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Speaker 1: Pretty soon up over the hill, I saw a caravan

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Speaker 1: of dark vehicles with dark dinted windows. They're all in

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Speaker 1: FBI or US Marshall's jackets. They've got their sunglasses, they've

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Speaker 1: got their weapons, and they come to my house. They

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Speaker 1: rang the doorbell. I let them in.

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Speaker 2: I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about

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Speaker 2: the people we trust the most and the deceptions that

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Speaker 2: change everything. Andrea Merriman came from money, a lot of money.

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Speaker 1: As a kid.

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Speaker 2: Her family had a huge house, a vacation home in Hawaii,

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Speaker 2: and even a private plant.

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Speaker 1: We flew everywhere. We didn't do road trips. It was

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Speaker 1: so my family to the plane at midnight and fly

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Speaker 1: to Arizona for the weekend to enjoy the sun, and

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Speaker 1: then be back when school started on Monday.

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Speaker 2: But if you met Andrea, you wouldn't know that's how

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Speaker 2: she grew up. She's not flashy, She's hard working and honest.

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Speaker 2: Her parents raised her that way.

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Speaker 1: We had jobs around the house. We didn't get allowance

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Speaker 1: for it, or if we did, it was a dollar

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Speaker 1: a week, because my parents wanted to teach us responsibility

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Speaker 1: and accountability.

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Speaker 2: Her family belonged to the church, of Jesus Christ of

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Speaker 2: Latter day Saints. Some people call it the Mormon Church,

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Speaker 2: but that's not the name she uses.

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Speaker 1: That's a name given to church members who are not

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Speaker 1: of our faith. It's just a mouthful to say the

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Speaker 1: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saint.

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Speaker 2: From a young age, Andrea took her faith very seriously.

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Speaker 1: When you're a child, they give you a ring and

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Speaker 1: it says ctr on it that stands for two use

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Speaker 1: the right. So part of the culture was to be

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Speaker 1: obedient to good principles, doing well in whatever I attempted to.

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Speaker 2: Do, and in her religious community. She felt empowered as

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Speaker 2: a woman. The women around her were ambitious and well educated.

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Speaker 2: Many of them had both families and careers.

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Speaker 1: My mom had a master's degree, and I remember going

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Speaker 1: to my dad asking for help with homework. My dad

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Speaker 1: would say, I can totally help you, but who really

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Speaker 1: could help you. The person who's the smartest in our

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Speaker 1: family as your mother. So I was raised that women

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Speaker 1: could do and be anything.

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Speaker 2: She was a straight a student, a great athlete. She

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Speaker 2: played three instruments and excelled at piano.

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Speaker 1: Anything I did, I did to the best of my ability.

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Speaker 2: When she got older. She took that determination to bring

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Speaker 2: them young university, where she immediately got to work on

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Speaker 2: building her future.

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Speaker 1: My dad wanted me to be a lawyer, and that's

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Speaker 1: what I went to school thinking I would do.

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Speaker 2: Along the way, she found a dream of her own.

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Speaker 2: She wanted to start a career in advertising and public relations,

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Speaker 2: and her work ethic extended outside the classroom. She got

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Speaker 2: a job in her apartment complex. That's how she met Sean.

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Speaker 1: He came into the office to pay his rent, and

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Speaker 1: I processed that for him.

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Speaker 2: She would see him around the building, but they'd never

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Speaker 2: really talked before.

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Speaker 1: My roommates in my apartment were good friends with the

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Speaker 1: guys and his apartment people thought highly of him and

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Speaker 1: his roommates, and they did fun things and seemed to

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Speaker 1: be good people.

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Speaker 2: Soon after they met in the office, Sean asked her out,

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Speaker 2: and right away he impressed her. He knew she liked music,

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Speaker 2: so for their first date, he took her to the Symphony.

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Speaker 2: After that, they started going out together every weekend.

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Speaker 1: He did not do the typical, cheap, low budget, crazy

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Speaker 1: college dates. He took me to the best restaurants, two concerts,

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Speaker 1: and then he'd take you out into his BMW. He

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Speaker 1: was always a very engaging, outgoing, charming person.

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Speaker 2: On one date, she wore a pearl necklace. Sean complimented

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Speaker 2: her on it and she told him it was borrowed

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Speaker 2: from a front So a few days later, he.

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Speaker 1: Just showed up at my door unexpectantly with a jewelry box.

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Speaker 1: I opened it up and it was a pearl necklace,

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Speaker 1: and he said, any woman as beautiful as you should

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Speaker 1: not have to borrow pearls. I mean, that was what

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Speaker 1: it was like to date Sean Merriman. I remember thinking, Wow,

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Speaker 1: all the other boys I've dated, if they tried to

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Speaker 1: do these grand gestures or date this way, it would

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Speaker 1: seem really cheesy and corny. But it works for Sean,

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Speaker 1: and it was just like in the movies.

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Speaker 2: Even though he had expensive taste, Sean didn't come from money.

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Speaker 1: His dad was a construction worker. They had moved all

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Speaker 1: around the country during his childhood, eleven times in seven

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Speaker 1: or eight years. There was a lot of alcoholism, divorce,

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Speaker 1: and he was one of the first members of his

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Speaker 1: family to go to college.

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Speaker 2: Getting into college wasn't easy for Sean. He didn't have

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Speaker 2: the grades, but he made up for it with his

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Speaker 2: trademark charm.

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Speaker 1: He started sending flowers to the woman in charge of admissions,

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Speaker 1: and eventually he got admitted.

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Speaker 2: He was proud of this story, and he always had

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Speaker 2: fabulous stories to entertain people with. He was interested in

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Speaker 2: things most college kids weren't.

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Speaker 1: He was into photography, he was into cars, he was

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Speaker 1: into building things.

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Speaker 2: Still, Sean didn't let his interests take over their relationship.

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Speaker 1: We did everything that I loved. He knew that I

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Speaker 1: loved the beach, he knew that I loved eighties music.

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Speaker 1: He knew that I loved travel, and I thought that

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Speaker 1: I was finding someone who believed the way I did

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Speaker 1: on everything.

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Speaker 2: After a few months of dating, the two took a

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Speaker 2: trip to California, and there on the beach, he got

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Speaker 2: down on one knee.

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Speaker 1: Going through my head mostly was wait, I'm only twenty two.

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Speaker 1: I'm too young to do this.

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Speaker 2: Andrea was still in school. She'd always planned to graduate,

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Speaker 2: start a career, and then get married, but saying yes

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Speaker 2: to Sean just made sense.

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Speaker 1: I don't know that I thought he was the one,

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Speaker 1: but I thought that he would be a great friend,

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Speaker 1: great partner, great companion, great provider, great father. And am

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Speaker 1: I going to find somebody just like him. Again, if

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Speaker 1: I passed this by, I saw enough of those good

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Speaker 1: qualities and the things that I wanted as part of

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Speaker 1: my future. So when he proposed, I said yes.

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Speaker 2: So they got married and graduated college in that order.

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Speaker 1: We were on a good course together. We were equally

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Speaker 1: yoked as a couple to move forward and create the

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Speaker 1: life of our dreams.

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Speaker 2: Sean had a vision of moving to DC. He even

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Speaker 2: interviewed with the CIA. He also considered getting an MBA

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Speaker 2: and an Ivy League school. Timately, they decided to plant

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Speaker 2: roots in our home state of Colorado.

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Speaker 1: We chose to move to Denver for my career. I

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Speaker 1: got a job working for a government agency doing public

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Speaker 1: relations for them.

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Speaker 2: Sean came to love Denver and he found a great

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Speaker 2: job at an investment firm.

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Speaker 1: He had immediate success, so then he actually started being

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Speaker 1: a stockbroker that fall.

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Speaker 2: When it came to investing, Sean had a minus touch.

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Speaker 1: And I will tell you from September to December that

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Speaker 1: quarter he made fifty thousand dollars, and that was in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety.

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Speaker 2: That's a lot of money, especially right out of college.

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Speaker 2: Sean was bringing home two hundred k a year. But

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Speaker 2: that was the nineties. In today's money, that's the equivalent

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Speaker 2: of four hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year, and

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Speaker 2: the money just kept coming.

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Speaker 1: Other firms would reach out to him and say, hey,

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Speaker 1: come and work for us. We'll give you a signing bonus,

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Speaker 1: and so he would take a fifty sixty seventy eighty

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars signing bonus and go work for a different firm.

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Speaker 2: He hopped from firm to firm for a few years,

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Speaker 2: and then soon after they had their first child in

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three, Sean came to Andrea with a business idea.

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Speaker 1: He came home from work and told me that he

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Speaker 1: had some very wealthy, blue blood old money clients in

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Speaker 1: Kansas City that had been so impressed with the money

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Speaker 1: management he had done for them that they had asked

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Speaker 1: him to step back from his career as a stockbroker

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Speaker 1: and manage their money privately for them.

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Speaker 2: She supported him one hundred percent, so he made the

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Speaker 2: leap and launched what became Market Street Advisors. It started

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Speaker 2: with those Kansas City clients, but pretty soon he was

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Speaker 2: investing for f family, friends and neighbors too, and even

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Speaker 2: in the madness of starting his own firm and finding

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Speaker 2: new clients. Sean made it a point to spend time

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Speaker 2: with Andrea at the end of every day.

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Speaker 1: He came home at night, had dinner with me, had

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Speaker 1: great stories about trades that he'd made that day. He

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Speaker 1: had no shortage of stories. He could tell, conversations, he

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Speaker 1: could share ideas that he had.

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Speaker 2: Life was good for the Merryman's. Sean's investment firm was

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Speaker 2: taking off, and the two of them were living comfortably,

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Speaker 2: more than comfortably. Even the house got bigger, the cars

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Speaker 2: got nicer, and for Andrea there was only one thing

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Speaker 2: missing more kids.

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Speaker 1: One of the things we talked about before we got

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Speaker 1: married was that I wanted four to six children. He

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Speaker 1: was like, Oh, that's great, That's what I've always wanted.

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Speaker 2: They had another a baby girl, and Andrea was the

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Speaker 2: happiest she'd ever been. When Sean got home after a

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Speaker 2: long day at work, he didn't have the bandwidth to

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Speaker 2: help with the babies.

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Speaker 1: He was fine to play with the baby when he

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Speaker 1: was home, et cetera, but he was not a hands

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Speaker 1: on let me help bathe the baby, let me change diapers.

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Speaker 2: And when she asked him about having a third kid,

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Speaker 2: he was hesitant. She assured him she'd take on the

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Speaker 2: responsibilities that he couldn't, And so I.

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Speaker 1: Did everything, handled everything for the baby so that it

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Speaker 1: wouldn't impact his life too much. And I could have

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Speaker 1: another child. And I continued to do everything and manage

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Speaker 1: the kids so that it didn't impact his life. By

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Speaker 1: the time we had our fourth kid, I could count

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Speaker 1: the number of dirty diapers on one hand that he

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Speaker 1: had changed. It really became. He was busy, he was

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Speaker 1: working on his career, and I was the partner in

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Speaker 1: the relationship who was focused on home and family.

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Speaker 2: All in all, they had four kids together. She was

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Speaker 2: the homemaker, he was the provider, and she provided very well.

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Speaker 2: It was the life she always wanted. Over time, Sean

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Speaker 2: started to be more open about the life he wanted.

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Speaker 1: I found out he didn't like dancing. He didn't like beaches.

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Speaker 1: Let's go on a trip to California. No, I hate

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Speaker 1: the beach. What yeah, I hate the feel of sand

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Speaker 1: between my toes. I'm not doing that.

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Speaker 2: He started developing expensive new hobbies, ones that required him

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Speaker 2: to travel.

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Speaker 1: He was a big African safari guy. He would go

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Speaker 1: to Cameroon and Tanzania and South Africa. And Zimbabwe, all

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Speaker 1: over the world to hunt and go on safaris for

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Speaker 1: animals and Quinci. Very wealthy people are engaged in those hobbies.

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Speaker 1: He sold it as well, I'm actually doing this for work,

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Speaker 1: to get more clients to build my business.

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Speaker 2: These trips could be dangerous. One time, when he returned

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Speaker 2: from a safari in Ethiopia, Sean was acting strange.

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Speaker 1: He was keeping his distance and I said why, and

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Speaker 1: he said, I have got to go to the doctor.

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Speaker 2: He was worried he could have contracted something. He told

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Speaker 2: Andrea a wild story.

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Speaker 1: We were climbing a mountain and one of the people

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Speaker 1: in the party flipped and he was going to fall

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Speaker 1: off a cliff, and so I reached down and I

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Speaker 1: grabbed him and saved his life. But he and I

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Speaker 1: both got cut up in the process, and I need

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Speaker 1: to go and get tested to make sure I'm okay.

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Speaker 2: Thankfully, Sean was negative, and even though the story was

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Speaker 2: far fetched, Andrea believed him.

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Speaker 1: He had so many stories about saving people's lives or

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Speaker 1: dramatic things. I used to tell him, if I didn't

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Speaker 1: live with you and see that your life is true,

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Speaker 1: I would never believe your life. What I didn't know

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Speaker 1: was most of those stories were probably lies.

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Speaker 2: As Andrea and Sean built a family together, Sean started

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Speaker 2: to change. He was around less and less working at

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Speaker 2: his investment firm, and when he wasn't working, he was

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Speaker 2: taking extravagant hunting trips on his own. It became Sean's world,

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Speaker 2: and sometimes that bothered her, but she was committed to

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Speaker 2: him no matter what.

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Speaker 1: For a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of

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Speaker 1: Latter day Saints, you marry forever, and you make your choice,

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Speaker 1: and then you love your choice and you figure out

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Speaker 1: how to make it work. I was taught that pretty

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Speaker 1: much the only reason you would ever divorced, as if

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Speaker 1: in the case of physical abuse or something beyond that,

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00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,120
Speaker 1: you marry forever.

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Speaker 2: His behavior was a challenge, but not marriage ending.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't anything that I would have divorced over. It

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Speaker 1: was more, oh, I guess I'll make this work.

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Speaker 2: And she really did want to make it work. There

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Speaker 2: was still so much good in what they had together.

248
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Speaker 1: I felt like we were very connected. We went on

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Speaker 1: dates every weekend together. He would call me when he

250
00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:01,160
Speaker 1: had downtimes at work, once every morning, and once or

251
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Speaker 1: twice in the afternoon. He'd just called me to check in,

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Speaker 1: see what I was doing, see how I was.

253
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Speaker 2: And when he did have the time, she could see

254
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Speaker 2: he was really trying. Especially as the kids got older,

255
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Speaker 2: he became more involved. He led fifty mile hikes for

256
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Speaker 2: their son's boy Scout troop. He drove their daughter around

257
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Speaker 2: on errands. He joked with them, talked with them, and

258
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Speaker 2: above all, he made sure his kids had everything they

259
00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:29,320
Speaker 2: could ask for, all the things he didn't have. Growing up.

260
00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:35,560
Speaker 1: My son played baseball and they won the championship of

261
00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:40,320
Speaker 1: their league. So he bought a batting cage and pitching

262
00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:44,000
Speaker 1: machine that he put in our backyard. We put in

263
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,120
Speaker 1: a pool, We put in a sport court so that

264
00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:48,720
Speaker 1: our kids would have a great fun place to bring

265
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Speaker 1: their friends to.

266
00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:53,480
Speaker 2: Sean wanted their kids to be cultured. He took them

267
00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:56,480
Speaker 2: to museums around the world, and he even started their

268
00:16:56,560 --> 00:16:57,920
Speaker 2: own private art collection.

269
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Speaker 1: We ended up with a collection of Rembrands that was

270
00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:07,439
Speaker 1: worth quite a bit of money, and sculptures by Frederick Hart,

271
00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:11,000
Speaker 1: all kinds of things like that to make things beautiful

272
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Speaker 1: and to help educate our children.

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00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:18,680
Speaker 2: The batting cages, the private courts, the rembrands. Sure it

274
00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:22,080
Speaker 2: was a lot, but they could afford it in Sean's hands.

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Speaker 2: Andrea had watched their money multiply.

276
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Speaker 1: I had watched our account slowly grow up to a million,

277
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Speaker 1: and then I watched our account slowly grow to three million,

278
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:40,399
Speaker 1: and then I watched my statement grow to total about

279
00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:41,720
Speaker 1: ten million dollars.

280
00:17:42,119 --> 00:17:45,880
Speaker 2: In the early two thousands, that was closer to eighteen million.

281
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:51,400
Speaker 2: Andrea also invested her own inheritance with Sean's firm, everything

282
00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:54,760
Speaker 2: she had saved and everything she got from her parents.

283
00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:57,440
Speaker 1: I had my own money. My parents had passed away

284
00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:01,560
Speaker 1: at this point, and like all of his investment clients,

285
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:05,400
Speaker 1: I was getting monthly financial statements.

286
00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:08,040
Speaker 2: Still, she wanted to make sure that they were being

287
00:18:08,119 --> 00:18:09,240
Speaker 2: smart with their spending.

288
00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:19,560
Speaker 1: I am very conservative financially. So my first goal was

289
00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:23,320
Speaker 1: I want our home paid off. And so I remember

290
00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:27,679
Speaker 1: I think it was my fortieth birthday. He gave me

291
00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:31,200
Speaker 1: the deed to our house, and our house was paid off.

292
00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:34,560
Speaker 2: And Sean kept making the house better and better.

293
00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:38,359
Speaker 1: He ended up building a building behind our home that

294
00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:42,120
Speaker 1: he called his shop. It was actually bigger than our home.

295
00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:45,000
Speaker 1: His work office was in the top level, and then

296
00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:48,880
Speaker 1: the bottom was just cars and trophies. He had an

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00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:54,879
Speaker 1: aston Martin. He had several porsches of Ferrari, Mercedes, Sedans, BMW's,

298
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Speaker 1: you name it.

299
00:18:56,320 --> 00:18:58,800
Speaker 2: Sean spent pretty much all his time in his shop,

300
00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:01,879
Speaker 2: working on business or taking care of his cars.

301
00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:05,679
Speaker 1: He would go out to his office from probably seven

302
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:10,560
Speaker 1: am to five pm, come in, have dinner, and then

303
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:12,159
Speaker 1: he'd be like, oh, I'm going to go out to

304
00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:14,840
Speaker 1: my shop and do this, and then he'd come in

305
00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:15,720
Speaker 1: at ten at night.

306
00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:19,439
Speaker 2: Andrea knew all that hard work was funding their lifestyle,

307
00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:22,520
Speaker 2: but she missed him. She wanted him around more.

308
00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:27,720
Speaker 1: After seventeen or so years of marriage. I've said, we

309
00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:31,040
Speaker 1: don't need more money. We have plenty for our needs

310
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:35,439
Speaker 1: and our wants and things we've never dreamed of, but

311
00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:40,600
Speaker 1: we need you, and he just said I can't. I've

312
00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:41,880
Speaker 1: got to build my business.

313
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Speaker 2: He'd spend twenty years prioritizing his work above everything else.

314
00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:51,920
Speaker 2: He didn't know how to shift gears. Maybe he didn't

315
00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:54,800
Speaker 2: want to, so Andrea made peace with the fact that

316
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Speaker 2: her husband would be around when he could be.

317
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Speaker 1: I was kind of raised, if you look for good

318
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:03,959
Speaker 1: in others, you will find it. If you're looking for

319
00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:06,720
Speaker 1: bad things and looking to tear people down and to

320
00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:11,399
Speaker 1: hate them, you'll find reasons for that too. He was

321
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,000
Speaker 1: gone a lot of the time, but when he was home,

322
00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:17,240
Speaker 1: he would be there for dinner and do other things

323
00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:21,960
Speaker 1: with us. Now, I don't think any life is completely perfect,

324
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Speaker 1: but it was a good life.

325
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Speaker 2: March seventeenth, two thousand and nine, was a really good day.

326
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:32,920
Speaker 2: It was Saint Patti's Day.

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Speaker 1: There is a little irish in the Merriman side of

328
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:39,840
Speaker 1: the family, so I always tried to make it a

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00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:44,119
Speaker 1: fun day. I had gold coins and I made green

330
00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:48,800
Speaker 1: pancakes and green milk for breakfast. As I sent my

331
00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:51,800
Speaker 1: kids off to school, I took fun photos of them

332
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:57,560
Speaker 1: dressed in their Saint Patrick's Day attire. What I didn't

333
00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:02,640
Speaker 1: know at the time was those were the last merrim

334
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:11,200
Speaker 1: And family photos that I would ever take. The next day,

335
00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:15,720
Speaker 1: March eighteenth, unexpectedly, I was headed out on some errands.

336
00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:18,760
Speaker 1: I dropped my youngest child off at daycare to have

337
00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:23,880
Speaker 1: a babysitter while I quickly got some things done. And

338
00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:26,760
Speaker 1: Sean called me as I was driving down the highway

339
00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:30,000
Speaker 1: and he's like, what are you doing? And I said,

340
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:34,600
Speaker 1: why do you need something? He said, well, actually I

341
00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:37,159
Speaker 1: was hoping to spend some time with you this morning.

342
00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:40,560
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, well, I can turn around and

343
00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:42,840
Speaker 1: I'll come and get you and you can do my

344
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:46,960
Speaker 1: errands with me. And he said, no, I need you

345
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:47,680
Speaker 1: to come home.

346
00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:51,879
Speaker 2: So she turned the car around and went back to

347
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:55,240
Speaker 2: the house. He was waiting for her in the kitchen.

348
00:21:56,160 --> 00:22:01,919
Speaker 1: And he said, I've been running Market Street Advisors for

349
00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:07,080
Speaker 1: the past sixteen years, but I need you to know

350
00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,199
Speaker 1: that every day when I got up and left and

351
00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:14,439
Speaker 1: went to work and was gone all day, I was

352
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:16,359
Speaker 1: actually running a Ponzi scheme.

353
00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:33,679
Speaker 2: Andrea thought that her husband, Sean had dedicated his career

354
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:38,160
Speaker 2: to running his own investment firm, but then Sean confessed

355
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:40,960
Speaker 2: that it was all a lie. Their life of luxury

356
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:45,200
Speaker 2: was funded and stolen money. For the past sixteen years.

357
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:47,560
Speaker 2: He had been running a Ponzi scheme.

358
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,439
Speaker 1: I didn't even know what a Ponzi scheme was. I

359
00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:53,920
Speaker 1: had heard a Bernie maid off. I didn't pay too

360
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:56,960
Speaker 1: much attention to those types of things. I knew he'd

361
00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:59,400
Speaker 1: done something wrong, but that's pretty much all I knew

362
00:22:59,400 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 1: about it.

363
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 2: Sean explained that when he first started his firm was legitimate,

364
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:06,680
Speaker 2: but in his first year one of his investments went

365
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:08,640
Speaker 2: south and he panicked.

366
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:13,320
Speaker 1: So he omitted the five thousand dollars loss from his statement,

367
00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:16,359
Speaker 1: and I'm sure he thought that he could make that

368
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:20,320
Speaker 1: up with another trade, and then he never did so.

369
00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:23,720
Speaker 2: He kept fudging the books, selling people on his big wins,

370
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 2: and using money from new investors to pay old ones.

371
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:31,199
Speaker 2: There were no million dollar trades or miracle investments. The

372
00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:34,639
Speaker 2: conversations he told her about, and all the financial documents

373
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 2: she'd seen were fake. He was a total fraud. His

374
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 2: clients had lost millions of dollars, some of them lost

375
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:47,159
Speaker 2: everything they had. Not only did he lose other people's money,

376
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,720
Speaker 2: all of their own money was gone too. The money

377
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 2: she'd inherited from her parents and their kids' college funds,

378
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:56,760
Speaker 2: it was gone.

379
00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 1: Then he said, yesterday, in the company of my attorney,

380
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:07,399
Speaker 1: turned myself into the US Marshals, to representatives of the

381
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:15,879
Speaker 1: federal government, and I will be going to prison. And

382
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:22,439
Speaker 1: when he said the word prison, I about died. My

383
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,400
Speaker 1: mind was just swirling. When he said that, I thought

384
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:26,600
Speaker 1: this cannot be real.

385
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:30,159
Speaker 2: She thought back to all the Outlandis stories he told

386
00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:34,120
Speaker 2: over the years, like the one about saving someone's life

387
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 2: on a safari. Was any of it real? As the

388
00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:42,800
Speaker 2: reality set in, she tried to cling to anything she could.

389
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,520
Speaker 1: I was trying to find the positive, like I'd been

390
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 1: raised to do. And I said, at least the house

391
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,919
Speaker 1: is paid off. And he said, no, you don't understand.

392
00:24:54,440 --> 00:25:02,720
Speaker 1: The house is gone, the cars are gone, everything's gone.

393
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 1: I just kind of felt like I was witnessing the apocalypse.

394
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:12,359
Speaker 1: I remember apologizing, saying, I'm so sorry, but I have

395
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:14,919
Speaker 1: to get out of here. And I got up and

396
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,159
Speaker 1: I ran out, and I got in my car and

397
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,080
Speaker 1: I took off up my driveway and started driving out

398
00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:28,879
Speaker 1: of my neighborhood. Uncontrollably, tears were just streaming out of

399
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: my eyes.

400
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:34,199
Speaker 2: Andrea pulled over just minutes after leaving her home. She

401
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:37,640
Speaker 2: couldn't see much less drive, and as she sat there

402
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 2: alone in her car, the weight of it all finally

403
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:41,560
Speaker 2: hit her.

404
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:46,879
Speaker 1: I felt like everything had been destroyed. Everything was a

405
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 1: humiliation to me as well as a shock, as well

406
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:55,560
Speaker 1: as deeply sad and devastating. My biggest wish and desire

407
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,679
Speaker 1: would have been to just walk to the edge of

408
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 1: the horizon and drop off the face of the earth,

409
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 1: but I couldn't because I had four kids relying on me.

410
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:10,080
Speaker 1: I was their only resource.

411
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 2: She had to keep going. So she made a plan.

412
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,360
Speaker 1: When I went back to the house, I told him

413
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 1: that he was going to be the one to tell

414
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,560
Speaker 1: the kids. So that night we gathered our family together.

415
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,040
Speaker 1: He was in a chair in the corner of the room.

416
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:29,960
Speaker 1: I was on the couch across the room from him,

417
00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:36,000
Speaker 1: and he told the kids, I have done something wrong.

418
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:40,840
Speaker 1: I've made a little mistake. And from across the side

419
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,280
Speaker 1: of the room, I am just furious, shaking my head, going,

420
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:49,919
Speaker 1: you've committed a crime. You've made huge mistakes over and

421
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:53,720
Speaker 1: over every day, twenty four hours a day, three hundred

422
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 1: and sixty five days a year. That is not one

423
00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:58,000
Speaker 1: little mistake.

424
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:03,520
Speaker 2: Andrea was angry. The kids, they were terrified.

425
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 1: I was standing there with four kids ages three to sixteen,

426
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: tears streaming down their face, looking at me for answers

427
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:20,719
Speaker 1: and strength. Before I could even say anything, my little

428
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 1: third grader said, does this mean You're going to divorce Dad?

429
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:29,960
Speaker 2: She knew in that moment that the answer was yes.

430
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:32,880
Speaker 2: It wasn't an easy answer, though.

431
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:37,640
Speaker 1: I was so humiliated, humiliated to be married to a criminal,

432
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:41,679
Speaker 1: humiliated at what he'd done, humiliated to know that I

433
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:46,200
Speaker 1: would be getting divorced. I was raised that divorce is

434
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:50,879
Speaker 1: not what you do. Knowing that I had been married

435
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:56,159
Speaker 1: in a temple forever added a layer of difficulty, a

436
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: layer of guilt, a layer of regret.

437
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 2: But she was done. She couldn't be with a man

438
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:05,439
Speaker 2: who had spent decades cheating so many others out of

439
00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:09,040
Speaker 2: millions of dollars. She would walk away, while making the

440
00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 2: transition as easy as she could for her kids.

441
00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:16,159
Speaker 1: I felt like my kids had been in such shock

442
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 1: that they probably needed things to be as normal as

443
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:26,680
Speaker 1: possible in whatever ways they could be, So I fed

444
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:31,000
Speaker 1: them that night. Sean stayed in the home with us,

445
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:31,920
Speaker 1: and he.

446
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,600
Speaker 2: Continued to stay in the home and come to family dinner,

447
00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:38,240
Speaker 2: just as he had for the last twenty years. Even

448
00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 2: though Sean had turned himself in, the FED still needed

449
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:46,000
Speaker 2: time to build a case against him, so they waited.

450
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:51,880
Speaker 1: I even remember cooking dinner for my kids, saying, would

451
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:53,720
Speaker 1: you like to call your dad and let him know

452
00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: dinner's ready. I am appalled that I am doing this

453
00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 1: for this man who's done this, but it was for

454
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:04,520
Speaker 1: my kids. I was trying to be kind, set an

455
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 1: example of divorce and not changing who you are just

456
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 1: because you've been betrayed. You choose the right. You are kind,

457
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 1: you are good to people, no matter what.

458
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 2: The destruction of her life didn't happen all at once.

459
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 2: She watched it being taken apart, piece by piece. After

460
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 2: a few weeks of this purgatory, she got a call

461
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:32,320
Speaker 2: from the US Marshals. They set a date to come

462
00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 2: to her house and seize the family assets.

463
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 1: Pretty soon, up over the hill, I saw a caravan

464
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 1: of dark vehicles with dark dinted windows. They all pull

465
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:46,520
Speaker 1: up in front of my house. Everybody starts getting out

466
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 1: of the cars. They're all in FBI or US Marshals jackets.

467
00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 1: They've got their sunglasses, they've got their weapons, and they

468
00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 1: come to my house. I think the only difference is

469
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: I knew they were coming, and they didn't break my

470
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 1: door down the doorbell. I let him in.

471
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 2: The authorities took everything of value, Sean's computer, his cars,

472
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 2: his art collection, and most of what Andrea owned too.

473
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 1: I had the thought you should hide some of your jewelry,

474
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:17,760
Speaker 1: and I thought what, No, that would be stealing. No,

475
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: you don't know where you're going to live, how you're

476
00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:22,080
Speaker 1: going to keep your kids alive. You don't have a job,

477
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:24,959
Speaker 1: your parents are dead. If you could just end up

478
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: with something, then you'd have something to sell to start

479
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 1: a life with. And I went back and forth in

480
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:36,360
Speaker 1: my mind a couple of times, and then I thought, Nope,

481
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,280
Speaker 1: I am not going to abandon my integrity just because

482
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 1: the person I'm married to has and I left it.

483
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:46,000
Speaker 1: I left it all in my jewelry box because I

484
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: am not compromising my ethics.

485
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:52,680
Speaker 2: She watched all their belongings get carted away, and she

486
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 2: wasn't the only one.

487
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:58,040
Speaker 1: Several of my neighbors at the house next door up

488
00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 1: on the deck drinking bar arbicuing having a great time,

489
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 1: rejoicing in the downfall of my family and the asset seizer.

490
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:12,640
Speaker 2: Sean had scammed so many people, neighbors, friends, and family alike.

491
00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 2: She couldn't blame anyone for wanting him to pay, and

492
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 2: yet people wanted her to pay too, even though she

493
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 2: had done nothing wrong. She had been married to the

494
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:25,720
Speaker 2: Mormon made off as the media soon dubbed him. Even

495
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 2: neighbors and friends assumed that she must have known something.

496
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,120
Speaker 1: One time, I was out front with my three year old.

497
00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 1: He was just playing, you know, around the trees or

498
00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:38,320
Speaker 1: the bushes, and I could hear kitchin kitchin Kitchink, and

499
00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: I turn around and one of my neighbors is over

500
00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 1: the fence with a lens, photographing every move I make.

501
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:48,200
Speaker 2: For the short time she had remaining in their house,

502
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 2: she was paranoid for the safety of her family, and

503
00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:52,000
Speaker 2: for good reason.

504
00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: One of the victims, who was also a neighbor in

505
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:59,680
Speaker 1: the neighborhood and who had lost probably all of his money,

506
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:02,920
Speaker 1: came all the way up my steps, to my front porch,

507
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 1: to my front door with his loaded gun, ready to

508
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: blow Sean Merriman away and who knows who else before

509
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,720
Speaker 1: he came to his senses, and he turned around and

510
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:16,080
Speaker 1: went home without hurting anyone.

511
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 2: Andrea wanted nothing more than to take her kids and

512
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:23,360
Speaker 2: get out of that house, especially since Sean continued to

513
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 2: live there waiting to be taken to prison. It took

514
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:30,560
Speaker 2: time ninety days for the divorce to be processed, but

515
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:32,080
Speaker 2: then finally.

516
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:37,200
Speaker 1: On July thirteenth, I drove to the courthouse with him

517
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 1: to finalize the divorce. We came home, I packed my

518
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:44,880
Speaker 1: car with my two dogs and my kids, and I

519
00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:49,480
Speaker 1: moved that day. And I didn't say goodbye to anything.

520
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 1: I did not look back. I drove away, and I

521
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: didn't look in the rear view mirror the whole way

522
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:55,959
Speaker 1: out of Denver.

523
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:01,520
Speaker 2: While Sean went away to prison, Andrea went to Utah. Thankfully,

524
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:04,840
Speaker 2: she was able to leave her old life behind without

525
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 2: her husband's debt hanging over her head.

526
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,120
Speaker 1: I had to write my own divorce because I couldn't

527
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:14,040
Speaker 1: afford an attorney. I made sure that I wrote that

528
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 1: he was responsible for his debts and I was responsible

529
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 1: for mine. Now credit card companies don't apparently have to

530
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 1: abide by that, but I think they saw that I

531
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 1: was pennyless, so they didn't actually come after me.

532
00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:32,719
Speaker 2: She and her kids moved in with her brother, and

533
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,520
Speaker 2: a friend connected her with a job in marketing so

534
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 2: that she could rebuild. But she was starting from nothing

535
00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:41,960
Speaker 2: for the first time in her life. She was worried

536
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:43,280
Speaker 2: about having the money to eat.

537
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: For years, I would just have a knot in my

538
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: stomach every time I drove to the grocery store, thinking,

539
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,360
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I have to buy this food, but

540
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 1: it's so much. I don't have money. I mean, we

541
00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 1: just had to adjust.

542
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,400
Speaker 2: Part of that adjustment meant facing her own self blame.

543
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:07,120
Speaker 1: I was ridden with guilt that I had enjoyed a

544
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:11,400
Speaker 1: nice life at the expense of others. I remember Sean

545
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:15,040
Speaker 1: said to me before we parted ways, well, at least

546
00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:16,839
Speaker 1: you got a lot of good trips out of it.

547
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,120
Speaker 1: And I just looked at him and went, I hate

548
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:23,279
Speaker 1: every trip I went on, I hate every photo, I

549
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:27,560
Speaker 1: hate every memory. There was all kinds of guilt, Guilt

550
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 1: that I'd brought him into the lives of my friends

551
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:35,280
Speaker 1: and family that got shafted by him, Guilt that I

552
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 1: had chosen him to be the father of my children.

553
00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:42,240
Speaker 2: She turned to the church for support and started meeting

554
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:44,000
Speaker 2: regularly with a church leader.

555
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 1: And he said, how are you doing? And I said, honestly,

556
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:55,240
Speaker 1: I am trying to figure out how this happened. I've

557
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:58,320
Speaker 1: tried to do everything right in my life. I've tried

558
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:00,799
Speaker 1: to be a good wife, a good mother, again, good citizen,

559
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:05,000
Speaker 1: a good person. How did I get here? And he goes, well,

560
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 1: in all of that, you forgot one thing, the agency

561
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 1: of the other person, the other person's opportunity to choose.

562
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:18,480
Speaker 1: This is not on you. He did this. There's nothing

563
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 1: you could have done. What I had to do was

564
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,600
Speaker 1: recognize and forgive myself for the fact that I made

565
00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:29,080
Speaker 1: the best decision I could with the facts I had

566
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:29,840
Speaker 1: at hand.

567
00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:33,000
Speaker 2: But she also knew that she wanted to forgive Sean.

568
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:35,320
Speaker 2: That was the only path forward.

569
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,640
Speaker 1: I had a couple of friends who'd gotten divorced and

570
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:43,600
Speaker 1: who had not gotten past it. They were very, very

571
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:47,359
Speaker 1: hateful towards their former spouse, and I saw how it

572
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 1: was impacting their kids and destroying their family. And so

573
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:55,000
Speaker 1: the one thing I knew was, we are going to forgive,

574
00:35:55,719 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 1: not for him, but for us, so that our hate

575
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:02,879
Speaker 1: doesn't destroy us.

576
00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:07,840
Speaker 2: Sean was ordered to pay twenty million dollars to his victims.

577
00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 2: On top of that, he was sentenced to twelve and

578
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:14,160
Speaker 2: a half years in prison. During that time, Andrea was

579
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 2: a single mom. She raised her kids with honesty, kindness,

580
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,120
Speaker 2: and forgiveness, just like her parents raised her.

581
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:25,520
Speaker 1: And my kids have turned out to be everything I

582
00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:30,160
Speaker 1: could have hoped for. Hard working, educated, they all help others,

583
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:35,240
Speaker 1: they all have skills, They're kind, good people, and couldn't

584
00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:36,239
Speaker 1: ask for anything more.

585
00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:40,040
Speaker 2: Andrea has been able to rebuild her own life too.

586
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:44,200
Speaker 1: I can honestly say I am super happy today. I

587
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 1: am a homeowner, I have a great career that's been

588
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:53,480
Speaker 1: so memorable. I've gotten to travel, I have done many

589
00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:57,200
Speaker 1: things that I've dreamed on. I've actually even remarried, if

590
00:36:57,239 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 1: you can believe it or not.

591
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:02,880
Speaker 2: She ended up married to another man in finance.

592
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 1: Someone who is everything I thought I was getting but

593
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:09,839
Speaker 1: didn't get the first time and more. He's even tall

594
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:10,560
Speaker 1: and handsome.

595
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:14,440
Speaker 2: And here's the kicker. After they got married, her new

596
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:16,600
Speaker 2: husband started a second.

597
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:21,120
Speaker 1: Career as a fraud investigator, busting Ponzi schemes.

598
00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:24,640
Speaker 2: We end all of our weekly episodes with the same question,

599
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:27,280
Speaker 2: why did you choose to tell your story?

600
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:32,200
Speaker 1: Life can be good, That's what we're all here to

601
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:37,160
Speaker 1: have and to be. I believe in being happy, So yeah,

602
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:39,960
Speaker 1: maybe I chose to be optimistic more than I should have.

603
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: And I did smile when the smiles were totally fake,

604
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 1: and I remember having my heart so broken it literally

605
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:55,160
Speaker 1: ached in my chest. But I've plotted one foot in

606
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:57,439
Speaker 1: front of the other for a decade when I wasn't

607
00:37:57,520 --> 00:38:01,200
Speaker 1: sure if it was making any difference. But when you

608
00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:04,120
Speaker 1: lift your eyes up and you see you're on the

609
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:07,840
Speaker 1: top of a mountain, that's a view worth all the

610
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:08,880
Speaker 1: persevering for.

611
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:15,880
Speaker 2: On the next episode of Betrayal.

612
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:20,080
Speaker 3: And minute I did that, I had this deep shame

613
00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:25,320
Speaker 3: flood over me like you've made a really grave error here.

614
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:29,680
Speaker 3: You've divulged something super private and you'll now never know

615
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:32,239
Speaker 3: why this person's in a relationship with you, because is

616
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:33,879
Speaker 3: it for the money or is it for you?

617
00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:42,840
Speaker 2: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal

618
00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:45,800
Speaker 2: team or want to tell us your betrayal story, email

619
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:49,400
Speaker 2: us at Betrayal Pod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal

620
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:53,960
Speaker 2: Pod at gmail dot com. We're grateful for your support.

621
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:56,719
Speaker 2: One way to show support is by subscribing to our

622
00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:59,400
Speaker 2: show on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to rate and

623
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 2: review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. A

624
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,560
Speaker 2: big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is

625
00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:09,719
Speaker 2: a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group,

626
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:13,560
Speaker 2: in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced

627
00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 2: by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fasin, hosted and produced by

628
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:20,960
Speaker 2: me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Caitlin Golden, with

629
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:25,320
Speaker 2: additional production by Monique Leboard and Ben Vetterman. Our associate

630
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:29,320
Speaker 2: producer is Kristin Melcurie. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry

631
00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:33,520
Speaker 2: and Jessica Krincheck. Audio editing and mixing by Matt del Vecchio,

632
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:38,920
Speaker 2: additional editing support from Nico Ruka and Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's

633
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:43,399
Speaker 2: theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music library provided by Mob

634
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:47,799
Speaker 2: Music and For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,

635
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:54,600
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts