Chapter 33: Daphne — Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The chapter opens at the close of the rehearsal dinner for Daphne and Jefferson's wedding. Footmen circulate with coffee and cherry tarts, and guests have been delivering toasts throughout the evening. Daphne's face aches from smiling; most of the well-wishers are Jefferson's friends and family, though a few of Daphne's former classmates speak, mostly to brag about participating in a royal wedding. Even Daphne's father offers a father-of-the-bride toast, though it is so generic that Daphne suspects he pulled it from the internet.
The festive mood shatters when gossip ripples through the room. Guests stare at their phones in shock. Daphne's first fear is that Gabriella has leaked the truth about her and Ethan, but then she sees her mother, Rebecca, smiling a narrow, catlike smile. Rebecca shows Daphne a headline from the Times: the Duke of Virginia is engaged in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme. The FBI has opened a formal investigation, a federal judge has frozen the duke's assets, and he has been placed on a no-fly list.
Rebecca assumes Daphne orchestrated the scandal and expresses pride in her—something Daphne has long craved—but Daphne feels hollow. She realizes she no longer cares what Rebecca thinks, noting that her mother's earlier slap seems to have knocked the compulsion to please her out of her.
Ambrose Madison, the Duke of Virginia, stands and shouts, accusing Queen Beatrice of orchestrating the investigation. He uses crude language and calls her mentally damaged. A Revere Guard escorts him out, and his family follows, sneering.
As the room buzzes with speculation, Daphne slips out through a service corridor and intercepts Gabriella near the front entrance. She leads her into an alcove and proposes a truce. Daphne explains that she is about to marry the heir to the throne and will have a direct line to the royal family; the Washingtons could make an off-the-record call to the Justice Department in the duke's favor, or they could do nothing. In exchange, Gabriella must promise not to reveal Daphne's secret—the affair with Ethan.
Gabriella initially resists, insisting her father won't go to prison, but she eventually agrees, shaking Daphne's hand with visible reluctance. She warns Daphne that this is hardly the only war she will fight: even at the peak, she will have to fight to remain there. Daphne senses the ominous truth in Gabriella's words.
Back in the Grand Gallery, Jefferson delivers the closing toast. He thanks the guests and turns to Daphne, describing how he fell in love with her the day he saw her on the St. Ursula's campus, reading Candide on a bench. He praises her passion, brilliance, and stubbornness. Daphne is surprised and relieved—she had hidden her ruthless ambition and never imagined Jefferson had seen it. But a small voice whispers that something about the toast doesn't fit.
Later, in her hotel suite at the Monmouth Hotel, Ethan arrives. Daphne had texted him earlier to discuss Gabriella, but she had forgotten her phone was on silent. Ethan tells her that Gabriella's father has been taken in for questioning. Daphne recounts her truce negotiation.
As Ethan prepares to leave, Daphne asks if he wrote Jefferson's toast. Ethan admits he helped Jefferson, just as he used to edit his English papers in high school. Daphne realizes the toast wasn't what Jefferson felt at all—it was what Ethan felt. She tells Ethan he knows her better than Jefferson ever will, which visibly hurts him. Ethan protests that he is not a prince, will never have Jefferson's titles or wealth, and is just a secondary character who failed to get the girl.
Despite knowing she is risking everything, Daphne kisses Ethan. They sleep together, and afterward Ethan whispers,