The wedding march began, and I drew a slow breath.

Five years of us, finally coming to an end.

The emcee started the countdown, and my best friend was texting me like mad.

"Sera, ready? We're set, and so is she."

I sent back an OK and counted down with them. Three, two, one.

The side door swung open, and a figure in a red dress flashed past.

The doors in front of me slid apart. I lifted my skirt, smiled, and stepped into the hall.

"Seraphina Winters, you set me up." Chloe Jordan stood there, face ashen, fists clenched.

I smiled at her. "Steal the joy, empty the house, and wait for the whole line to burn."

...

Chloe bit her lip, not a flicker moving across that bloodless face.

Those hateful eyes looked ready to spit fire.

"Seraphina Winters, how dare you play me like this?"

"You knew how much this meant to me."

Her voice trembled, thick with hurt.

"Today is Sera's wedding. What does it have to do with you? Do you have to make it about yourself today of all days?" Adela Fox, blunt as ever, shot back at her.

The guests had no idea what was happening.

One by one they turned toward the door.

"Seraphina Winters, you have a cruel heart. Do you really have to see me dead?"

Looking at that pitiful, put-on face of hers, all I felt was disgust.

"Chloe, listen to yourself."

"It's a happy day. All this talk of dying, dying, dying—that's terrible luck."

"I know you don't have long, but if you want to die, don't pick today."

Adela clapped a hand over her mouth, snorted a laugh, and flashed me a thumbs-up.

"You—you—how can you be so vicious?"

Tears shimmered in her eyes, and those eyes kept flicking to something behind me.

Adela leaned in and said quietly, "Sera, Dick Delgado's here."

My fiancé came running toward the door, bouquet in hand, urgency all over his face.

But he wasn't running to me.

"Chloe, what's wrong? Where does it hurt?"

Chloe timed it perfectly. The moment Dick reached her, she pitched straight backward.

"Dick, I can't breathe, my head's spinning—am I dying?"

"Dick, I'm so cold, so cold. Hold me tight, please. I'm scared."

Chloe clutched at Dick's collar, her voice barely a thread.

"Chloe, don't be scared. I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you."

Dick held her, his face full of dread.

"Seraphina Winters, what did you do? Why did Chloe suddenly collapse?"

His accusation made me laugh, and I couldn't stop.

"What did I do? Shouldn't you be asking her?"

Chloe looked at me, all challenge.

"I only came to greet you in Dick's place—"

"And then?"

"And then you cursed me. You told me to die."

At the word "die," the tears in her eyes swelled fuller.

"She even said today's your happy day, that I bring bad luck and shouldn't be here."

"Dick, take me away. Even if I'm going to die, I don't want to die here."

Adela's fists tightened, itching to swing them straight at that face.

"Seraphina Winters, you vicious bitch, why would you curse Chloe?"

Veins stood out on Dick's face.

His parents came hurrying over from the VIP seats.

Every eye was on Chloe.

"I cursed her? Do you really think I'd need to?"

"Dick, before you blame me, how about you ask her what she did?"

"Why was she wearing a red dress, and why did she have to run over the second those doors opened?"

He hadn't expected me to challenge him that bluntly.

She clutched Dick's hand tighter.

"Chloe told me she wanted to welcome you in my place. She meant well, and you cursed her for it."

"Seraphina, how could you be so vicious? You've disappointed me."

Hearing Dick say it, my heart twisted despite myself.

I'd thought I wouldn't care.

But hearing it from his own mouth—

The cold sank in anyway.

"I'm vicious? Do you really not know what she did?"

"You were too far away, and blind on top of it, so you didn't see. But Adela and the other bridesmaid saw every bit of it."

"She wasn't welcoming me. She was stealing my—"

I never got to finish the word. His hand cracked across my face.

The music cut out.

Every eye in the room swung toward us.

"Seraphina, Adela is your friend, the other bridesmaid is your friend, and the three of you cooked this up to frame Chloe."

If I hadn't held her back, Adela's fist would have landed square on Dick's face.

"Frame her? Please."

I spat the blood out of my mouth, pointed at Chloe, and kept going. "She didn't come to welcome me. She came to snatch the blessing from this wedding."

The hushed hall broke into murmurs.

"Stealing a wedding's luck—I've only ever seen that online. So it's real."

"No, isn't that something dying old women do? She's so young. Why would she?"

"Look at how sickly she is. What's the difference between her and a dying old woman?"

"I saw it clear as day. She had on a red dress and rushed over the moment the doors opened."

It hadn't occurred to Chloe that anyone besides me and the bridesmaids had seen.

Now that others had, she started to panic.

Her brows drew together without her meaning them to, and her eyelid gave a faint twitch.

"Dick, I didn't, I don't know what she's talking about, she's framing me."

She bit gently at her lip, the very picture of pity.

Dick, who already ached for her, looked ready to melt on the spot.

"What is this nonsense about stealing luck? Seraphina, stop inventing excuses for what you've done."

With Dick behind her, Chloe rose to her feet, all fragility.

She stepped forward to apologize to me.

"Sera, I don't know why you've misunderstood me, why you're accusing me, but I really only wanted to welcome you early."

"Sera, you and Dick are about to become one family. Why do you hold so much spite toward me?"

I looked into those eyes of hers, wide and innocent as a rabbit's, and smiled faintly.

"I'm curious about that myself. Why do you have it in so badly for me?"

"Chloe, play the fox long enough and the tail shows. Did you know that?"

I grabbed her by the collar and yanked out the yellow talisman hanging around her neck.

"Look. If she wasn't here to steal the blessing, why is she wearing something like this against her skin?"

Chloe hadn't expected me to lay a hand on her.

"That's a charm I went up the mountain to pray for. It wards off evil."

She stammered out the explanation.

Nearly everyone in the room could tell she was lying.

Only that bastard Dick still stood up for her.

"Seraphina, would you stop making a scene? Chloe apologized to you. What are you still carrying on about?"

"Carrying on?"

That word again.

In these five years together—

from the moment Chloe wedged herself between me and Dick—

he'd thrown it at me at least a thousand times.

Before, I swallowed it all.

I wore the labels: jealous, vicious, always making a scene.

But today, at the wedding I'd dreamed of—

I wasn't swallowing it.

Not only would I make a scene.

I was going to blow this wide open.

Wide enough that everyone in the room would know.

"Dick, it's all my fault, all of it. I'm bad luck. I never should have shown up at your wedding."

Adela moved fast. While no one was watching, she slipped over to the VIP table, snatched Chloe's clutch, and pulled two paper dolls out of it.

One was marked with Chloe's birth date.

The other was marked with mine.

The doll carrying my birth date had been splashed all over with red paint.

And stabbed full of gleaming silver pins.

"If that one's a lucky charm, then how do you explain this?"

Chloe lost her composure. She swayed on her feet.

"Who said you could touch my things?"

"So you admit it? These are yours?"

"Dick, they carved my birth date into it. Do you really not understand what that means?"

He hesitated for a moment, looking at Chloe.

"Chloe, what is this? Why would something like that be in your bag?"

"Dick, I—I don't know, this is a setup. She had someone plant it in there."

She pointed at Adela, trying to pin it on her.

Good thing I'd seen all of this coming.

I'd hired a videographer just to keep a close eye on her.

The big screen lit up. From the moment she stepped out of the car at the hotel entrance—

her clutch had stayed pressed against her chest.

Never once left her body.

Not until the host announced the bride was about to enter.

Only then did she set the clutch down and slip off toward the doors when no one was looking.

"Plant it? When would I have had the chance?"

She'd hit a wall. Her eyes darted away.

"It's just a doll. I didn't mean anything by it."

"Is that so?"

Adela handed me the doll marked with Chloe's birth date.

I pulled out a lighter. The instant the flame flared up—

she panicked. "No, you can't—"

"It's just a doll. What are you so worked up about?"

Before I could finish, Dick lunged forward, snatched the doll away, and gave it to Chloe.

"Seraphina, stop putting on a show with a couple of dolls. This proves nothing."

With him defending her, Chloe found her nerve again.

I had Adela play another clip.

The moment Adela and the other bridesmaid pulled the doors open,

Chloe came shooting out from the side with a start.

But then she saw I wasn't standing outside the doors.

That I'd come out through a different one instead.

The whole of her froze in shock.

"Dick, is this what you called welcoming me in?"

"Anyone with eyes can see it. She was stealing the bride's blessing."

"Except she didn't pull it off. Steal the blessing at an empty doorway, and the whole family gets wiped out."

"Look at me, how could I forget. Her parents are long gone, so she counts as half a member of your family now."

"So tell me, if this curse actually comes true, and the wiping-out reaches your family, what then?"

The guests buzzed louder.

"So that's blessing-stealing. This woman is ruthless."

"True or not, no one wants to see that on their wedding day. Skin-crawling."

"Went for the chicken and lost the rice. Steal at an empty doorway—she won't really get the whole family wiped out, will she?"

Her every move had been caught on video, clear as day.

Chloe's whole face went sour.

Dick was stunned too.

He'd never imagined something this absurd would happen at his own wedding.

"Dick, I didn't, it's just a coincidence, I have no idea what she's even talking about."

"Why would I do something like this? Dick, you know me, I'm timid, I've always been timid. How could I ever be as vicious as she says?"

A few soft words from Chloe, and Dick wavered.

He said nothing, his mind racing.