Just days before my dreamy beachside bachelorette trip, I realized my passport was missing. My fiancé, Derek, promised to help me look—but something about his calmness didn’t sit right. He’d always been protective, sometimes in ways that felt more like control than care. The trip was supposed to be a peaceful getaway with my best friends—yoga, pottery, café chats by the ocean. But now, my plans were unraveling. We tore the house apart searching. Drawers emptied, closets overturned—nothing. Derek kept suggesting I’d misplaced it or left it somewhere strange,

but his tone was just… too composed. Then Mark, my best friend Tasha’s boyfriend (and Derek’s friend), pulled me aside and confessed: Derek had taken the passport. He was scared I’d cheat while away and hid it in his suitcase. I was stunned. All his “worry” suddenly looked a lot more like manipulation. I didn’t confront him outright. Instead, I pretended to give up. When my friends arrived for the trip, we played along. “I guess I’m not going,”