thats too sad@PiNKwaTERboTTle
Actually, the prince despised the Grand Duke family (including Veronica), that's why he delibately kept his distance to Elena (because the more he cared for Elena aka "Veronica" in public, the more poweful the Grand Duchy would be.
Nonetheless, he also knew Elena was Veronica's substitute (without her knowing) , he actually loved her and did many things secretly in order to protect her and their child, but sadly he failed in the first timeline
@Hastur2 It's a little more complicated than that. As we only have Elena's POV there are quite a lot of details missing in the first timeline, but overall I would say that it was a sad love story 😅 (misunderstandings and lack of communication mostly due to the contexts and pressure)