‘I’ll leave her homeless; she’s …

We moved fast. Maybe too fast. Within six weeks, Ryan was staying at my place most nights.

Within two months, he had brought up marriage. Not as a proposal. Just as something that seemed inevitable between us.

You know, the way normal people discuss vacation plans. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone,” he told me one night as we lay in bed. “I know it sounds crazy, but I can see us building a life together.”

When he proposed three months after our first date, I said yes without hesitation.

The ring was gorgeous, way more expensive than anything I would have picked for myself. Ryan insisted on paying for it, said it was important to him that he provide for me in traditional ways. I found out later he had put it on a credit card that he never intended to pay off himself.