Jane Rydert

Jane Rydert was the main protagonist and hidden villainess of the 2013 Lifetime film A Sister's Nightmare (airdate September 7, 2013). She was played by Kelly Rutherford.

History
Jane was the younger sister of Cassidy Rydert and, as revealed later on, harbored resentment toward her since they were children. This hatred only increased after their mother died and their father was forced to kill Jane's favorite horse after he broke his leg, an incident that Jane blamed Cassidy for. Years later, after months of not speaking to each other, Jane ran into Cassidy and her new husband Brian and infant daughter Emily. Resentful over Cassidy's new family, Jane yelled at Cassidy while the two had dinner with Brian (who was aware of Jane's mental instability). While the two were upstairs giving Emily a bath, the evil Jane snapped and took a gun upstairs, killing Brian before shooting Cassidy as well. When she realized that Cassidy had survived, she put the gun in her hand to make it appear she had killed her husband.

Afterwards, Jane had Cassidy committed to a psychiatric hospital, her having developed amnesia after the murder. Before the events of the movie, Jane had taken custody of Emily and had become a police officer. She was also engaged to aspiring lawyer Phil.

Events
When Cassidy was unexpectedly released from the hospital, Jane was surprised, but reluctantly allowed her sister to move in with them. During that time, Jane began fabricating stories to Phil and the now teenaged Emily that Cassidy was the unstable sister, and she subtly threatened Cassidy when she told her late one night that she was taking her daughter back. Jane then went about keeping Cassidy and Emily apart, even going as far as to install a lock on Emily's bedroom door and bars on her windows (after Cassidy climbed in through the window to comfort Emily during a nightmare related to her father's murder). Jane even stole security cameras from the police station, with her actions resulting in her being suspended from the force.

When Cassidy took Emily for a trip to a secluded lake, wanting to separate her from her murderous sister before revealing to her the truth, Jane unsuccessfully tried to stop her. When her partner Vic came over, Jane lied and said she needed help with a broken sink, stealing Vic's police cruiser while he is distracted. Vic calls her and tells her to come back before he called her in, but Jane ignored him and tracked down Cassidy and Emily. Jane attempted to sneak up on Cassidy with Vic's gun drawn, but was seen by Emily. Jane tried to convince Emily that Cassidy was trying to kill her, but Cassidy countered her by revealing herself as her birth mother. Cassidy then yelled for Jane to tell Emily what really happened to Brian, and a flashback revealed Jane as the true villainess. After Emily failed to disarm Jane, Cassidy and Jane got into a struggle as Vic and other officers arrived to stop her, arriving just as Jane was preparing to kill Cassidy. Vic revealed that Cassidy had come to her after regaining her memory of Brian's murder, and she had lured Jane there to get her to confess. Jane briefly threatened suicide before surrendering to the police, who arrested her.