Our wedding date was set for the following summer. My mother was ecstatic, my friends were already joking about bridesmaids’ dresses and bachelorette parties.

Kevin was attentive, helpful, and seemed to be taking his role as future husband seriously. He even surprised me one evening by suggesting we take a trip to Spain before the wedding, a kind of pre-honeymoon getaway.

He’d said, “We need a little break from all this wedding planning stress, don’t you think?” I agreed. It felt romantic, and it gave me something more to look forward to in the midst of seating charts and vendor contracts.

But then, everything began to unravel.