You know, this had a really good start. I loved how the normal blackmail for sex/marriage/mistress trope was usurped and replaced for blackmail for a game of chess. But then they just had to ruin it all with his not telling her the watch wasn't stolen and using the belief it was to get her to sleep with him from the chess game. I wouldn't have minded him using a chess game to bed her, IF she had NOT been under the impression that the watch was missing, and he had, instead, said, "Hey, I like you, how about an 'adult' game of chess?" Then the whole thing with Grazia was just WAY too over the top. Both her independent action of telling Kathy that she and Sergio where back together, and Sergio basically allowing Kathy to almost believe it.
It would have been MUCH better had Grazia said something like "He'll leave you soon enough, once EVERYONE realizes the truth about you. He'll realize he should never have gotten engaged to you, etc." And THEN Sergio would have said he'd deal with it and Grazia, not let Kathy make the statement, have the paparazzi fake the photos and Kathy come see him, he proved her innocence and they clear everything up. It just would have flowed more smoothly and been SO MUCH better. But nope. The author just had to go with the tropes and ruin it all.
You know, this had a really good start. I loved how the normal blackmail for sex/marriage/mistress trope was usurped and replaced for blackmail for a game of chess. But then they just had to ruin it all with his not telling her the watch wasn't stolen and using the belief it was to get her to sleep with him from the chess game. I wouldn't have minded him using a chess game to bed her, IF she had NOT been under the impression that the watch was missing, and he had, instead, said, "Hey, I like you, how about an 'adult' game of chess?" Then the whole thing with Grazia was just WAY too over the top. Both her independent action of telling Kathy that she and Sergio where back together, and Sergio basically allowing Kathy to almost believe it.
It would have been MUCH better had Grazia said something like "He'll leave you soon enough, once EVERYONE realizes the truth about you. He'll realize he should never have gotten engaged to you, etc." And THEN Sergio would have said he'd deal with it and Grazia, not let Kathy make the statement, have the paparazzi fake the photos and Kathy come see him, he proved her innocence and they clear everything up. It just would have flowed more smoothly and been SO MUCH better. But nope. The author just had to go with the tropes and ruin it all.