Back in the present, Gina looked at Cecil, lost in thought, as she wondered whether he was still tormented by those terrible headaches. She clenched her fists tightly, silently warning herself not to let her feelings stir, not to repeat the painful mistakes of the past.
Cecil suggested that she return to the estate to teach him how to make this perfume. Gina, wary, refused, telling herself to stay calm and handle this carefully. She hastily excused herself, claiming poor health, wanting to escape this dangerous situation before she was exposed.
Before she could take a single step, a firm hand seized her wrist, stopping her attempt to flee. Cecil coldly declared that if she did not cooperate, he would resort to force to make her come with him. Terrified, Gina struggled, begging the prince to let her go, but his grip held firm as an iron vice.
Then Cecil froze upon spotting the red birthmark on her wrist, a unique and unmistakable mark. Memories crashed together with the present, and he realised, stunned, that the masked woman before him was in fact his own wife. He gasped out the name Gina in utter disbelief, his eyes locking onto her as though he could not trust what he was seeing.
The sound of a third person's footsteps cut through the tense moment, shattering the suffocating atmosphere. Cass appeared with a scornful smirk, mocking the prince for lingering with a mere commoner. Cecil scowled with irritation at the uninvited intruder, while Gina was overcome with panic upon recognising her own brother.
Cass arrogantly boasted about his family's power, mocking Cecil for discarding his sister only to now pathetically flirt with some country girl. He brought up how five years earlier Gina had been cast aside after only a few months, using it to provoke Cecil, treating it as justification to consider Cecil his enemy. Cass continued hurling insults at Gina, calling her scrawny and frail, offering fake sympathy for his sister's sacrifice.
At the word sacrifice, Cecil's expression darkened, a terrifying blaze of fury and hatred igniting in his eyes. He sharply exposed the truth: that it was the Yale family itself, the cold-blooded ones, who had pushed Gina towards death, sending her right into the enemy's hands.
Gina stood between the two men, gripping her dress tightly, trembling with pain and resentment as her painful past was dredged up again. Memories of her domineering father resurfaced — how he had forced her, after the marriage, to report on her husband's every move to serve the family. He had compared Cecil to the second prince, plotting to overthrow Cecil and place his own faction's man on the throne. Her father had crammed her head full of lies, insisting that Cecil was a bad omen and that the second prince was the rightful heir. Their ultimate goal was only to preserve the Yale family's absolute power, with no regard whatsoever for her feelings or her happiness.
Cass had joined their father in treating her like nothing more than a commodity, meant to be married off to someone else the moment she finished her job as a spy. He threatened and manipulated her with sweet, hollow words, insisting that as long as he was around, she had nothing to fear. But Gina had only ever wanted to marry Cecil. She would rather die than want anyone other than him. To her father and her brother, she was nothing but an unfeeling puppet, a pawn for them to manipulate in their brutal game of power.
Seizing the chaotic moment, Gina stomped hard on Cecil's foot to break free, determined not to repeat her past mistake of being trapped once again. Despite the pain, Cecil helplessly called after Gina as her familiar figure vanished from sight.
Cecil turned to warn Cass to get out of his way if he did not want to bring disaster upon himself, his eyes blazing with menace. He walked off in contempt, leaving Cass standing there fuming, seething at being so openly scorned by the prince. A henchman reported to Cass that the second prince had summoned him, and that Cecil's illness was worsening exactly as planned. Cass flashed a scheming smile, thoroughly pleased that everything was unfolding precisely according to their dark plan.
A servant, fearful, asked Cecil what he needed as he stood there in silence, his expression terrifying. Cecil ordered the guards to capture that woman no matter what, swearing that he would never let her slip away again.
In a remote village on the outskirts of the city, Gina knocked on her old friend Ina's door in the dead of night, looking utterly worn and dishevelled. Concerned, Ina asked how business had been going, but Gina sadly admitted that she urgently needed money to travel. In a panic, Gina explained that Cecil might have recognised her and that she needed to flee immediately, before she was caught again.
Thinking quickly, Ina suggested that she disguise herself and blend in with her herb-gathering caravan, which was set to depart for another country in three days. Overjoyed, Gina squeezed her friend's hand, thanking her repeatedly for saving her and her daughter from certain disaster. Still, Ina worried about the long, treacherous road ahead, unsure how Gina would manage alone with her child. Gina gritted her teeth, her eyes resolute despite the pain, saying that she had no choice but to take that path, even though it was the last thing she wanted.
Back at the palace, Odell, still disguised as Theodore, squealed with delight when the bird flew in, carrying a letter from the real Theodore. The girl happily read Theodore's letter about life outside the palace, sighing in relief that their father had not discovered the swap. Reading the part where Theodore praised how gentle their mother was, Odell felt a pang of longing, wishing that she too had a loving mother like that by her side.
The girl hatched a bold idea: to bring their parents together, so that both siblings could finally have a complete family. Odell daydreamed about her parents sharing a warm kiss and the whole family reuniting happily together.
In his letter, Theodore proposed meeting his sister at Moon Lake in two days to swap their identities back.