so the french shall reign

Very well. In fact, he's more than adept at welcoming criticism in all forms, and manipulating the objective to make said bringer of criticism feel as though he's taken it all on board, without ever really doing so.

This is a complicated thing to explain because I haven't had much of a chance to show Theo and the way he thinks. Short answer - he feels nothing, and unfortunately, has never felt anything strongly enough to change the trajectory of their relationship. Long answer - Theo is a functioning psychopath. Yvonne and everything that she stands for has always been something of a "save it for a rainy day," failsafe. Obviously, his main goal in life - beyond his legal firm and business etc, is revenge and retribution against Johnathan Pasrons for what he did to his friends in Porto Velho. Initially, she was a string that he intended to pull on to begin pulling apart the web woven around John. Admittedly, there were feelings there. Onlookers would have raved about the way he once looked at her, but in the end, his interest in ruining John was more than enough for feelings to be overlooked. If anything, they were more of a footnote in the grand scheme of Theo's life. If given the chance to bring John to his knees, he'd put a bullet between her eyes, no questions asked. The feelings still exist, they're not dormant. They remain as somewhat a screen between him and his goal - it skews his vision slightly, but not enough to blind him.

Still, it’s only the beginning, and he isn’t foolish enough to believe that he had what he wanted within arms reach just yet. There’s still too many factors, too many choices she has to make that might derail the plan he’s set with steel in his mind. Contingencies are the greatest failsafe, between Nicolas and Aurelie, he’d come to learn as much at an early age. One didn’t ever plan to lose everyone they considered to be family, and yet it happened - a preparation that Theo had been rather guilty in making for himself well before the time came. It held his heart together when it should have fallen to pieces. Would she know how to do so? Would someone else be there for her, or would she face the world from a lonely window? He knows that one day she’ll wish she’d thought about it more, planned for the day it happened. Then again, he supposes that it’s already too late for her now. Too late, as she orders another vodka soda, extra lime. Too late, as his hand reaches over the bar beside her, asking the bartender to put it on his tab. She doesn’t know it yet, but her whole life is about to change. He intends to make it so. Yvonne Rutherford is about to meet the love of her life. And Johnathan Parsons is going to regret letting him live.