I've already said it, but here again is why I don't like Cleo & Co. Madi rightfully stood up for herself and told those posers in NY the truth, yet they've done such a job on her over the years that she feels like she needs to be forgiven; feels that she somehow betrayed them...and she STILL paid for her selfish, jealous, no-count cousin's schooling--as a sort of down-payment on that possible forgiveness.
Home was synonymous with family and I was now an outcast. I consoled myself with the fact it hadn’t even been a full week since the blow-out. Maybe Aunt Cleo would forgive me and call. I had sent Jenny that cheque, that had to give me some sort of edge.
The words traitor and ungrateful jumped before my eyes and my mind put them into the correct order. I felt like an ungrateful traitor.
And there is toxicity on the other side of the Atlantic too. I know Matt hasn't been present for some of the things his parents have done, but now that he knows what they are capable of, I hope he will be more diligent about keeping them away from Madi.
He also needs to at least make an effort to value her work and the things that are important to her as much as he does his own business. These two come from totally different backgrounds, socio-economic stratas and their chances of making it work are lower than normal because of it. Add family pressure and their individual personal baggage and it's is going to be a struggle. It already is, but in spite of the odds, I think they can make it, but they are both going to have to exercise a LOT of trust as well as be willing and able to fight like the dickens for and with each other against the opposition.
As for Matt's parents, what kind of parent wants to inflict the same misery they are enduring on their child? Even if she thinks Madi is completely wrong for her son, Matt's mother should at least recognize when her son is happy. If Portia doesn't think the relationship is appropriate, if she is so sure that it's a phase, why not wait it out? She acknowledges that her son is like his father; she heard her husband say that a man will do almost anything to have a woman look at him the way Madi looks at Matt, and she already knows Matt is willing to cut relations with them in defense of Madi, so why does she keep pushing and plotting in spite of her husband's advice? I have to wonder if there isn't a little unconscious envy/jealousy involved.
1
Portia Bradley was silently fuming. She hadn’t spoken one word on the trip from the restaurant to the hotel they were staying at tonight. Right now she wanted nothing more than to curl up in her own bed and lick her wounds. Matthew’s continued defence of his supposed girlfriend was mind boggling.
2
Hannah was her pride, had married well and given them their beautiful granddaughters. She, like her brothers, had a brilliant mind. But like her mother, she had focused on her husband, her children; instead of furthering her career. That woman Matt was currently involved with didn’t seem the type to sacrifice her own needs for his.
3
Portia exhaled in anger. What spell had that woman woven around her son? What was it about her that drew Matthew, a man so much like his philandering father, to her side? Why was he so infatuated with Madison DuMont?
Portia is apparantly still in love with her husband, but also intent on punishing him, not forgiving him, for some past sin--probably infidelity. If she, a woman with all the advantages of beauty, birth, breeding, education and wealth, couldn't keep the interest of the man of her choice, in spite of giving up a possible career to support him and their family, it must burn her to see someone like Madi, with only the advantage of beauty and with a demanding career of her own, not only attaching, but in the face of all kinds of opposition, HOLDING the interest of her son--a man so much like the man she loves (and hates). I wonder if along with her conscious bigotry/superciliousness she subconsciously resents the further loss' that Madi represents.
Portia's life is her family and her social position (note how many times she describes something as 'embarassing') and part of that social position is dependent on how the world she lives in perceives her family and her place in it. So, she cannot/will not allow anything to 'tarnish' that perception and thus her own value. Her husband is unfaithful but discreet, her father-in-law tolerates her, her friends pounce on any opportunity to gossip about her and now for the second time a son is defying her.
Makes me wonder if her near rabid resistance to Matt and Madi as a couple is just as much about Portia maintaining her place and her pride as it is about Madi not fitting into their world.
