A jar of cold cream and a whisper of setting powder are the only weapons Laila el Este has against a novel rigged to destroy her. Waking inside the pages of *Bird Cage* — a story engineered to confine and consume its heroine through the obsession of three unhinged male leads — she recognises the trap instantly. Her face, celebrated as the kingdom’s ideal, is nothing but bait. The solution slices through the velvet and candlelight of high society like a scalpel: she buries that beauty beneath powdered sallow skin, paints shadows where suitors look for blush, and sculpts herself into the "ugly duckling" the capital gossips about behind lace fans.

For ten years the ruse holds, until a single envelope lands on her vanity — a marriage proposal sealed with a coat of arms no one covets. Duke Montefeltra asks for nothing except the truth she has never offered anyone. He courts not the swan hidden underneath, but the duckling who clawed a quiet life from a cage of ink. What a man with his own reasons to despise polished surfaces wants from her is one secret her brushes cannot cover. And if she finally answers honestly, the entire third act may tip into an ending even the original author never saw coming.

Also known as: Motnani Yeongaeeui Sikeurit Pauchi, 못난이 영애의 시크릿 파우치, The Ugly Duckling's Secret Pouch.