I don't understand Tristian

I mean, what is his end game? In the original story, Ivona dies a year later. The Baron would still need a summoner at the end of the day. There's no long term plan that ensures him money and a place in high society so his chosen route just seems stupid.

Now that Ivona has already switched sides, you'd think he'd just try to come up with a different plan. It seems like the best plan would have been for Tristian to just support Ivona so that when she gets married, her dad passes off the title to him since she has one through marriage and then he could use his familial connection to work his way up. Instead he just decides to spend a year sneaking around with her fiance and then she dies but he doesn't even care? Like if she's dead then he would have no connection to the Baron. I don't get it.