Tessa.
This time, she'd come with an army instead of merely a presence. Predatory influencers, venomous bloggers, and opportunists swarmed her, phones like beacons. The invasion suddenly shattered the soft candlelight.
“There!” Tessa shrieked, her perfectly lacquered finger a poisoned dart aimed directly at Marco’s table. “The serpent! He is the architect of heartbreak! The charlatan faked devotion! A craven who fled!”
A seismic shockwave of gasps rippled through the patrons, a potent cocktail of disbelief and ravenous curiosity that spread like wildfire through tinder. Chairs shrieked in protest against the terracotta, a desperate symphony of necks craning, of bodies contorting for a better vantage point. Forks laden with a moment’s indulgence hung suspended, forgotten. This peaceful p
