Not kill since it was mentioned she can’t marry a royal if she becomes a widow. So basically, they intend to make Carcel something useless as a Husband.
I think the whole thing was that the crown prince was getting married solely to gain the ability to take Ines in as an official mistress once she becomes a widow. Since they also mention that the crown prince cannot take in an official mistress unless he's married. So it's implying the crown prince started plotting ways to take in Ines as a mistress once he failed to stop Carcel from marrying her with his abuse and became unable to legitimately marry her.
It says a widow can't marry a royal. But if she's the official mistress, they won't be married, just lovers.
The prince’s goal is definitely to kill Carcel. There’s the added layer that Ines is an Escalante now and his mother, the empress, is an Escalante. He probably believes it gives him an advantage since she’s technically no longer a Valeztena. Obviously he’s deluding himself because Carcel’s father would never allow it.
Sorry I’m a little confused on the hierarchy of power. Carcel’s father has the power to not allow the crown prince to take Ines as his mistress? Is it because his sister is the queen or because Ines is now a part of his family that he can overrule the prince?
Carcel’s father is the head of the Escalante family. He would never allow such a thing. The empress also relies on her brother to support her and so does Oscar. He’s the one who actually props up Oscar. Therefore, he also has power especially when Oscar’s father, the emperor, often threatens not to pass the throne to him. In any case, Carcel’s father would not agree and Ines’s father, who is an unconventional and wild man, would oppose the crown prince as well. On his own, Ines’s father doesn’t even like the royal family and he’s not a political supporter of the royal family like the Escalantes. That’s the case in every timeline. He only allowed Ines to marry the royal family because she’s the one who chose Oscar herself.
Ah I see that makes sense. Thanks for explaining!
So they’re confirming the prince’s goal is to kill Carcel and make Ines his mistress once he’s married to his current fiancé? That would track with Carcel concluding they’re aiming to kill only him and not Ines in the previous chapters.