Am I remembering this wrong or was it not Laura's idea that she and Harry keep their relationship secret from their coworkers? That was a separate thing from Harry not wanting to move in with her until he'd proven himself worthy in his mind. I distinctly remember thinking the coworker thing was a huge red flag since Laura might have been trying to keep her options open or have felt ashamed of Harry in some way.
This has been a great discussion, but I tend to agree more with mzer0 that there was always trouble in paradise and that Laura would likely always have cheated or at least just dumped Harry eventually. Laura's willingness to keep secrets and deceive her boyfriend is a classic cheater tell. It also seems likely to me that consciously or unconsciously Laura has probably continually reinforced Harry's feelings of inadequacy throughout their relationship. After she calls him a weakling (that was the point in the story where I personally lost all interest in seeing Harry stay with Laura), she seems to know that an apology is all that will be needed to set things right again. She thinks Harry is a very good and decent person, but I'm not sure she's ever respected him or truly felt he was really on her level.
You are making stuff up.
If Laura have had any doubts about Harry and would not truly love him, why would she sacrifice herself and comply with the blackmail ?
Harry fucked up, she has all the reason to let him answer for it. But she gives her body and possibly gives up on their relationship (she intends to come clean about the whole situation once blackmail loses value so she is prepared for him leaving her) to protect his life, his dreams.
IF that is not display of true love then i don't know what is.
She is keeping secret to protect Harry not to fool him. She is also intending to come clean and confess after the danger is gone. This is the furthest from cheater tell.
Why you draw line on her calling him weakling ? Harry by all means is weak, and when couples have fights they call themselves far worse. The situation is engineered to put Laura in spot where she seeks an escape from the psychological ordeal - such escape is putting the blame on someone else. It works so well because Harry weakness did in fact bring that situation upon them.
Laura isn't in denial?
Her denial at the beginning of the story is so strong that she literally starts crying about it while riding Luca's dick the very first time she has sex with him, all the while telling herself that she's not like her mother. Did you forget that scene?
Luca has plot armor?
He's written as a clever guy with a talent for reading people, which allows him to see through Laura's facade. Sure, you can hand wave all that away as 'plot armor', but then you might as well hand wave away the rest of the story, too. If we are going to accept HC's characters as he has written them, then we have to accept that Luca is right about Laura. Which leads into...
...Laura isn't being corrupted by Luca. Not really, at least. She was already fucked up long before he came along. We see this in her subtle resentment of Harry and his 'promise' at the bar, and her innder dialouge hinting at the darker parts of herself that she refuses to fac. Luca didn't put any of these things into her mind, he just revealed them and made her look at them.
In reality, Luca didn't drag Laura down into the shadows (corrupting her), he's actually just pulling all the dark things that are already inside her out into the light, which is actually more interesting than mere corruption.
Anyway, YMMV.
What you are calling denial is Laura attempting to fight her dark side, she is basically doing mantra.
Denial would be if she would happily ride Luca and then say "No i didn't cheat, i did it for Harry".
Laura says "Yes i cheat, and i know it will hurt Harry but i do it for him, if he hates me for it i will accept it as long as he is safe"
Luca is a bit too good at knowing what to say, when to say and what not to say. Also regarding reading Laura - how is it that Harry notice small behavioral changes - use of perfumes, going to coffee, being distracted. But he would fail to notice that she is only pretending to be the upstanding character, meanwhile Luca having barely any interaction with her is able to tell it. Luca doesn't read her, he assumes that she has the darkness in her else his plot is bound to fail.
... like i have said having dark thoughts and acting upon them are two different things.
How is she is supposed to face her dark side? You don't face it, you control it, you may go to psycho but people that are able to control themselves generally don't need psycho. I refuse the notion that she was fucked up because she had bad thoughts and i refuse the idea that she was bound to lose control for no reason. Also i think you don't understand how empowering is to have a loved one support for such cases.
All and all i think you guys already took side and only notice things that enforce it while ignoring the rest. The story is written that way on purpose i believe - without putting all guilt on one party so people can side with whomever they want.
