Mila didn’t want a wedding. Eloping on a beach would have suited her, but when her boyfriend of six years proposed and insisted on a more formal event, she planned an intimate garden party.
There was one detail she didn’t account for, one logistical crisis she hadn’t foreseen: As Mila and her new husband cut into their raspberry-lemon cake, guests circled around snapping photos and he snatched a handful, shoving his palm from the bottom of her chin to her forehead. In shock, with cake stuck to her eyelashes and up her nose, she tried to back away. He held her by her neck, thrashing another mound into her face. (Her name, like most others in this story, has been changed for privacy.)
