Caroline’s bare feet left faint red smears on the immaculate white satin aisle runner as she moved toward the altar.
Her trench coat was caked in dried red clay from the drainage ditch outside the private behavioral facility three counties away.
Juliet: Stop her! Richard, do something! She is trespassing on private property!
Richard: She has armed state troopers with her, Juliet! Look at their badges!
Officer Miller: Step away from the altar table, sir. Keep your hands where we can see them.
Caroline: It has been fourteen months, Juliet. Fourteen months locked in a basement cell with iron window grates.
Juliet backed into the tiered floral display, knocking over a crystal vase filled with imported white orchids.
Juliet: You are sick! You have always been mentally unstable! The doctors certified you as deceased after the coastal car crash!
Marcus Mercer: Juliet, you told our entire family you identified her body at the morgue yourself!
Marcus stepped out into the center aisle, his silver hair wild and his hands shaking violently as he looked at Caroline's face.
Marcus: Caroline, honey... is that really you? We held a memorial service for you in this exact church.
Caroline: She paid off the county coroner, Uncle Marcus. She paid three hundred thousand dollars to declare me dead while I was strapped to a cot.
Juliet: That is a filthy lie! She is suffering from paranoid delusions! Officer, arrest her for harassment!
Attorney Hayes: Keep your voice down, Mrs. Vance. My name is Arthur Hayes, senior partner at Hayes & Vance Trust Litigation.
Arthur placed the heavy leather briefcase flat onto the altar table, right beside the crystal chalice of blessed communion wine.
Juliet: I fired your firm six months ago, Arthur! You have no standing here!
Attorney Hayes: You fired me on behalf of an estate you had no legal right to administer.
Richard: Juliet, you told me the inheritance was fully settled and cleared by the state supreme court!
Juliet: Richard, shut up! Don't say another word without my private defense counsel present!
Caroline: He only wanted the money, Juliet. Just like you did when you poisoned my father's morning tea.
A collective gasp tore through the church pews like wildfire, guests turning to whisper behind their silk hymn programs.
Juliet: That is defamation of character! Charles died of natural heart failure!
Caroline: Dad had a stress test two weeks before he collapsed, Juliet. His cardiologist cleared his heart completely.
Caroline walked up the three carpeted steps to the altar platform, staring straight into Juliet's wide, bloodshot eyes.
Caroline: You swapped his blood pressure medication with concentrated digitalis drops from your greenhouse.
Juliet: You have zero proof of that garbage! Nothing! You are raving mad!
Attorney Hayes: We have the forensic toxicology samples from your private estate greenhouse, Juliet. And we have your former nurse in federal custody.
Juliet’s knees buckled slightly, but she caught herself against the white wooden lectern.
Richard: What nurse? Juliet, who is he talking about?
Juliet: He's bluffing, Richard! Stand by me, you coward! We are getting married today!
Caroline: The only place you are going today, Juliet, is a holding cell at the county detention facility.
Caroline pointed directly at the heavy gold band on Juliet's right hand.
Caroline: Take off my mother’s ring.
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