Lawyer Vance: Mr. Julian Vance, you are under arrest for attempted murder, grand theft, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
Julian: I want my attorney! I didn't write that document!
Lawyer Vance: We already ran the ink analysis on the signature, Julian. It matches the pen found in your office desk at the mansion.
Julian was dragged out of the chapel in hand irons, his head bowed as news cameras flickered outside the church doors. The story had already reached the local news channels.
Marcus: Clara, unlock those cuffs immediately. Officer, remove them now.
Officer Miller: She escaped custody, sir. I have to follow protocol.
Marcus: She escaped custody to stop a murder! If she hadn't broken out, my sister would be dead in the ground in twenty minutes! Uncuff her right now, or I'll buy this entire police department and fire you myself!
The officer pulled out his key and clicked open the heavy steel cuffs around Clara's wrists. Clara fell back onto the pew, burying her face in her bruised hands as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Marcus: Thank you, Clara. I don't even know how to repay you for what you did today.
Clara: I just couldn't let him get away with it. Mrs. Evelyn was the only person who gave me a chance after I lost my home.
Marcus: How did you figure out what he was doing?
Clara: Two weeks ago, I was dusting the library while Julian was on the phone. He was talking to a doctor overseas about a drug called Tetrodotoxin. He said it would make someone look completely dead for forty-eight hours.
Marcus: That's why the local coroner didn't suspect anything... her pulse was too slow to detect with normal instruments.
Clara: When I tried to warn Mrs. Evelyn, Julian caught me looking through his desk. He planted her diamond necklace in my room and called the police before I could speak to her.
Marcus: He used the police to isolate her... so no one would be in the house to protect her when he gave her the final dose.
Clara: Yes. But I kept track of the dates in my cell. I knew today was the day of the funeral, and I knew she was still breathing inside that casket.





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