Honestly this romantic turn is a bit hard to believe considering he has been set up to be this story's antagonist and possibly tries to blackmail Lena into the contract. Personally if this was the direction she wanted to take the route instead of being so antagonistic like I described he should have been trying to temp her with the good life harder instead. This could lead to the possible Emma "corruption" being more believable. The execution just seems really off. Unless this is just a ploy to have Lena lure Emma to him.
I do see what you mean and believe me, when I realized my posh Lena, who had initially shown some reserve in signing the contract but was won over by the money and gifts, started making noises in this update about maybe being the one Seymour could fall in love with again... I was not thrilled. My choices, of course, but I didn't really see it coming. But I do agree with ffive: why
wouldn't a posh Lena be swept away by this strange but powerful and rich older man who seems to dote on her and gives her money and gifts and flatters her beauty and encourages jaw-dropping orgasms? And helps get her Mom the medical care she needs, and takes an interest in her friend/boyfriend Ian who is trying to win his publishing contest. So what if he refers to her as "doll" a time or two or in every third sentence?
I haven't checked the exact stats on choices, but I would guess the more reluctantly Lena has been going along with all this, the less starry-eyed she is, and we get the comments about having him where she wants him, etc. If a player's Lena were forced down the starstruck route, I'd be really annoyed, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
I do agree with you, however, that
Seymour's romantic affections in response to Lena's are still not to be trusted, and may well be a ploy to lure in Emma. And not even for there to be (yet) any kind of sexual component, just to be able to get to one of the primary people in Baluart organizing protests against him, and co-opt her if he can. "My friend Peter, who's running for mayor, is looking for someone like you to be an authentic voice for the less fortunate on his campaign, and run his Community Outreach program for him. What would you say to that, an important job and the authority to shape the next mayor's policies from inside his team?" And if on one side Emma has Lena saying "Seymour's really not that bad a guy, look what he did for my Mom" and on the other side Ian (who she may, now, be getting into a relationship with) saying "Seymour's really not that bad a guy, look at how he's helping launch me as a published author"...
