Loredana decides to tell Edmund about Charles on Founders Day during his private yacht party on the Luminescent Lake. In the meantime, she and Dickie play croquet in the rose gardens of the Green Dormitory as he quizzes her for their Civilized World History exam. Suddenly, a news alert reports a major development in the trial of the two Blues who attempted to assassinate President Reeve. A key witness has come forward to testify, and prosecutors have submitted new Bond footage that clearly shows the two accused men firing at Reeve during the Bridge Banquet. With this evidence, the jury begins deliberations. Conviction would mean public execution—a punishment that no high-citizen has previously faced. Dickie is certain they will be found guilty.

On Founders Day, Loredana and Charlotte head to Edmund’s yacht party on the Luminescent Lake, wearing “Rippletone” bracelets that will repel the piranhas in the water, should they fall in. There, they see Dickie temporarily leaving the yacht and heading back to the suite to retrieve his toy plane. He bewilders them by calling the party a “bust.” However, they understand when they discover that Irene has arrived uninvited, along with Rosamund. Although Irene is still on house arrest, Phillipa arranged for her to be there because the optics of Irene’s imprisonment on a holiday would have been less than ideal. 

Ignoring the two hostile Blue women as best she can, Loredana attempts to tell Edmund the truth about Charles but panics before she can. Just then, Irene interrupts, furious to see them together. As Edmund is drawn away, Loredana observes Rosamund’s attempts to gain Jack’s attention, realizing that this maneuvering will crush Charlotte’s lingering hope for a reconciliation with her ex-boyfriend. Later, Loredana goes out on deck for air and witnesses a distraught Rosamund secretly crying over Jack and then taking a Bliss pill. However, she forgets about the Blues’ exceptional night vision, and Rosamund spots her. In front of Irene, she publicly accuses Loredana of being Edmund’s mistress.

Enraged, Irene challenges Loredana to a death duel. Knowing that she can neither fight in the duel nor lose face in front of Irene, Loredana strategically accepts just before the Coppers declare the duel unlawful because Loredana is a witness in Irene’s upcoming trial. As the Coppers escort Irene away, Irene breaks free, rips away Loredana’s Rippletone bracelet, and kicks her overboard. Mid-fall, Loredana collides with the hoverboat that Dickie is using to return at the party, and they both are thrown into the piranha-infested lake.

Dickie, who can’t swim, begins to drown. Braving the voracious fish, Loredana holds him afloat as the piranhas attack and severely maul her legs. Hearing her scream his name, Edmund dives in and uses his own Rippletone to scatter the fish while Jack launches a hoverboat and helps pull them from the water. Aboard the yacht, Edmund performs CPR on Dickie, who recovers. Edmund then confronts Irene. When she levels a plasma pistol at him, he seizes the weapon and hurls it into the lake. The Coppers take her away. 

As a med-evac helicopter arrives, a Pinkie medic sedates the badly wounded Loredana while her horrified friends crowd around. Before she loses consciousness, she hears Edmund promising that he will fix everything.

Loredana spends a week heavily sedated in the Belvoir Infirmary’s high-citizen wing while her legs are surgically regrown. In her brief moments of consciousness, she forbids anyone from telling her parents about her injury. Charlotte explains that Edmund, Jack, and Dickie are paying for her care; Edmund has been holding vigil at her bedside. Dickie, who’s recovering in the adjacent bed, is discharged after several days. In one lucid moment, Loredana sees a Bond notification confirming that Irene’s death-duel challenge is officially pending until the trial concludes.

One day, Loredana wakes in time to hear Dickie thanking her for saving his life; wanting to savor his sincerity without awkwardness, she feigns unconsciousness until he leaves. Later, Charlotte arrives and explains that Edmund broke his engagement to Irene. Their engagement had been formalized as a legal agreement between the families, and one of its clauses forbade Irene from harming Jack or Dickie. Her actions on the yacht constituted a breach of that clause. Irene is contesting the breach by claiming that she never meant to hurt Dickie. 

Later that evening, Charlotte and Loredana watch a live broadcast from the capital as the two Blues convicted of attempting to assassinate President Reeve are publicly executed by guillotine. The execution draws wide shock and sets a new precedent for the public punishment of high-citizens.

The next day, Loredana leaves the hospital with a leg brace, determined to sit for her final exams. When she and Charlotte arrive at Grandmaster, Edmund, Jack, and Dickie greet her enthusiastically. Edmund openly embraces her, uncaring of the public scrutiny as low-citizens and high-citizens alike stare in disapproval. Edmund holds her until the bell rings, but she insists on walking without support as they head toward the campus. Edmund invites her to go flying with him after their exams are over, and Loredana is filled with dread at the thought of telling him her secret.

As the two stand alone in an elevator, Edmund returns her daffodil brooch, which he recovered from the lake bottom. They embrace and kiss passionately. He pledges his love and devotion to her and then waits expectantly. Stricken with guilt over her secret, Loredana can’t admit to the love she feels for him, but she but doesn’t manage to explain herself before a devastated Edmund abruptly withdraws, hurt and confused. 

Loredana drifts through her history exam and then closes herself into the lavatory to cry. She resolves to tell Edmund about Charles today. Despite her turmoil, she goes on to ace her Political Theory & Governance class. However, before the Cloning Theory exam, Rosamund summons Edmund to the room and interrupts the class to accuse Loredana of sending her a threatening message. Meanwhile, Loredana opens a text from her father, who reports that someone has accessed the sealed file of Charles Blackwell’s assault and death.

With a malicious smile, Rosmund plays an edited video of Loredana’s fight with Charles, falsely alleging that Loredana sent the video to her as a threat. The video omits Charles’s initial attack and makes Loredana look like a cold-blooded killer who executed an unarmed Blue. The classroom erupts in chaos. Edmund, horrified by the video and Loredana’s deception, leaves without a word. She realizes that he assumes she always knew about his family relation to Charles, even though she has only just learned about it herself. Professor Hollings dismisses Loredana from the exam, which results in her incomplete mark for the course.

Loredana returns to the hospital, devastated by Edmund’s departure. After the remaining exams, Charlotte joins her there, staying with her overnight for support. Charlotte reports that two students, a Purple and a Green, have been arrested for being Vulgars and becoming pregnant. Charlotte expresses her disapproval of cross-caste romances, surprising Loredana, who’s privately hurt. 

After Charlotte steps out, a lonely Loredana laments her sisters’ angry silence and is grateful when her mother calls. Her mother tacitly implies her awareness that Loredana is in love with Edmund and warns her that such a relationship never ends well. She also mentions that Bruce will be the keynote speaker at Grandmaster’s Ovation Ceremony and plans to announce his campaign then. Loredana worries about her father’s safety, but her mother emphasizes her support for Bruce’s decision.

Still in the hospital, Loredana receives an email from Professor Hollings apologizing for his part in the incident but confirms that the incomplete mark stands. Enraged at the idea of retaking the class she hates, Loredana emails an appeal for help to every professor. They all reject her request for tutoring, except for one: Professor Jerome offers to tutor her in Cloning Theory if she enrolls in his Genetic Engineering class. Although she previously swore off the subject, she reluctantly accepts. Soon, Charlotte informs her that Edmund has requested to meet with her on Thursday morning. Loredana spends the next day in suspense and is discharged on Thursday. Charlotte promises to be there for her in the Green Dormitory after the meeting. As agreed, Loredana meets Edmund at the tram stop by the Blue Dormitory.

Edmund is cold and visibly grieved. They board the tram and head to Edmund’s private booth as the tram goes toward the Moonshine Mile and The Tangerine Tree. Loredana explains that she only just found out that Charles was his cousin. She assumes that Edmund loved Charles, but he admits to having hated his cousin. He says that he will forgive Loredana for ruining his public reputation and upending his life, but only if she takes a Bliss pill, triggering a scandal that would end her father’s political campaign to run for governor. 

Aghast that he would put such a price on his love, Loredana refuses. When she asks whether Charles had been engaged to Irene before him, Edmund doesn’t answer, but his reaction confirms that when Loredana killed Charles, Edmund was forced into the betrothal contract as the remaining heir. Now, he presses the vial of Bliss into her hand just as the tram abruptly terminates its route early.

In the rain outside the Genetic Engineering Facility, Loredana refuses Edmund’s offer one last time. When she calls him a “beast,” he realizes that she witnessed Phillipa’s abuse that night. Turning cold, he leaves her there. In fury, she throws a rock at the building and inadvertently hits a nearby Orange professor. She’s horrified when she sees that he wears an Aegis. He admits to spying on her and reveals himself to be Professor Jerome. Amused, he confirms their meeting for the next day despite her breach of the behavior laws.

Back in her suite, Loredana receives an official request to mutually dissolve her formal agreement with Edmund. Still furious over his attempt to make her take Bliss, she accepts, and the entourage badge vanishes from her Bond. She receives an unexpected call from Vivian; Hillaire is also present, and the two reconcile with Loredana after weeks of silence. Loredana explains everything that has happened to her, from Charles’s assault up to the present day, seeking her sisters’ understanding. Hillaire recounts how she lost her hand in the boating accident years ago, saying that when she was trapped underwater and running out of time, she fought to live, not just survive, because the thought of returning home to her family kept her going. Her account motivates Loredana to find a life purpose worth fighting for.