Nightmares by Constance

Wedding planners Connie and Jillian have a problem on their hands: Cynthia Van Huysinga, the bride's grandmother, has secretly asked them to make sure her granddaughter Claire never marries Caleb Montgomery. Suspecting Caleb may be a criminal, Jason Whittaker has posed as Jillian's husband at the rehearsal dinner, where a well-timed drink spill got them the key to Caleb's hotel room.

Searching the room, Jason and Jillian find a strange orange powder on the bathroom floor. Jason suspects it could be the sleeping medication that was slipped into George Donnelly's drink before his diamond cufflinks were stolen. Since the police lab would take too long, Jason borrows Eugene's lab at the college to test the sample himself. On the way out, the pair overhear Claire and Caleb arguing in the coat room; Claire insists they promised each other no secrets, but Caleb says he can't tell her anything else. The lab results come back, and that evening Detective Polehaus interrupts the rehearsal dinner with the words, "Caleb Montgomery, you're under arrest for theft." The wedding is off.

The next morning, Connie and Jillian glumly cancel the limo and the photographer, wondering why catching the bad guy feels so awful. Cynthia arrives with the check she promised, assuring them they have saved Claire from an ill-suited marriage. But Claire refuses to leave town or give up on Caleb, and she finally shares his secret: his mother, Beth, spent most of his childhood in prison, and his mysterious trip to Wawasee was to rebuild their relationship before the wedding. When Claire mentions that Beth picked up Caleb's tuxedo and delivered it to his room, Jason realizes someone else had access to the very room where the evidence was found. Could a mother actually frame her own son?

At the police station, Caleb tells Jason and Polehaus that his mother asked oddly detailed questions about Claire's family, their money, and their home; she even called it Wilshire Manor, a name he never used, as if she had researched Claire herself. He insists he never stole the cufflinks. Worried Beth might skip town, Jason sends Connie and Jillian to keep an eye on her. They miss her at the hotel, but Connie remembers Beth boarded her dog at the fanciest kennel in town and catches her there, dog in hand. Pressed about her prison record, Beth admits, "I am responsible," and agrees to come in voluntarily.

Back with the others, Beth explains she only meant that her absence must have driven Caleb to crime; she never robbed anyone. Her prison sentence, she tearfully confesses, was for vehicular manslaughter; distracted on the phone, she ran a red light and killed two people. Cynthia tries to hurry Claire out, but when she asks for her distinctive vintage paisley bag, Jason springs his trap. That same bag appears in security video from the Wawasee hotel lobby where a Mrs. McLaren was supposedly robbed, and Cynthia paid for the room she shared with the victim, who happens to be her friend. Jason reveals that Mrs. McLaren faked the robbery, that Uncle George, Cynthia's own brother, faked his too, and that both have already confessed. Cynthia planted the emerald watch in Caleb's suitcase and, having switched rooms with Caleb, used an extra keycard to plant the sleeping powder.

Then comes the reason why. The two people Beth hit in her accident were not strangers. "They were your parents, Claire," Beth says. Cynthia could not bear to let Claire marry into the family that destroyed their own, so she schemed to have Caleb arrested instead of simply telling the truth. Claire, heartbroken and angry, tells her grandmother that this hard-hearted, vindictive plan hurt the person she loves most. Her mother prayed for her future husband, Claire says, and she would have loved Caleb and forgiven Beth. Cynthia finally breaks: "It seems perhaps I'm the one in need of forgiveness."

The wedding goes forward after all. At the reception, a grateful Beth thanks Jason and Jillian for helping her son, and Detective Polehaus, won over by the bacon-wrapped shrimp, quietly tells Jillian he has agreed to wait until after the party to take Cynthia in. She broke plenty of laws and will face a fitting punishment, though probably not prison. Watching Cynthia laugh and toast the newlyweds alongside Beth, the friends decide she is going to be okay.