Speaker 1: I went down to DC thinking that I was making
Speaker 1: a parenting plan, and I came back with business cards
Speaker 1: for investigators and victims assistance phone numbers in my luggage,
Speaker 1: doubting who I knew for the last five years.
Speaker 2: I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about
Speaker 2: the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
Speaker 2: change everything. Betrayal Weekly is officially back for season two.
Speaker 2: Whether you've been with us from the beginning or you're
Speaker 2: just tuning in, welcome this season. We're bringing you some
Speaker 2: of our most riveting, emotional, and unforgettable stories yet, starting
Speaker 2: with this one.
Speaker 1: So I had been married for eleven years. It was
Speaker 1: very shocking to me what little independence I had so
Speaker 1: easily fallen into. And I didn't want to be like that.
Speaker 2: That's Brook Fisk. She's an ICU nurse from upstate New York.
Speaker 2: When she was thirty two, she divorced her first husband
Speaker 2: and started over.
Speaker 1: The first couple of months were scary and lonely. You know.
Speaker 1: I would come home from work and the house would
Speaker 1: be empty because the kids would be at their dads
Speaker 1: and it would be quiet, and I would sit down
Speaker 1: in the kitchen and look around and not know what
Speaker 1: to do with myself.
Speaker 2: Brooke was a newly single mother of two, sharing custody
Speaker 2: with her ex. This transition made her painfully aware of
Speaker 2: how much she sacrificed in her marriage. She wanted to
Speaker 2: rebuild a life where she was in control.
Speaker 1: So when I got divorced, really my focus for that
Speaker 1: first year was to become independent and maintain my independence,
Speaker 1: and I really thrived at that.
Speaker 2: She bought a small house and fixed it up on
Speaker 2: her own.
Speaker 1: I would watch YouTube videos on how to fix things
Speaker 1: and how to maintain things, and it was very empowering
Speaker 1: figuring out how to do that stuff.
Speaker 2: When she started dating again, she was careful her kids
Speaker 2: had already been through enough change.
Speaker 1: I was on dating apps and I would meet people
Speaker 1: and go on dates and have a lot of fun
Speaker 1: with that. But whenever it got to the point of
Speaker 1: somebody wanting to get serious, I think that it would
Speaker 1: scare me and I would back right off.
Speaker 2: She didn't want a boyfriend, and she definitely didn't want
Speaker 2: to get married again. If she was looking for anything,
Speaker 2: it was just someone to go on dates with. Her
Speaker 2: life was busy enough with her two kids and a
Speaker 2: demanding job in the ICU.
Speaker 1: I worked nights and it was an incredible experience. I
Speaker 1: loved working in the ICU. I loved being able to
Speaker 1: really impact people's lives.
Speaker 2: That's where she met a medical resident.
Speaker 1: So his full name was Secunder am Ron, but I
Speaker 1: called him Sick. A lot of his friends called him Sick.
Speaker 2: One day, she was called into a room with Sick
Speaker 2: and another doctor.
Speaker 1: They were talking about the patient's heart rate and he said, well,
Speaker 1: his heart rates up now, it must be because this
Speaker 1: nurse is in his room.
Speaker 2: He was talking about Brooke. He shot Brooke a small le.
Speaker 1: Which was funny and flirtatious and maybe a little inappropriate
Speaker 1: at the time, but yeah, that was the first time
Speaker 1: I remember meeting him.
Speaker 2: A few weeks later, Brooke was working the night shift
Speaker 2: with Sick when he asked her to help with the patient,
Speaker 2: and once the patient fell asleep, Brooke and Sick got
Speaker 2: to chatting.
Speaker 1: At the end of our conversation, he asked me if
Speaker 1: I would like to go out with him, and I
Speaker 1: said that I don't date doctors. He said ever, and
Speaker 1: I said, no, I don't date doctors. I have a
Speaker 1: rule against it. And he said, well, let me know
Speaker 1: if you change your mind. And after he left the room,
Speaker 1: the patient, who I thought was sleeping, opened her eyes
Speaker 1: and she pointed at me. She had a trike so
Speaker 1: she couldn't talk, but she mouthed the words that man
Speaker 1: is for you. And I laughed and I said, no,
Speaker 1: he's not, and she said, yes he is.
Speaker 2: Brooke didn't like the stereotype about doctors and nurses hooking.
Speaker 1: Up, you know, the nurse and the doctors sneak off
Speaker 1: into a supply closet, because that's what's depicted on Gray's anatomy.
Speaker 2: That's why she had the rule no dating doctors. But
Speaker 2: after a few weeks of flirtation, he won her over.
Speaker 2: She took his number and decided that just this once,
Speaker 2: she could break her rule. They started with an ice
Speaker 2: cream date, then long walks and dinners at his apartment.
Speaker 1: We really developed kind of a friendship first kind of relationship,
Speaker 1: so we would spend a lot of time watching movies,
Speaker 1: going to movies. I taught him how to cook rice
Speaker 1: American style. I don't think either of us realized at
Speaker 1: the time how much closer we were getting while we
Speaker 1: were doing those casual things. So that fall we went
Speaker 1: out a couple of times and we started talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, where he came from, what my background was,
Speaker 1: and I knew that he had come for residency from Pakistan.
Speaker 2: He came from a family of doctors. In fact, his
Speaker 2: dad had owned a hospital in Pakistan. Like his older brother,
Speaker 2: Sick wanted to stay in the US and practice medicine here.
Speaker 1: Where he grew up. Men and women didn't do public
Speaker 1: displays of affection. And I remember the first time that
Speaker 1: he held my hand in public. He was so awkward
Speaker 1: about it, and I was like, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: Are you holding my hand in public? You know, kind
Speaker 1: of joking with him, and he was like, yeah, I am,
Speaker 1: but he was so nervous about it.
Speaker 2: There was a real connection between them, but that didn't
Speaker 2: change Brooke's feelings about commitment.
Speaker 1: I was honest with him that I really wasn't looking
Speaker 1: for any kind of a relationship. That I have kids
Speaker 1: at home and they're my first priority. He knew that
Speaker 1: I would only go out with him when my kids
Speaker 1: were with their dad, and he was accepting of that.
Speaker 1: He also said that he wasn't looking to get into
Speaker 1: a relationship or get married either.
Speaker 2: Regardless of what he said, Brooke could tell he was trying.
Speaker 1: He would always pay attention and notice details. He would
Speaker 1: notice how I took my coffee and make an effort
Speaker 1: to prepare it for me that way. He knew which
Speaker 1: ice cream flavors I liked, at which dessert restaurants. He
Speaker 1: was logical and thoughtful and funny and caring.
Speaker 2: After six months of dating, they realized that what was
Speaker 2: happening here was more than just a casual fling.
Speaker 1: It was probably late the next spring that he looked
Speaker 1: at me and he said, do you consider me your boyfriend?
Speaker 1: And I hadn't even thought about it, and I said, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess I do. Is that okay?
Speaker 2: It was definitely okay with him. Once they became official,
Speaker 2: they kept things quiet at work.
Speaker 1: A lot of our coworkers knew that we were together,
Speaker 1: but it was just kind of a thing that nobody
Speaker 1: really talked about. Occasionally someone would say, oh, I saw
Speaker 1: your boyfriend, but I would say, oh, do you mean
Speaker 1: doctor Imron.
Speaker 2: You know, outside the hospital. They built a rhythm. When
Speaker 2: Brooks kids were with their dad, she and Sick planned
Speaker 2: romantic dinners and weekend getaways.
Speaker 1: We loved to go on trips. What we really liked
Speaker 1: to do is go to vacation spots and find the
Speaker 1: foods that they were famous for.
Speaker 2: It started with an impromptu road trip to Chicago. Sick
Speaker 2: drove with Brooke asleep in the passenger seat.
Speaker 1: And I remember him waking me up as we were
Speaker 1: kind of driving into Chicago. It was nighttime and Chicago
Speaker 1: was let up. A lot of the buildings had purple
Speaker 1: lights on them for some reason. And he woke me
Speaker 1: up and he said, look, I called Chicago and had
Speaker 1: them light the buildings up purple for you, because he
Speaker 1: knew that I liked purple.
Speaker 2: That weekend, they didn't have a plan. They just explored
Speaker 2: their way through the city.
Speaker 1: We found this really awesome restaurant that had Kastani food
Speaker 1: and they were open all night. We went there at
Speaker 1: like one o'clock in the morning, in this hole in
Speaker 1: the wall restaurant, and it was the most amazing food.
Speaker 2: Next they went to New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Even though I donate me, we ate alligator, it was
Speaker 1: pretty good.
Speaker 2: Back home in New York, they weren't living together, but
Speaker 2: they were in each other's lives in real, tangible ways.
Speaker 2: About two years into dating, Sick came to her with
Speaker 2: a proposition.
Speaker 1: He moved out of his apartment and into a townhouse,
Speaker 1: and he had said at one point that he thought
Speaker 1: that I would come and live with him, and I said,
Speaker 1: I can't come live with you. I have kids, and
Speaker 1: he said, well, you can just stay here when your
Speaker 1: kids aren't home, and I said that's fine. And at
Speaker 1: that point we had a conversation about how we really
Speaker 1: liked the life we had together, and we liked being
Speaker 1: together when we could be together, but that neither of
Speaker 1: us were really passionate about wanting to get married.
Speaker 2: Still, Brooke had been careful about boundaries from the very beginning,
Speaker 2: especially when it came to her kids.
Speaker 1: For me, there was a lot of hesitancy about introducing
Speaker 1: someone to my kids, so there was a little bit
Speaker 1: of integration, but not a lot. We all went to
Speaker 1: the movies together a couple of times, and he came
Speaker 1: over for dinner a couple of times.
Speaker 2: Her kids really took to sick and enjoyed having him around.
Speaker 2: After that, he wanted Brooke to meet his family.
Speaker 1: His mom came to town and he asked me if
Speaker 1: I would meet her, and she invited me for lunch
Speaker 1: and tea. So I went over and we had a
Speaker 1: really nice afternoon together and we ended up talking about love.
Speaker 2: Sick was at work, so it was just Broken his mom,
Speaker 2: and there was clearly a wink and a nod to
Speaker 2: the conversation because Sick hadn't been completely honest with his mom.
Speaker 1: Sick had told her that I was his friend. But
Speaker 1: she's a mom and she's not dumb, so I think
Speaker 1: she knew what was going on. She asked me what
Speaker 1: I thought about arranged marriage and if I thought it
Speaker 1: was good or if I thought love marriages were better,
Speaker 1: And we had a nice conversation about love, and she
Speaker 1: told me about meeting six Dad and their marriage. I
Speaker 1: didn't get any sense of disapproval from her at all.
Speaker 1: She was very kind to me.
Speaker 2: The meeting went so well. Broken Six moms started sending
Speaker 2: letters and care packages back and forth, which made Sick
Speaker 2: a little nervous.
Speaker 1: I remember him being a little bit like, she's going
Speaker 1: to know, She's going to know, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I think she already knows.
Speaker 2: Brooke didn't see the big deal, but for Sick, his
Speaker 2: family expectations mattered, especially when he came to marriage.
Speaker 1: He talked about feeling like there was an expectation on
Speaker 1: him to marry a Pakistani girl. And his family wouldn't
Speaker 1: accept him marrying a white girl. And I asked him, well,
Speaker 1: what if you just don't get married, would that be okay?
Speaker 1: Would your family accept that? And he said I think so.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, okay, let's do that. Then let's
Speaker 1: just not get married.
Speaker 2: Their agreement worked for almost four years, but when six
Speaker 2: residency ended, there were relationship hit across roads. He started
Speaker 2: applying to Fellowship programs across the country.
Speaker 1: We actually went to a couple of different places. We
Speaker 1: took a little road trip around for him to look
Speaker 1: at them and interview.
Speaker 2: The program he really wanted to go to was in DC,
Speaker 2: a six hour drive from upstate New York. Brooke made
Speaker 2: it clear that relocating wasn't an option for her family.
Speaker 1: I don't think that trying to have a long distance
Speaker 1: relationship is a good idea, especially given that I have
Speaker 1: kids and he's going to be living states away. And
Speaker 1: he acknowledged that, and we had a couple of conversations
Speaker 1: about it, but ultimately he decided that it was important
Speaker 1: for him to go to this program. It was a
Speaker 1: program that his brother had done, so it was kind
Speaker 1: of a family legacy.
Speaker 2: It was bittersweet, but Brooks supported sick if he wanted
Speaker 2: to start his career in America. This really was for
Speaker 2: the best.
Speaker 1: I was very happy for him, congratulated him. I bought
Speaker 1: him a cake and helped him start looking for places
Speaker 1: to buy down there, and helped him paint it and
Speaker 1: helped him pick out furniture and decorate it. And then,
Speaker 1: you know, we kind of said goodbye after that, But
Speaker 1: of course goodbye wasn't really goodbye, as often happens in
Speaker 1: these relationships.
Speaker 2: They knew they had an expiration date, but they were
Speaker 2: having a hard time letting go.
Speaker 1: I remember walking into the airport with tears streaming down
Speaker 1: my face, bawling after saying goodbye to him, and Tshent
Speaker 1: came up to me and she said, are you okay?
Speaker 1: And I said, yeah, I just said goodbye to my boyfriend.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure she thought something was horribly wrong, just
Speaker 1: from the amount that I was crying. We said a
Speaker 1: lot of good byes that year.
Speaker 2: This began a new era of their relationship, one where
Speaker 2: they kept finding their way back to each other weekend
Speaker 2: by weekend.
Speaker 1: We weren't in a relationship, we were not together, but
Speaker 1: what we would end up doing is anytime either one
Speaker 1: of us had like a long weekend free, or if
Speaker 1: it was one of our birthdays, we would take a
Speaker 1: little trip together.
Speaker 2: For her thirty seventh birthday, Sick planned a trip to
Speaker 2: the Poconots.
Speaker 1: We stayed at a bed and breakfast up in the mountains, fireplace,
Speaker 1: woody romantic get away, candle at dinners and fireside chit
Speaker 1: chat every night. You know.
Speaker 2: Brooke didn't know it at the time, but what happened
Speaker 2: that weekend would affect the rest of her life. At
Speaker 2: the end of their trip, they said another tearful goodbye.
Speaker 2: It was a great time, But that whole weekend, Sick
Speaker 2: had been keeping a secret. He just couldn't bring himself
Speaker 2: to tell her in person.
Speaker 1: He called me a couple of days later, and he
Speaker 1: said that he wanted to talk to me, and he
Speaker 1: wanted to let me know that he had talked to
Speaker 1: his mom and that he had agreed to let his
Speaker 1: mom arrange him a marriage.
Speaker 2: After a romantic getaway for Brooke's birthday, Sick called her
Speaker 2: with surprising news he was moving forward with an arranged marriage.
Speaker 1: I was surprised because he had not been interested in
Speaker 1: an arranged marriage and hadn't expressed any interest in it.
Speaker 2: She always thought Sick wanted a love marriage. And when
Speaker 2: he broke the news, he didn't even seem excited about
Speaker 2: the idea.
Speaker 1: He seemed resigned to it. He seemed sad about it.
Speaker 1: He talked about it like he was going to get
Speaker 1: a girl who wanted to marry a doctor.
Speaker 2: Brooke tried to hide it, but she was hurt.
Speaker 1: I felt sad, but I think that part of me
Speaker 1: had been expecting it because we'd basically been trying to
Speaker 1: say goodbye for a year. So even though part of
Speaker 1: me felt like he was still mine, he really wasn't
Speaker 1: mine anymore.
Speaker 2: If he was serious about pursuing this, that meant their
Speaker 2: relationship had to be over.
Speaker 1: I told him that if that was happening, then we
Speaker 1: really needed to stop talking to each other, because it
Speaker 1: wasn't fair to another woman to think that she was
Speaker 1: getting a husband and have her husband over here in
Speaker 1: the United States talking to me and going on trips
Speaker 1: with me. That's just not fair. And he agreed, And
Speaker 1: for all the times we had tried to say goodbye
Speaker 1: over the past year, I think that finally seemed to
Speaker 1: be the thing that let us stop talking to each other.
Speaker 1: After that, conversation. I think we went the longest period
Speaker 1: we had ever gone without talking. It was over two weeks.
Speaker 1: Neither of us reached out, and then I realized my
Speaker 1: period was late, so I took a pregnancy test and
Speaker 1: it was positive.
Speaker 2: Brooke knew it happened during their Pocono's trip.
Speaker 1: The moment I realized I was pregnant, I started thinking
Speaker 1: about the baby and who he was going to be.
Speaker 1: I really just felt like that was my baby. From
Speaker 1: the minute I knew I was pregnant, it felt like.
Speaker 2: A gift from the universe. She knew this would be
Speaker 2: her last baby, and it just felt right. But now
Speaker 2: she faced another decision.
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure if I should even tell him. Part
Speaker 1: of me thought, if I don't tell him, he'll never know,
Speaker 1: and I just have the baby and go on with
Speaker 1: my life and he can go on with his life.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, it felt wrong to keep this
Speaker 2: from him.
Speaker 1: Is it fair of me to not give him that
Speaker 1: choice and that opportunity to take part in his child's life.
Speaker 1: I knew how much I liked being a parent, and
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to be in
Speaker 1: my child's life. So I decided to tell him because
Speaker 1: I thought that it was the right thing to do.
Speaker 2: She told him over the phone. He was quiet for
Speaker 2: a few seconds, and then.
Speaker 1: His immediate reaction was to ask me to have an abortion.
Speaker 1: I told him I couldn't and he didn't have to
Speaker 1: be involved. He didn't have to financially support the baby,
Speaker 1: he didn't have to have anything to do with the baby.
Speaker 1: I was already a single mom. I loved having kids.
Speaker 1: I'm good at raising kids. If he doesn't want to
Speaker 1: have the baby, that's fine.
Speaker 2: She went to the doctor and learned the baby was
Speaker 2: perfectly healthy. It was a little boy.
Speaker 1: I was already picking out names before I was even
Speaker 1: showing because I already knew who he was. I decided
Speaker 1: to name him Makai and call him Kai for short.
Speaker 2: But Sick wasn't on the same page. After she told him,
Speaker 2: he started spiraling.
Speaker 1: That started months of phone calls and text messages, begging
Speaker 1: and pleading with me to have an abortion, and telling
Speaker 1: me that I was ruining his life, that this was
Speaker 1: going to cast shame on his family in Pakistan, that
Speaker 1: his mother was going to be ridiculed and he was
Speaker 1: going to be an outcast, and that I was causing
Speaker 1: him mental anguish.
Speaker 2: She understood that having a baby outside of marriage wasn't
Speaker 2: part of his plan, but plan or not, this was happening.
Speaker 1: All of that text message and the phone calls about
Speaker 1: your ruining my life, You're ruining my mom's life. That
Speaker 1: all made me pretty mad.
Speaker 2: She kept waiting for Sick to come around, but every
Speaker 2: time she talked to him, he tried a new tactic.
Speaker 1: One day, I was sitting on my bed and I
Speaker 1: was on the phone with Sick, and he said that
Speaker 1: he had talked to a friend of his who was
Speaker 1: an OPIQI N and that his friend had told him
Speaker 1: that I could take mesaprostal and that it would abort
Speaker 1: the baby, and that I could do it right there
Speaker 1: at sex house and it all happened very easily, and
Speaker 1: I wouldn't even need to go to the hospital or anything.
Speaker 1: And said could be there with me the whole time,
Speaker 1: and asked if I would be willing to do that,
Speaker 1: and I said absolutely not.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: He said that he wasn't trying to pressure me, but
Speaker 1: that we were running out of time because we could
Speaker 1: only do this in the first trimester, and my first
Speaker 1: trimester had been coming to an end. So he wanted
Speaker 1: me to do this, and I said now.
Speaker 2: When she started the second trimester, the conversation was over.
Speaker 2: She'd made her choice. The window for second guessing had closed.
Speaker 2: Now that it was official, Brooke shared the news with
Speaker 2: her two kids.
Speaker 1: We had a little gender reveal cake for the baby.
Speaker 1: We went shopping and bottom a bunch of clothes and
Speaker 1: some stuff for his croup.
Speaker 2: She didn't hear from sick for a few weeks, but
Speaker 2: when he did reach out again, he'd had a change
Speaker 2: of heart.
Speaker 1: Eventually, he starts talking about setting up a bank account
Speaker 1: for me and the baby, and then he asks me
Speaker 1: if I'll come down to see him so that we
Speaker 1: could figure out a parenting plan and figure out a
Speaker 1: way that we could have this baby together and him
Speaker 1: still be in d C and maybe in New York,
Speaker 1: but still have this baby together.
Speaker 2: Finally, the sick she knew was back. She made plans
Speaker 2: to drive down to d C right after her four
Speaker 2: month ulder sound appointment.
Speaker 1: The morning that I left, I went to the doctor,
Speaker 1: We did a fetal heart rate, everything looked good, and
Speaker 1: I left and set off to go down to d
Speaker 1: C to see him. I drove the whole way down there,
Speaker 1: he texting me reminders to get up and walk so
Speaker 1: I don't get a blood clot, reminding me to drink water,
Speaker 1: asking me how my drive is going.
Speaker 2: When she got to Sick's house, he gave her a
Speaker 2: long hug.
Speaker 1: Everything seemed back to normal, except for one thing. He
Speaker 1: didn't say anything about my belly. He didn't try to
Speaker 1: touch it or anything like that.
Speaker 2: When he came to the baby, he still seemed to
Speaker 2: have a wall up.
Speaker 1: He hadn't even wanted me to tell him the gender
Speaker 1: of the baby, so I knew it was a boy,
Speaker 1: but he didn't. At one point that evening, I did
Speaker 1: start to bring up the baby, the pregnancy, and he said,
Speaker 1: let's wait and talk about this tomorrow, and I said okay.
Speaker 1: And the next morning we got up and we start
Speaker 1: making breakfast together, which we've done hundreds of times before.
Speaker 1: I'm making eggs and he's making coffee, and he's making
Speaker 1: coffee that we had gotten when we went to New Orleans.
Speaker 1: And it's this chickory root coffee, so it's a little
Speaker 1: bit stronger. So when I started drinking it, I noticed
Speaker 1: that it burned my stomach a little bit, and I
Speaker 1: kind of just thought, you know I'm pregnant. I probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't be drinking so much coffee. I'm probably developing an ulcer.
Speaker 1: Maybe I shouldn't drink this. So I didn't finish my
Speaker 1: cup of coffee. I sat it aside, finished breakfast, and
Speaker 1: went on about our day. Got ready went shopping.
Speaker 2: But as soon as they got to the mall, I was.
Speaker 1: Having a queasy feeling, so I ended up going into
Speaker 1: the back room quite a few times. At some point
Speaker 1: he asked me if I was feeling okay, and I
Speaker 1: told him no, that I had an upset stomach. His
Speaker 1: response was just, oh, okay, And that struck me in
Speaker 1: that moment as being very odd, because he normally would
Speaker 1: have asked if I needed anything, or gotten me a drink,
Speaker 1: or had some follow up to make sure I was
Speaker 1: all right, And in that moment, I remember thinking that
Speaker 1: I wondered if he was hoping that something was wrong,
Speaker 1: And then, of course I convinced to myself to put
Speaker 1: it out of my mind.
Speaker 2: As the day went on, she started to feel better,
Speaker 2: so they decided to get takeout and go back to
Speaker 2: his place.
Speaker 1: After dinner. He put on my favorite movie and said
Speaker 1: that he was going to make me a cup of
Speaker 1: tea for my stomach, so it was dark in the room.
Speaker 1: He brought me the tea, and when I tasted it,
Speaker 1: I noticed that it was unusually sweet, which was not
Speaker 1: how I took my tea. And he said that he
Speaker 1: had accidentally put in both sugar and honey, which was
Speaker 1: odd because he always remembered how I took my tea.
Speaker 1: But I drank it anyway. And when I got toward
Speaker 1: the bottom of the cup of tea, I took a
Speaker 1: sip of it, and there was grit in the bottom,
Speaker 1: and from being a nurse, I knew that texture was
Speaker 1: ground up pill so I spit it back in the cup,
Speaker 1: and I put the cup down, and I said that
Speaker 1: I had to go to the bathroom. I went into
Speaker 1: the bath room and I put my finger down my throat,
Speaker 1: and then I put a toothbrush down my throat to
Speaker 1: try to make myself throw up, and I couldn't. And
Speaker 1: I sat there in the bathroom and I wasn't sure
Speaker 1: what to do.
Speaker 2: As the minutes passed, she started doubting what she'd seen
Speaker 2: at the bottom.
Speaker 1: Of her cup. I've known him for years. I've been
Speaker 1: dating him for years. This man loves me the man
Speaker 1: I know wouldn't do that. And then I remembered that
Speaker 1: conversation where he told me that his friends suggested that
Speaker 1: I take me supostal and it would cause an abortion,
Speaker 1: and I told him no, and I just I knew
Speaker 1: that's what he did. But then I kept going back
Speaker 1: to maybe I'm crazy. Maybe there weren't pills in my cup.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't poison me, so maybe I'm insane. But then
Speaker 1: if he did that to me, what else would he do?
Speaker 1: If I go out there and he knows I know,
Speaker 1: and he actually did it, will he kill me? If
Speaker 1: he wants to get rid of the baby so bad
Speaker 1: that he'll poison me? Is he going to kill me?
Speaker 1: So I can't let him know that I know.
Speaker 2: In that moment, she came up with a plan. And
Speaker 2: before we keep going, I want a flag that what
Speaker 2: Brooke is about to describe could be emotionally triggering for
Speaker 2: some listeners. If you've had experience with pregnancy loss, please
Speaker 2: take care while listening. Now back to Brook, Here's what
Speaker 2: she decided to do.
Speaker 1: I'm going to wait until he goes to sleep, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to sneak out of the house and I'm
Speaker 1: going to go to the hospital. And so I sat
Speaker 1: down on the couch with him, and the movie was
Speaker 1: almost over, and I told him that I was tired
Speaker 1: and I wanted to go to bed, and so the
Speaker 1: movie ended, and he got up to take my dishes
Speaker 1: to the kitchen, and I said I'll take them, and
Speaker 1: he said, no, I'll take them, and he pulled them
Speaker 1: out of my hands, took the dishes to the sink,
Speaker 1: and I saw him tip the cup into the sink,
Speaker 1: and then he went into the bathroom. And when he
Speaker 1: went into the bathroom, I thought, I have to know,
Speaker 1: so I turned on the kitchen light and I looked
Speaker 1: and there was pill fragments in the bottom of the cup.
Speaker 1: So I got a plastic baggie out and I scooped
Speaker 1: out the rest of the pill fragments that were in
Speaker 1: the cup, and I zipped them up in the little
Speaker 1: plastic baggy and I hit him in my purse, and
Speaker 1: I thought, when he goes to sleep, i'll go to
Speaker 1: the hospital. Because now I don't so much think I'm insane.
Speaker 1: I think he probably did poison me. But now I
Speaker 1: really do need to wait until he's asleep.
Speaker 2: Now that she had seen the proof, the panic came
Speaker 2: flooding in what had he given her and how much
Speaker 2: of it did she drink? But she had to stay
Speaker 2: calm so she could get out and get help.
Speaker 1: So I got ready for bed, and I laid down
Speaker 1: next to him, and I just listened to him breathing
Speaker 1: and waited to hear his breathing change so I could
Speaker 1: hear when I got deeper so I could sneak out
Speaker 1: of bed. And while I was laying there, I felt
Speaker 1: a pop and I felt myself start bleeding. I got
Speaker 1: up and ran into the bathroom and I was bleeding,
Speaker 1: and I started crying and laid down on the bathroom floor.
Speaker 1: At this point, I was almost twenty weeks, a long
Speaker 1: four months pregnant. The baby was fully formed, so having
Speaker 1: this happen in his bathroom at his apartment is certainly
Speaker 1: medically dangerous for me. And he came in and he
Speaker 1: said what's wrong? And I said, the baby's dying. You
Speaker 1: need to call nine one one, and he said, no,
Speaker 1: you're fine. I'm a doctor. I can take care of you.
Speaker 2: Brooke planned to get out of Six's house quietly and
Speaker 2: drive herself to the hospital. Before she could, she started bleeding.
Speaker 2: Four months into the pregnancy. She knew she needed to
Speaker 2: get help quickly, but when Sick found her on the
Speaker 2: floor of the bathroom, he didn't want to call an ambulance, and.
Speaker 1: I said, you need to call nine one one, and
Speaker 1: he said, no, you're okay, I'm a doctor, You're going
Speaker 1: to be fine. I didn't know if he was refusing
Speaker 1: to call nine one one because he wanted to kill me.
Speaker 2: She was terrified for herself and for her baby.
Speaker 1: Part of me was really hopeful that maybe if I
Speaker 1: could just get to a hospital, somehow, the baby was
Speaker 1: going to survive. So I was desperate for him to
Speaker 1: call nine one one. I said, you don't understand your
Speaker 1: son is dying, your son, and if you don't call
Speaker 1: nine one one, then I will.
Speaker 2: She hadn't told him the sex of the baby until
Speaker 2: this moment. When she called the baby his son, something
Speaker 2: shifted for.
Speaker 1: Sick, and then he said, okay, I'll call and he
Speaker 1: went and he called nine one one, and then the
Speaker 1: ambulance came, and at this point I was bleeding a
Speaker 1: lot more.
Speaker 2: The paramedics picked her up from the floor and laid
Speaker 2: her on the stretcher.
Speaker 1: As they're pushing me out of the apartment. I see
Speaker 1: my purse sitting on the counter, and I remember that
Speaker 1: the pill fragments are in a baggy in my purse.
Speaker 1: So I ask the paramedic to hand me my purse
Speaker 1: and he says, you don't need it, and I said, no,
Speaker 1: I want my purse, and Sick picks it up and
Speaker 1: he says, I'll take it. I have another moment of panic,
Speaker 1: thinking if the paramedic asks me for my insurance card,
Speaker 1: Sick is going to open my purse and he's going
Speaker 1: to see that baggie in there with the pills in it,
Speaker 1: and he's going to get rid of it. So they
Speaker 1: lowed me into the ambulance and Sick gets into the
Speaker 1: ambulance with us. I just keep thinking, if I can
Speaker 1: get this paramedic to just make eye contact with me,
Speaker 1: he'll see in my eyes that I'm afraid and I
Speaker 1: don't want Sick here.
Speaker 2: But the paramedic was too busy triaging Brooke to notice
Speaker 2: all the while Six stayed right by her side, acting concerned.
Speaker 1: So we get to the hospital and the whole time
Speaker 1: Sick is holding my purse. Finally we get up to
Speaker 1: labor and delivery and he sets it down on the counter.
Speaker 2: In the room sick wouldn't leave her, and he made
Speaker 2: it known that he was a doctor.
Speaker 1: She's right there the whole time, right next to my bed,
Speaker 1: helping them move me from stretcher to bed and talking
Speaker 1: to the doctor about their medical training and where they've
Speaker 1: both worked, and he's that normal person that everybody likes
Speaker 1: in that room. Finally he goes into the bathroom and
Speaker 1: I whispered to the nurse to make him leave. I
Speaker 1: could just see the colored drain out of her face.
Speaker 1: She looked at me and she whispered, back, are you okay?
Speaker 1: And I said no. A couple of minutes later, the
Speaker 1: charge nurse came in and got sick and said that
Speaker 1: she wanted to show him the father's lounge, and she
Speaker 1: took him out. And then the nurse and the doctor
Speaker 1: came and asked me what was going on, And I said,
Speaker 1: I swear I'm not crazy, but I think he poisoned me.
Speaker 1: I found pills in my tea and they're in a
Speaker 1: baggy in my purse.
Speaker 2: The nurse went into Brooks bag and grabbed the ziploc
Speaker 2: with the pill fragments. She wanted to send them to
Speaker 2: the lab for testing.
Speaker 1: Not long after, that my water broke and Kai was born.
Speaker 1: He was not alive. Part of me still hoped he
Speaker 1: would cry when he was born, but he didn't. But
Speaker 1: they wrapped him up in a blanket and put a
Speaker 1: little tiny hat on him and brought him to me.
Speaker 1: They let me hold Kai for a couple of hours.
Speaker 1: I was holding Kui, I wasn't thinking at all about
Speaker 1: what Sick had done. It was more thinking about the loss.
Speaker 1: Even though Kai wasn't alive. Still looking at him, there
Speaker 1: was sort of this amazement about who he was as
Speaker 1: a person, which is odd to say about somebody who
Speaker 1: wasn't alive to recognize who they are as a person,
Speaker 1: But he was. He was a little person with little
Speaker 1: long fingers and long toes. And that's what I was
Speaker 1: thinking about when I was looking at him, that he
Speaker 1: probably would have played basketball, and he would have been tall,
Speaker 1: and maybe he would have played piano because he would
Speaker 1: have had long piano playing fingers. Probably sounds strange to
Speaker 1: somebody who hasn't lost a baby, but that's what I
Speaker 1: was thinking about in that moment.
Speaker 2: Sick was in the room too.
Speaker 1: When he saw what Kai actually looked like, Sick cried.
Speaker 1: I almost think that that is the first time Sick
Speaker 1: realized that it was a whole human. I think that
Speaker 1: was really the first time that it was real in
Speaker 1: his mind that that was his son.
Speaker 2: After they took Kai's footprints and filled out the paperwork,
Speaker 2: his body was taken for an autopsy.
Speaker 1: Seven am rolls around and the day shift nurse comes
Speaker 1: in and she takes me in the bathroom and she
Speaker 1: very quietly asks me what happened.
Speaker 2: Once again, Brooke told the story.
Speaker 1: And she says, what are you going to do? And
Speaker 1: I said, I don't know. I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: And she said, if there's any part of you that
Speaker 1: thinks that this man poisoned you and killed your baby,
Speaker 1: you need to report him. Brooke agreed, and she said
Speaker 1: have you asked him? Have you asked him if he
Speaker 1: did this? And I said no, and she said, I
Speaker 1: think you should.
Speaker 2: So they went back in the room just as Sick
Speaker 2: was walking back in.
Speaker 1: And he said he was going to go back to
Speaker 1: his apartment and take a shower, get changed, and bring
Speaker 1: me some clothes. And I said that before he left,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask him a question, and I asked him,
Speaker 1: did you poison me? And he said, do you honestly
Speaker 1: think I would do that to you. I said, yes,
Speaker 1: I do. And I told him I found ground up
Speaker 1: pill in the bottom of my cup and I gave
Speaker 1: it to the nurse and they're going to have it tested.
Speaker 1: So if you did this, you need to come clean
Speaker 1: with me right now. And he started crying and he
Speaker 1: put his head down on the bed. He was sitting
Speaker 1: in a chair next to the bed, and he put
Speaker 1: his head down on the bed and just started bawling.
Speaker 1: And he told me that he had put me sprostal
Speaker 1: in my coffee that morning and that's why I had
Speaker 1: a stomach ache, and when it didn't work, he ground
Speaker 1: up more and put it in my tea that night.
Speaker 2: It was the final confirmation. She just stared at him
Speaker 2: in silence, heartbroken. Sick continued talking and tried to rationalize
Speaker 2: what he'd done, and.
Speaker 1: He said that the reason that he did it is
Speaker 1: because he knew that I loved him and I wanted
Speaker 1: to do what was best for him. But he knew
Speaker 1: that if I made the decision to have an abortion,
Speaker 1: I would be unhappy about it, so he was making
Speaker 1: the decision for me so that I wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: live with it. He said it like he thought that
Speaker 1: he was doing something benevolent for me, but he wasn't.
Speaker 1: He was taking from me somebody that I loved, somebody
Speaker 1: that I wanted in my life, and he was justifying
Speaker 1: it and acting like he was doing it for my benefit.
Speaker 2: He really seemed to believe he had done the right thing.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe what he was saying to me. I
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. I felt betrayed. I felt like, that's
Speaker 1: not your decision to make. And he was completely selfish.
Speaker 1: Rather than taking on what he thought was going to
Speaker 1: be ridicule, he was causing pain to other people. That's
Speaker 1: a coward. And while he was saying it, there's a
Speaker 1: knock on the door to my hospital room, and that
Speaker 1: was the police.
Speaker 2: The police took Sick into another room for questioning.
Speaker 1: And he confessed that he had poisoned me. So they
Speaker 1: arrested him and took him to jail.
Speaker 2: Brooke wouldn't see him again until his sentence hearing, but
Speaker 2: Sick had left his phone with her, so she picked
Speaker 2: it up and made a call.
Speaker 1: I called his brother, who lives here in New York,
Speaker 1: and I told his brother Sick had been arrested and
Speaker 1: what he had been arrested for, that he had poisoned
Speaker 1: me and killed our baby. And his brother said he
Speaker 1: didn't know that I was pregnant. I said that I
Speaker 1: couldn't take care of Sick anymore, that he was not
Speaker 1: my responsibility and he needed to come down here and
Speaker 1: take care of his brother.
Speaker 2: Before they hung up, Sick's brother had one more thing
Speaker 2: to say.
Speaker 1: While he didn't know that I was pregnant, they did
Speaker 1: know that Sick and I were seeing each other. And
Speaker 1: his mom had known for years. She had known since
Speaker 1: the day she met me, and they had just been
Speaker 1: waiting for him to tell them.
Speaker 2: It was a tragic revelation. The pressure Sick put on
Speaker 2: himself to live up to his family's expectations was self imposed.
Speaker 2: His family would have accepted Brooke and their son. Brooke
Speaker 2: called a friend who flew down to DC to pick
Speaker 2: her up at the hospital. Before they started to drive home,
Speaker 2: they stopped by six apartment to get Brooks bags.
Speaker 1: The police met us there. It was very strange to
Speaker 1: go in. There's crime scene tape in his apartment and
Speaker 1: it's been ransacked by the police. Just an odd feeling
Speaker 1: knowing that that's now the scene of a crime, and
Speaker 1: it's a place that you painted and decorated.
Speaker 2: The police had turned the apartment upside down to find
Speaker 2: more evidence, and they did. They found white powder in
Speaker 2: a pack of one hundred missoprystal tablets with ten doses missing.
Speaker 2: He had given her all ten in one day. It
Speaker 2: was a massive overdose.
Speaker 1: So he had given me two hundred milligrams in the morning,
Speaker 1: and then when that didn't work, he gave me an
Speaker 1: additional six hundred milligrams in the evening. He probably needed
Speaker 1: to give me that dose because I was way further
Speaker 1: along in pregnancy.
Speaker 2: The police told Brooke they'd be in touch, and that
Speaker 2: was it.
Speaker 1: The drive back to New York was awful. There's no
Speaker 1: eloquent way to say that. It was just awful. I
Speaker 1: cried most of the way back. I missed my baby.
Speaker 1: I went down to DC thinking that I was making
Speaker 1: a parenting plan, and I came back missing my baby,
Speaker 1: with business cards for investigators and victims assistance phone numbers
Speaker 1: in my luggage, doubting who I knew for the last
Speaker 1: five years. My whole world had changed.
Speaker 2: And then came the regrets. Even though she knew it
Speaker 2: wasn't her fault. All she wanted was to go back
Speaker 2: in time.
Speaker 1: You know, blaming yourself. I wish I had never driven
Speaker 1: down there. I shouldn't have done that. I should have
Speaker 1: known better. I've worked through that. I don't still blame myself,
Speaker 1: but at that time I did. I kept thinking that,
Speaker 1: how stupid was I to drive down there.
Speaker 2: When she got home, the loss became even more real
Speaker 2: because she had to find a way to tell her kids.
Speaker 1: Not only was I dealing with my own emotions, but
Speaker 1: I had to tell my kids that I wasn't pregnant
Speaker 1: anymore and they weren't getting a baby brother. And not
Speaker 1: only were they not getting a baby brother, but their
Speaker 1: baby brother was murdered. And not only was he murdered,
Speaker 1: he was murdered by somebody that they knew and trusted.
Speaker 1: And I have to help them through that. While I'm
Speaker 1: trying to manage my own emotional fallout from this and
Speaker 1: also figure out what to do about this criminal case,
Speaker 1: I can hardly function to get dinner on the table.
Speaker 2: Her kids weren't just mourning a baby brother. They were
Speaker 2: mourning a sense of safety, and Brooke had to carry
Speaker 2: all of it. She took leave from work leaned on
Speaker 2: her friends and found a therapist. Even with all the support,
Speaker 2: she stayed awake at night trying to make sense of
Speaker 2: what happened.
Speaker 1: I really went through this period of wondering if I
Speaker 1: ever knew him at all, and did I ever see
Speaker 1: him or was I fooling myself? Was he a monster
Speaker 1: this entire time? And I just didn't want to see it?
Speaker 1: And I really did have to think about that because
Speaker 1: either I loved a monster and never knew he was
Speaker 1: a monster, or I loved a man and then he
Speaker 1: became a monster. One of those is true.
Speaker 2: Her heart tells her it was the latter.
Speaker 1: I had to objectively look at the person that he
Speaker 1: was and look at his actions leading up to that time,
Speaker 1: and look at the way he treated people. I really
Speaker 1: think that I loved a man who became a monster.
Speaker 2: Sick was charged with premeditated fetal homicide. He initially pled
Speaker 2: not guilty.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to go to a trial. I really
Speaker 1: just wanted him to plead guilty and take responsibility for
Speaker 1: what he did. That's when I decided to speak out
Speaker 1: about what had happened.
Speaker 2: Brooke went the local news to tell her story.
Speaker 1: After I talked to the media, he changed his mind
Speaker 1: and decided to plead guilty.
Speaker 2: After that, the only thing left was the sentencing hearing.
Speaker 1: He was facing twenty years to life in prison. He's
Speaker 1: not an American citizen, so whenever he completed his sentence,
Speaker 1: he was going to be deported back to Pakistan. So
Speaker 1: when he decided to plead guilty, I decided to do
Speaker 1: was to ask for leniency for him. So I wrote
Speaker 1: a letter to the judge and asked for leniency, and
Speaker 1: I explained to the judge that my son is gone.
Speaker 1: My son is dead. Kai's life is over. He will
Speaker 1: never do anything with his life. He's gone. He won't
Speaker 1: have a chance, but six still does. He still has
Speaker 1: a chance. And I would hate to see two lives
Speaker 1: be gone because of this. And I really think that
Speaker 1: rather than wasting the rest of his life sitting in prison,
Speaker 1: Sick owes it to Kai to do something with his life.
Speaker 1: The judge wrote my letter and granted him le nancy
Speaker 1: and sentenced him to four years in prison. Otherwise he
Speaker 1: would have given him twenty years to life.
Speaker 2: Sick was released from prison in twenty twenty one and
Speaker 2: deported to Pakistan. Today, it's been eight years since the crime,
Speaker 2: and despite everything she's gone through, she manages to live
Speaker 2: a joyful and fulfilling life.
Speaker 1: Today. I have finished my master's degree in nursing and
Speaker 1: I'm teaching nursing. I do Brazilian jiu jitsu a couple
Speaker 1: of times a week as a fun hobby and exercise.
Speaker 1: It's very empowering. I love doing that.
Speaker 2: She and her kids chose to memorialize Kai.
Speaker 1: His brother got a burial pla and said a prayer
Speaker 1: over him, and we buried him in a cemetery here.
Speaker 1: So he's got a little gravestone and a cemetery up
Speaker 1: here in Upstate New York with his little superhero on it,
Speaker 1: and it says Superheroes never sleep.
Speaker 2: We end all of our weekly episodes with the same question,
Speaker 2: why do you want to share your story?
Speaker 1: When people hear my story, it is a little bit shocking,
Speaker 1: and people often say, oh my god, I can't believe
Speaker 1: that happened to you. But what I like people to
Speaker 1: take from it is, no matter what happens, no matter
Speaker 1: what you go through, you'll get stronger and you learn
Speaker 1: to carry it. I was surprised that I made it through,
Speaker 1: prized by the amount of strength that I came up
Speaker 1: with and looking at it from the other side, I
Speaker 1: look back and I think, wow, I made it through that.
Speaker 1: If I could make it through that, people can make
Speaker 1: it through anything. They really can.
Speaker 2: Next week on Betrayal Weekly, I go, what are you
Speaker 2: involved in?
Speaker 3: Are you being investigated by the FBI? And he looked
Speaker 3: at me so coldly like he never knew me, and
Speaker 3: he said, if I go down, I'm taking you with me.
Speaker 2: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal
Speaker 2: team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email
Speaker 2: us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. We're grateful for your support. One
Speaker 2: way to show support is by subscribing to our show
Speaker 2: on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Speaker 2: Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank
Speaker 2: you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production
Speaker 2: of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group and
Speaker 2: partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
Speaker 2: Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me
Speaker 2: Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard. Also produced
Speaker 2: by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristin Melcuriy and Caitlin Golden.
Speaker 2: Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Krincheck. Audio
Speaker 2: editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, Additional editing support from
Speaker 2: Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music library
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