By the time the case went to trial, winter had come.Tessa wore a plain dark jacket, her hair tied back. When she entered the courtroom, she looked toward the seats behind her.Dante sat beside his father.For a moment, Tessa seemed relieved.Then she saw my parents across the aisle and looked away.The evidence took days to present.The bakery’s warnings. The false approval bearing my signature. The footage from the dressing room.I had spent so much of our relationship trying to explain why Tessa’s behavior hurt me.Now strangers read her messages aloud, and no one told me I was being too sensitive.When Tessa testified, her lawyer asked her what she had intended.“A joke,” she said. “Something funny for the wedding video.”“Did you intend to injure Isabella?”“No. Never.”She began to cry.“I know how it looks now. But we’d all known each other for years. We joked around.”Later, the prosecutor showed her the bakery’s warning.“You were told someone could suffer a serious facial or
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