THE ALPHA'S NAUGHTY LITTLE CHRISTMAS GIFT.

The banquet hall erupted as a bespoke ten-layer cake smashed onto the floor, cream and fillings bursting outward and splattering every unfortunate soul within reach.

Then the hall fell deathly silent.

Damien was the first to recover. He stormed toward me and lifted his hand. "What the hell?! Have you lost your mind?! You could have scared Bella to death. You know she can't handle shocks like this!"

In my last life, I would have collapsed to my knees, sobbing and begging him not to hit me. I would have sworn I never meant any harm.

But now, a sweet, almost angelic computerized voice chimed inside my head. [3-Star Madness. Reward: 15,000,000 dollars.]

My phone vibrated. I glanced at the screen. Oh, sweet Lord.

I caught Damien's wrist, yanked it aside with all my strength, and followed through with a sharp slap across his face, the hardest I had ever delivered.

The crowd gasped.

Damien stared at me in disbelief. "Did you just… hit me?"

"Already lost a few brain cells from the impact?" I sneered and shook my hand to chase away the numbness. "Let this remind you who I am, dumbass. I'm the true heiress of the Blanc family. I wasn't adopted like Bella, so why the hell is she wearing my engagement dress?!"

[4-Star Madness. Reward: 30,000,000 dollars.]

Cha-ching. The rush was intoxicating, and so was the sudden jump in my bank balance.

Magnus hurried over, brushing past Gabriel Black along the way. He spared the would-be groom no attention and draped his coat around Bella Summers, as if she had just survived a major trauma.

"That was completely uncalled for, Marceline!" he shouted. "The only thing Bella did wrong was admire your dress. What's so terrible about sharing with your little sister? You don't even wear styles like this. Why waste it on you? Just let her have it!"

Please. How could it not be my style when I was the one who flew all the way to the fashion capital of Perez to have it custom-made? The process had taken three months and cost 1,000,000 dollars.

And just before the party began, it vanished.

Where else could it have gone?

I marched up to Bella and fixed her with a hard stare. "Did you just call it a waste on me?"

She shifted uneasily in Magnus' arms, eyes rimmed red. "I'm sorry, Marcy. I didn't know you'd be this upset. I just thought… I thought it was the prettiest dress I've ever seen, a-and I only wanted to try it on. I'll take it off right now…"

She reached for the zipper, as if she meant to undress on the spot.

If she actually did it, the resulting scandal would be something the Blanc family could never recover from.