to talking about special places she and Gideon used to go. 

 

Here's the CRUCIAL part -- just when Corrine thought she had triumphed spectacularly when Eva ran away, something shattering happened instead. Gideon dropped Corrine like a hot potato and chased after Eva. Figuratively and literally. After only a few weeks of dating him, Eva prompted Gideon to do the very thing Corrine had desperately failed to get him to do after three years of trying -- figuratively (and literally here) chase her (Eva, not Corrine.)  On the spot, something broke further inside Corrine. In under three minutes came more damage to Corrine than three years combined. So literally overnight, she changed from a basically good person to a deliberately desperate calculating b**** set out to destroy the true love Gideon had found.

You wrote: If Gideon is in fact using Corinne then I think that he will be directly responsible for bringing up all of her old insecurities in a very cruel way. My point EXACTLY. He IS using Corrine and it IS cruel. And for almost three straight weeks, Gideon had been FAR MORE cruel to Eva herself by very calculatedly hurting her. Deliberately putting her through utter h*** -- and then letting her stay there (because now it was too late to do anything about it) believing rape pictures of her caused Gideon to turn away from her body in disgust. After a shattered Eva called him that Saturday morning, did he corner Eva in an elevator on Monday? Nope. Not until an interview Brett gave hit the Internet telling the world he reconnected with Eva and was seeking another shot did Gideon do something. And that something wasn't to undo the cruelty. It was simply to try to manipulate Eva into, without giving her any good reason why, "wait". WAIT? Why should Eva? Oh yeah, because Corrine had. For years. Like Magdalene? Yeah, Magdalene waited too while Gideon f***** other women. He expected Eva to wait as well? That was cruel. He was still counting on the cops going away any day now -- and that just wasn't happening. The only thing that had happened was Gideon panicked over the thought that as soon as Brett could, he was gonna come running back to New York -- and Eva would turn to Brett yet again, like Eva already had twice because of Corrine.

 

Gideon, for all his wonderfulness on many levels, still is mostly the f****** up person he's been since childhood. Only very recently has he started -- started -- changing for the better. He's still got a ways to go. Right now, he's still hurting Corrine. But for the fact Eva learned the truth from the cops, he'd be hurting Eva still, leaving her hanging on half-promises while continuing to deliberately lie to her by omission, including continuing to "see" Corrine (because Gideon was still trapped -- the cops hadn't gone away.)

 

You wrote: Who knows how Corinne will turn out in the next book? My prediction: only June 4 will tell. My guess is that Corrine will start out even more desperate, now that she has figured out Eva didn't fall for the Gideon-Is-F*****-Me attempt -- and -- she believes 100% Gideon still wants no contact with Eva whatsoever. And may I remind everyone Corrine had VERY deliberately played on Eva's insecurities, so she's just as guilty as Gideon. How she ends up: maybe when she finally figures out she has no chance with Gideon (something Magdalene already has managed to do) then Corrine will at last drop the torch -- and at last be able to start moving on.

[GiGi]

 

Hi LNCronan,

Hold on a second here.  Corinne didn't quite crash the fundraiser.  She probably paid a lot of money to attend this charitable event.  She also has been a member in "high society" as well and as such could probably attend any charitable function on little or no notice.  The entire point of holding these events is to raise money and I am sure that Corinne did her part financially speaking.

 

Now you are correct in that Gideon didn't invite her or escort her to the event so in that sense maybe she crashed the event.  The rest of the evening I see as a woman's attempt at sizing up her competition.  If Corinne did come back to win Gideon, she did have a right to do so.  Gideon was married and as such was in a sense "fair game".  Is that a nice thing, no, absolutely not, but what is that saying..."all is fair in love and war...† Game on!

[GiGi]

Hi LNCronan,

I am not sure which is crueler, Gideon lying to Eva or Gideon lying to Corinne.  My money is on Gideon lying to Corinne.  At this point Gideon knows that Corinne is in love him.  Eva has made sure of that so he can’t turn a blind eye to that fact or claim that he didn't know. 

 

Eva has also pointed out the strange fact that Corinne’s apartment is so close to Gideon.  She has also expressed her concern over Corinne’s neediness and daily phone calls.  Gideon can’t plead the fifth about not knowing what the deal is with Corinne.

 

So for Gideon to use Corinne that ruthlessly (that is if Gideon is in fact “falsely dating†Corinne), is utterly despicable!  Eva has pointed out over and over again how unstable Corinne might be and Gideon’s exploitation of someone’s mental weakness isn’t acceptable.  If Corinne does snap (as you suspect), then I state that Gideon is directly and completely responsible for that!     

[GiGi]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to toss out a quick question to everyone in the forum.  What does everyone think about Cary's relationship with Tatiana?  Is it good, bad, or it doesn't matter?   

[sscrph]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to toss out a quick question to everyone in the forum.  What does everyone think about Cary's relationship with Tatiana?  Is it good, bad, or it doesn't matter?   

Hi Gigi, I am kind of wondering if it is starting to matter to both of them because the last time she came over to the apartment in the nurse outfit Cary stated that she was really upset that she didn't know about his situation sooner and that someone at the agency had just told her about it...and then he states "it's like she read my mind" he is of course referring to the naughty nurse outfit , so I think these 2 are quite compatible!!

[sscrph]

Also another note about Corinne, if Gideon does indeed break up with her and she SNAPS maybe it is she that Eva will be using her newly honed Krav Maga skills on only time will tell LOL