The couple Gretchen Richards and Mack Blake
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Off screen, between the walls of the Pacific Bay polo club, during the year 1990, Gretchen Richards and Mack Blake meet. She belongs to the high society of the city, while Mack is employed as an assistant horse trainer. Given what their relationship will be like, it can easily be imagined that Gretchen was charmed by Mack's torso - Mack using to work shirtless in the stables.

Quickly, Mack, despite his very manly stature, falls in love with Gretchen very quickly. He quickly lets himself be seduced by this dark-haired woman with sparkling eyes, without seeing the personality behind her. And it is in Mack's trailer, in the arms of her lover and face to the camera, that for the first time appears Gretchen.

For Mack, the situation is simple : Gretchen has to leave her husband to live with him. He offers to leave with her and to move to Vancouver together. Moreover, when he feels that Gretchen is not ready to break up with Harland for him, he wants to end to their relationship. But Gretchen, certain of her charm and her hold on him, easily manages to change his mind.

In Gretchen's eyes, the situation is no more complicated. Married to a man she no longer loves, she tries to enjoy life. A strange contract (in addition to the marriage contract) also binds her with Harland : she can have all the extramarital adventures she wants, but she must not date the same lover more than three times. She tells Mack that since their wedding, they have never slept together. Her ongoing relationship with Mack is disrupting this deal and driving Harland mad.

Armed with his power and strength, Harland not only threatens Gretchen, he beats her, to force her to respect their contract and thus to push her to break up with Mack. But Gretchen is not a woman who lets herself be dictated to. Her goal is even darker, because much more than Mack, Gretchen is fond of money... And she knows that Harland has millions of dollars there, reaching out to her. For this she must go quickly, because in order for her to inherit the fortune of her husband, Harland must die before the 21 years of his daughter, Tawny, which will be celebrated in a few months.

Gretchen moves on to the next level and uses every ploy (she trashes her apartment herself) to make people believe that Harland's anger knows no bounds. The message is simple : Mack has to kill Harland before he kills her. Despite his love for her, Mack refuses this extreme choice. Their couple is in danger because their hopes are so different.

And it is through an organized meeting, orchestrated by Gretchen, that Mack discovers the true personality and the true feelings of his mistress. Gretchen is not the woman he loved. In the Pacific Bay polo club stables, Mack and Harland compete and fight for Gretchen's love. During the dispute, Mack grabs Harland by his collar, and this latter eventually loses consciousness. It is then that a violent stroke of polo mallet hits Mack in the head : he falls unconscious on the ground. Dressed in black, holding the mallet, Gretchen smiles : her plan is perfect, she will get rid of her too inconvenient husband and of her too intrusive lover.

She then slips a revolver into Mack's hand and shoots a bullet. The trap closes on the too naive lover. Then she spills the alcohol from an oil lamp on the straw and gets ready to set it on fire, when Mack's hand tightens on her wrist. He just figured out how Gretchen played him ! Michael Donnelly then arrives and drives Gretchen and Mack to the police station. There Gretchen doesn't hesitate to tell the police that Mack tried to kill her husband. Disappointed by this woman, as he has already been by others (Laura Asher, Yvonne Bartelo...) Mack realizes how much he has been abused by Gretchen.

Gretchen's arrest a little later, puts a definitive end to their love story, lived one-way by Mack. If Mack has given himself body and soul in their relationship, this is not the case of Gretchen who loves too much money and the idea of being loved. And it is alone that Mack will then leave the city, even more wounded by the fair sex, simply aspiring to be loved in return...

Text written for this site by Lilian