"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.

Just when I thought I had the upper hand again,

a breezy little voice cut in.

“Sera, why are you making such a fuss? Chloe was only joking.”

I looked up. It was my future mother-in-law, Maya Smith.

“Aunt Maya, I didn't mean to.”

As if she'd suffered some terrible wrong, Chloe threw herself into Maya's arms.

“Sera, it's a happy day. It was just a joke. Let it go.”

“After today, you and Dick will be family. There's no need to split hairs over something this small.”

I looked up at Maya's smiling face.

And suddenly I understood why Dick had turned out the way he had.

Like mother, like son.

“Aunt Maya, you're calling this a joke?”

She glanced at the video on the screen.

“A coincidence, that's all. Chloe just wanted to come out and welcome you.”

“And the videographer, too. Instead of filming the beautiful bride, why was he glued to Chloe the whole time?”

She took my hand “Sera, all these people are watching, all these people are waiting. The lucky hour is almost gone. It'd be bad luck otherwise.”

So she knew that missing the lucky hour brought bad luck.

Then having Chloe steal my wedding and ruin my fortune for the rest of my life, that was lucky?

I pulled my hand free.

“Whether it was a coincidence, she knows, I know, and so do you.”

The smile froze on Maya's face.

She hadn't expected me to deny her the courtesy.

“Adela, put up the rest of it.”

In an instant, the big screen filled with their text messages.

“Seraphina Winters, don't get too pleased with yourself. The only reason you get to marry my dear Dick is to bring me a blessing.”

Before today, she had needled me more than once.

Claiming this wedding wasn't Dick giving our years of love a happy ending.

It was a setup the Delgados had arranged so she could live a few more healthy years.

“You, you didn't, I didn't.”

When she saw those messages, Chloe panicked.

“Chloe, don't be afraid. I have a way. This is the master I found. On the wedding day……”

Even though I'd deliberately blurred the profile picture,

the Delgado relatives still recognized her.

The one who had walked Chloe through stealing the wedding, step by step, turned out to be my future mother-in-law, Maya Smith.

“Mom, you told Chloe to do this?”

Dick's demand only confirmed the suspicion against Maya.

“Dick, shut your mouth.”

Even with her face gone as sour as it could go,

Maya still smiled sweetly as she said to me,

“Sera, we're about to be one family. Are you really going to split hairs over something this small?”

“Small? You think this is small?”

“If it's so small, why did you go to such lengths to find a master?”

“The master said it himself. You paid the highest price and asked for the cruelest method. You wanted me dead.”

Maya dropped the act entirely.

She looked at Dick.

“Dick, Chloe's health keeps getting worse. The master said this would ease her suffering.”

“For Chloe's sake, I had no choice.”

What a fine "no choice," thinking she could wipe away what she'd done just like that.

“Chloe didn't succeed anyway, so no harm's done to you. This ends here.”

Maya had, in effect, issued her final order.

Dick's eyes darted away from mine.

“Seraphina, this is a misunderstanding. You didn't lose anything. Why don't we just let it go.”

Hearing him ask me to swallow it and give in yet again,

I gave a faint smile.

Dick, I hadn't misjudged you after all.

No matter how much I suffered, you'd always choose Chloe first.

“No. I won't let this go.”

Maya froze for a second.

“What do you want to do? Don't tell me you don't want this marriage anymore?”

She assumed that after five years at Dick's side,

I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't marry him.

A pity. She'd miscalculated.

Adela helped me out of the wedding gown.

“Marry? You think this wedding is still happening?”

“Call it off, Dick.”

“And this? Her and I aren't finished.”