Chapter 1 - The Dead Woman at the Door
"Get that filthy woman out of my wedding!"
My sister's scream cracked through the chapel before the organist had time to stop playing. Two hundred guests turned toward the open doors. I stood on the red carpet without shoes, in a stained gray dress, with bandages slipping from the burns on my arms. The cold stone hurt my feet. I had walked the last mile because the car bringing me here had been forced off the road.
Juliette Ashford stared at me from the altar. Her white gown cost more than the nurses at Ravenwood made in a year. Four years ago, she had told the police I was dead.
"Hello, Jules," I said. My damaged throat made the words scrape. "You look surprised."
"Security!" She backed into the groom. "That isn't my sister. My sister died in the Blackthorn House fire."
Our father stood in the first pew. Thomas Ashford had grown gray since I'd last seen him. He rose so slowly I thought his knees might give out.
"Caroline?" he whispered.
"It's me, Dad."
He took one step forward. Juliette seized his sleeve. "Don't go near her. People copy photographs. People run scams."
I pulled the loosened scarf away from my neck, revealing the long, twisted burn scar. "You remember this door, Juliette? The one you locked when the smoke started?"
The chapel went silent. Her fiancé, Evan Mercer, looked from her to me. "What is she talking about?"
"A sick woman is lying," Juliette snapped.
"Then you won't mind seeing the documents." Detective Marcus Hale entered behind me, carrying a worn leather case. He set it on the signing table beside the flowers and opened a folder. "This is Caroline Ashford's death certificate. The medical examiner listed on it retired seven months before the fire."
A murmur swept the room. Juliette's makeup seemed to drain of color.
Marcus lifted a second page. "And these are payments from an account controlled by the bride to a locked recovery facility. One payment every month for nearly four years."
Dad looked at Juliette. "Why were you paying for someone you said was dead?"
May you like
My sister's lips moved without sound. Then she said something only I could hear.
"You weren't supposed to get out."
