The Unworthy Bride

What a perfect day for an outdoor wedding!  It was early June and there was not a rain cloud in sight.  The sun was warm and a light breeze ruffled the leaves on the trees.  It seemed that God himself had blessed the union of Mark and Karen with this beautiful weather.

The wedding was to be held in a sheltered area enclosed by a horseshoe-shaped grove of trees.  The bride and groom had obviously spared no expense on decorations.  Fountains that spouted colored water, marble statues, white doves in wicker cages, and vases of fresh flowers were everywhere.  The focal point was a white archway entwined with pink and white roses, under which the bride and groom would repeat their vows.

Annie shifted her weight uncomfortably on a white folding chair that wasn’t big enough for a normal human being.  She looked at the other guests and wondered if she was the only person here who realized that this marriage would be a disaster.  Was she the only one who could see Karen for what she really was, a bitch who would ruin Mark’s life?

Mark had been Annie’s dearest friend for five years.  If she was honest with herself, she would admit that she was in love with him.  She spent many nights in restless sleep, dreaming of his curly black hair, warm brown eyes, and kind smile.  She often imagined his strong arms wrapped around her, but she knew that a man like him was too good for a woman like her.  He was from a prominent family and she was nobody.  He was incredibly handsome and she was overweight and unattractive.  She knew he would never think of her as anything but a friend, but she was happy with that. 

Annie remembered how devastated Mark had been when his first wife, Angela, had left him.  He had even contemplated suicide for a time.  Annie had been through all of that with him, and had felt his pain as if it was her own. She had watched him slowly, painfully put his life back together, helping in any way she could.  Now that he was finally happy, she couldn’t stand to think of him getting hurt again.

With her long blonde hair, innocent blue eyes, sweet smile, and soft voice, Karen had managed to fool everyone else, but she couldn’t fool Annie.  Annie knew she was a scheming gold digger like Angela, who would take everything Mark gave her and then leave him.  Mark had been so happy when he announced that he and Karen were engaged.  Annie had reasoned, begged, and pleaded with him to change his mind, but nothing she said had any effect.

“Mark, you’re throwing your life away!” she had screamed with tears streaming down her face, but he had been too distracted by love to even hear her.

“Okay, do whatever you want!” she had finally shouted at him and walked out the door.

She had assumed that Mark was angry with her, so she had not expected to be invited to the wedding.  When the fancy engraved invitation arrived, she had wanted to tear it up, but that night, she received a phone call from Mark.

“Annie, I really hope you will be coming to the wedding.” 

“I didn’t think you’d want me there,” Annie had replied.

“Of course I do,” Mark had said. “It won’t be the same without you.”

Annie had replayed that phone call in her mind several times.  He had sounded so strange, not like himself. Was she imagining it, or did she hear desperation in his voice?  Maybe he didn’t want to go through with the wedding, but didn’t know how to get out of it.  Maybe he was asking Annie to help him do what he couldn’t on his own.  She had realized what she had to do and began making plans.

The orchestra fell silent, rousing Annie from her thoughts.  She saw Mark standing under the archway, looking directly at her and smiling.  She smiled back and gave him the okay sign with her hand.

The orchestra began playing “Ode to Joy” and the guests swiveled around in their seats. Three pretty bridesmaids in identical pink dresses walked up the aisle, each one accompanied by an attractive young man.  Then the orchestra began playing “The Wedding March” and a heavenly vision in white floated up the aisle. 

Karen wore the most beautiful wedding dress Annie had ever seen, a white cloud of satin, lace, sequins, and pearls.  Her blonde hair was swept up and entwined with flowers and ribbons.  Her perfect skin was radiant and her smile was breathtaking.  Annie was so transfixed by her beauty that, for a second, she forgot the reason she had come to the wedding.  She remembered quickly when she saw Karen standing next to Mark under the archway.

The minister stood in front of the couple and intoned, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to celebrate the marriage of Mark Edwards and Karen Matthews.”

He rambled on for a few minutes and then said the words Annie had been waiting for, “If anyone knows a reason why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony, let him speak now, or forever hold his peace.”

Annie leapt up into the aisle and shouted, “I have a reason! The bride is unworthy!”

The bride and groom turned and faced her, with looks of confusion on their faces that changed to fear when they saw the gun she was holding.  Annie pointed the gun at Karen and, before she could change her mind, pulled the trigger. 

A large blossom of red appeared on the front of Karen’s dress.  She dropped her bouquet and sagged against Mark.  As he caught her in his arms, he shouted in a strangled voice, “Oh God, she’s—Call 911, quick!”

Annie was barely aware of people grabbing her and wrestling her to the ground.  She did not try to resist.  She knew she would go to prison, maybe get the death penalty, but she had done what she needed to do.  Mark was safe.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Detective Steve White stepped through the trees and surveyed the wreckage of the wedding, now encircled with yellow police tape.  Overturned chairs and ruined flower arrangements were everywhere.  In the center lay a body in a long white dress, surrounded by police photographers and crime scene technicians.  White saw his partner, Detective Julie Martin, and walked over to her.

“Sorry I’m so late, but it’s a zoo around here,” White said. “Every news crew in the state must be here.  You’d think the president had been assassinated or something.” 

“I know,” Martin replied. “Don’t worry about being late.  This one won't require much investigation.  The whole shooting was caught on tape.  The camera crew of ‘A Bright Tomorrow’ caught the whole thing from three angles.  They were in the middle of filming a big wedding scene when it happened.”

“I heard the victim was a Karen somebody,” White said.

“No, Karen Matthews was the name of the character she played on the show.  Her real name, or stage name probably, was Alyssa Morgan.”

There was a slight commotion as a heavy-set woman in a hideous flowered dress was led away by two uniformed officers.  The woman had a serene, almost happy expression on her face. 

“Who is the shooter?” White asked.

“Annie Cook, a 33 year old janitor from Omaha, Nebraska.  I tried to question her but she’s out in left field of the Twilight Zone. I finally told the guys to go ahead and take her in, because I couldn’t get anything from her that made sense.  She just kept mumbling, “I did it for Mark”. 

“Mark?”

“Mark was another character on the show.  He was the groom in the wedding scene they were filming.  That’s him, or the actor who plays him, over there,” Martin said, indicating a young man in a blood spattered tux who looked like he might puke.  “I already talked to him and he said he never saw the shooter before in his life.”

“I don’t understand how she got in here,” White said.  “We’re practically tripping over security guards from the studio now.  Where were they?”

“That’s the crazy thing.  She was invited.  She was one of the winners of a contest the show's producers sponsored.  Ten fans were picked to play guests at the wedding.  The studio sent them invitations, had the actors make phone calls to them, and paid for them to travel here.  They had security guards all around the outside to make sure nobody wandered in and disrupted the filming, but they never thought to search their devoted fans for weapons.”

White's cell phone rang.

"White here."

"Steven, this is your mother.  I just heard about the shooting.  Isn't it terrible?"

"Mom, I can't talk right now-" 

"But this is important. I have information about the shooting.  I know who is responsible.”

“Mom, the person responsible is already in custody.”

“Oh, I don’t mean the woman who did the shooting.  I know she didn’t act alone.  It was all set up by Karen’s ex-husband, Blaine Matthews.  He was supposed to have been killed in a plane crash but he was found alive in Peru.  He has connections to the Mafia…”