Spoilers for the ending of The Partner by John Grisham
I finished this book last week and for the life of me I can’t figure out the motivation behind why Eva runs with the money at the end. It seems to go against her character and all her apparent motivations during the rest of the book.
Throughout the book she has full control of the money and is the only character who knows where it is. She sends $113 million of it to Patrick to pay back the fraud so he can be released. She clearly cares about Patrick a lot. She puts herself and her family in incredible danger. She travels under a fake passport to and from the US repeatedly in order to aid in his defense by supplying evidence of the fraud. For probably half the story she doesn’t even know that people are looking for her, yet she is terrified and paranoid about what will happen to her.
When her father is kidnapped she is completely distraught. She almost flees to go rescue him. She is constantly worried about her brother as well.
But… then she abandons Patrick AND her family? She vanishes without a trace AND without a word to her father or brother? She sends Patrick to France only to never show up?
Why did she even bother helping Patrick if she ultimately wanted the money? Why worry about her family if she was just going to abandon them in the end? If she is so heartless as to abandon everyone she loved then why didn’t she leave with ALL the money right at the beginning? At the end she says she learned how to hide, change identities, move quickly without drawing attention, etc. But she knew all that from the beginning… So why bother going through all the effort of freeing Patrick just to steal the money and run?
I know that there are probably hints or clues but right now this is bothering me and I want to see other people’s reactions and opinions.
by Qlanth