She already believes Cesar is a better man. She believed that back in season 1 when they would just have regular conversations and she liked his thought-process. I think a lot of readers were stuck on how much they didn’t like Cesar that they didn’t realize Adelaide never disliked him. She was angry with him at times, but she never once disliked him as a person.
That’s not about forgetting it. It’s about perspective. By lying to nobility, they are essentially doing something illegal that could get her executed and him jailed or stripped of his title. Yet instead of coming to the ML when she was being mistreated by the woman who was meant to teach her the ways of nobility right before she debuted in their cutthroat high society, she hid it until her feet were so messed up, they wouldn’t be able to get her ready in time to get away with their scheme without risk. So he took his anger out on her like a piece of shxt. Personally, I can’t pretend I didn’t understand the anger. But I can see the assh*le move and understand what brought him to that point simultaneously. That’s the type of time Adelaide is on. So no, she didn’t forget. But she could get over it because he wasn’t motivated by malice when he did that.
Spoliers mentioned below
Sure if you're saying that she's excusing his behavior by finding a silver lining in the situation, I'm sure that's true.
My point was kind of separate, the audience is tired of this predictable formula where the only options are: bad (asshole who maliciously and intentionally stepped on another human being for a "lesson"), worse (man that hates those he views as lower than him and will most likely react negatively towards someone that "lied" to him), and fucked (a man that doesn't take no as an answer, will also stalk and harass her).
Side note, I laughed out loud when I read "without malice". The rationalization is out of this world when y'all like a man. How do you step on someone on purpose "without malice" and not have it be a consensual M/s scene.
No… I wouldn’t describe it as silver lining. It’s just the reality of her situation. Also, I’m not sure I’d call this a predictable formula either. As a character, Cesar showed up the first time for me when I was getting tired of seeing nothing but puppy dog MLs. That felt like predictability. I’d read five stories in a row who had nothing but that. And while I loved the stories, they weren’t immersive enough for me, especially as historical based ones. That’s part of why I love him as a character.
Also, I only judge characters based on the time period and environment their world is set in, rather than on my modern-day mindset or sense of morality. Any story that deviates from that tend to be stories with regressed or transmigrated FL. However there to, we tend to know what we’re embarking on early on. Based on the way Cesar was first presented, on the way their society was presented, and on the way Adelaide’s mind had been shown to work from the moment we met Cesar, the “bad options” aren’t about predictable formula, but rather about options that make sense for the setting. Adelaide wasn’t better off with commoners. She had to dress up as someone scarred just to survive. Girls who are welcomed in High Society go through an initiation where they’re basically humiliated and, mocked at a masked party. It’s all fxcked up. That’s the reality of their world. The story didn’t pretend anyone would be a conveniently perfect Prince Charming. Ezra would most likely be that for a woman noble, but not for a commoner woman. Lines are clear and it’s what I’ve loved from the story from the moment Cesar and Adelaide met. It’s why I even chose to read it.
And no, you’re right. That’s my bad. There was malice when it came to stepping on her foot. He literally took his anger out on her. I think I was so intent on explaining that when your own freedom is at risk, you’re bound to do something out of pocket, so I went and used the wrong term to make my point.

Idk chat I think I’m starting to like Ezra more than the ml