Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, it's Andrea. If you found us through the
Speaker 1: Hulu documentary, welcome to the Betrayal Podcast. On this feed,
Speaker 1: you can listen back to all four seasons of the show,
Speaker 1: including season three Stacy and Tyler's Story. Right now, our
Speaker 1: team is busy working on season five, which launches in
Speaker 1: January of twenty twenty six, but in the meantime, we
Speaker 1: are bringing you new stories every Thursday on Betrayal Weekly.
Speaker 1: Each episode is told directly by the person who lived
Speaker 1: through it, and these stories are powerful. Today, we wanted
Speaker 1: to share one of our recent weekly episodes. If you
Speaker 1: like what you hear, just search for Betrayal Weekly in
Speaker 1: your podcast app and hit subscribe. This is brookstory.
Speaker 2: I went down to DC thinking that I was making
Speaker 2: a parenting plan, and I came back with business cards
Speaker 2: for investigators and Victim's assistance in my luggage, doubting who
Speaker 2: I knew for the last five years.
Speaker 1: I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about
Speaker 1: the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
Speaker 1: change everything. Betrayal Weekly is officially back for season two.
Speaker 1: Whether you've been with us from the beginning or you're
Speaker 1: just tuning in welcome this season. We're bringing you some
Speaker 1: of our most riveting, emotional, and unforgettable stories yet, starting
Speaker 1: with this one.
Speaker 2: So I had been married for eleven years. It was
Speaker 2: very shocking to me what little independence I had so
Speaker 2: easily fallen into. And I didn't want to be like that.
Speaker 1: That's Brook Fisk. She's an ICU nurse from upstate New York.
Speaker 1: When she was thirty two, she divorced her first husband
Speaker 1: and started over.
Speaker 2: The first couple of months were scary and lonely. You know.
Speaker 2: I would come home from work and the house would
Speaker 2: be empty because the kids would be at their dads,
Speaker 2: and it would be quiet, and I would sit down
Speaker 2: in the kitchen and look around and not know what
Speaker 2: to do with myself.
Speaker 1: Brooke was a newly single mother of two, sharing custody
Speaker 1: with her ex. This transition made her painfully aware of
Speaker 1: how much she sacrificed in her marriage. She wanted to
Speaker 1: rebuild a life where she was in control.
Speaker 2: So when I got divorced, really my focus for that
Speaker 2: first year was to become independent and maintain my independence,
Speaker 2: and I really thrived at that.
Speaker 1: She bought a small house and fixed it up on
Speaker 1: her own.
Speaker 2: I would watch YouTube videos on how to fix things
Speaker 2: and how to maintain things, and it was very empowering
Speaker 2: figuring out how to do that stuff.
Speaker 1: When she started dating again, she was careful her kids
Speaker 1: had already been through enough change.
Speaker 2: I was on dating apps and I would meet people
Speaker 2: and go on dates and have a lot of fun
Speaker 2: with that. But whenever it got to the point of
Speaker 2: somebody wanting to get serious, I think that it would
Speaker 2: scare me and I would back right off.
Speaker 1: She didn't want a boyfriend, and she definitely didn't want
Speaker 1: to get married again. If she was looking for anything,
Speaker 1: it was just someone to go on dates with. Her
Speaker 1: life was busy enough with her two kids and a
Speaker 1: demanding job in the ICU.
Speaker 2: I worked nights and it was an incredible experience. I
Speaker 2: loved working in the ICO. I loved being able to
Speaker 2: really impact people's lives.
Speaker 1: That's where she met a medical resident.
Speaker 2: So his full name was secunder Amron, but I called
Speaker 2: him Sick. A lot of his friends called him sick.
Speaker 1: One day, she was called into a room with Sick
Speaker 1: and another doctor.
Speaker 2: They were talking about the patient's heart rate and he said, well,
Speaker 2: his heart rates up now. It must be because this
Speaker 2: nurse is in his room.
Speaker 1: He was talking about Brooke. He shot Brooke a smile.
Speaker 2: Which was funny and flirtatious and maybe a little inappropriate
Speaker 2: at the time, but yeah, that was the first time
Speaker 2: I remember meeting him.
Speaker 1: A few weeks later, Brooke was working the night shift
Speaker 1: with Sick when he asked her to help with the patient,
Speaker 1: and once the patient fell asleep, Brooke in Sick got
Speaker 1: to chatting.
Speaker 2: At the end of our conversation, he asked me if
Speaker 2: I would like to go out with him, and I
Speaker 2: said that I don't date doctors. He said ever, and
Speaker 2: I said no, I don't date doctors. I have a
Speaker 2: rule against it. And he said, well, let me know
Speaker 2: if you change your mind. And after he left the room,
Speaker 2: the patient, who I thought was sleeping, opened her eyes
Speaker 2: and she pointed at me. She had a trake so
Speaker 2: she couldn't talk, but she mouthed the words that man
Speaker 2: is for you, and I laughed and I said, no,
Speaker 2: he's not, and she said, yes he is.
Speaker 1: Brooke didn't like the stereotype about doctors and nurses hooking.
Speaker 2: Up, you know, the nurse and the doctors sneak off
Speaker 2: into a supply closet, because that's what's depicted on Gray's Anatomy.
Speaker 1: That's why she had the rule no dating doctors. But
Speaker 1: after a few weeks of flirtation, he won her over.
Speaker 1: She took his number and decided that just this once,
Speaker 1: she could break her rule. They started with an ice
Speaker 1: cream date, then long walks and dinners at his apartment.
Speaker 2: We really developed kind of a friendship first kind of relationships.
Speaker 2: So we would spend a lot of time watching movies,
Speaker 2: going to movies. I taught him how to cook rice
Speaker 2: American style. I don't think either of us realized at
Speaker 2: the time how much closer we were getting while we
Speaker 2: were doing those casual things. So that fall, we went
Speaker 2: out a couple of times and we started talking about,
Speaker 2: you know, where he came from, what my background was,
Speaker 2: and I knew that he had come for residency from Pakistan.
Speaker 1: He came from a family of doctors. In fact, his
Speaker 1: dad had owned a hospital in Pakistan. Like his older brother,
Speaker 1: Sick wanted to stay in the US and practice medicine here.
Speaker 2: Where he grew up. Men and women didn't do public
Speaker 2: displays of affection, and I remember the first time that
Speaker 2: he held my hand in public. He was so awkward
Speaker 2: about it, and I was like, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: Are you holding my hand in public? You know, kind
Speaker 2: of joking with him, and he was like, yeah, I am,
Speaker 2: but he was so nervous about it.
Speaker 1: There was a real connection between them, but that didn't
Speaker 1: change Brooks feelings about commitment.
Speaker 2: I was honest with him that I really wasn't looking
Speaker 2: for any kind of a relationship that you know, I
Speaker 2: have kids at home and they're my first priority. He
Speaker 2: knew that I would only go out with him when
Speaker 2: my were with their dad, and he was accepting of that.
Speaker 2: He also said that he wasn't looking to get into
Speaker 2: a relationship or get married either.
Speaker 1: Regardless of what he said, Brooke could tell he was trying.
Speaker 2: He would always pay attention and notice details. He would
Speaker 2: notice how I took my coffee and make an effort
Speaker 2: to prepare it for me. That way. He knew which
Speaker 2: ice cream flavors I liked, at which dessert restaurants. He
Speaker 2: was logical and thoughtful and funny and caring.
Speaker 1: After six months of dating, they realized that what was
Speaker 1: happening here was more than just a casual fling.
Speaker 2: It was probably late the next spring that he looked
Speaker 2: at me and he said, do you consider me your boyfriend,
Speaker 2: and I hadn't even thought about it, and I said, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess I do. Is that okay?
Speaker 1: It was definitely okay with him once they became official.
Speaker 1: They kept things quiet at work.
Speaker 2: A lot of our coworkers knew that we were together,
Speaker 2: but it was just kind of a thing that nobody
Speaker 2: really talked about. Occasionally someone would say, oh, I saw
Speaker 2: your boyfriend, but I would say, oh, do you mean
Speaker 2: doctor Imron.
Speaker 1: You know, outside the hospital. They built a rhythm. When
Speaker 1: Brooks kids were with their dad, she and Sick planned
Speaker 1: romantic dinners and weekend getaways.
Speaker 2: We loved to go on trips. What we really liked
Speaker 2: to do is go to vacation spots and find the
Speaker 2: foods that they were famous for.
Speaker 1: It started with an promto road trip to Chicago. Sick
Speaker 1: drove with Brooke asleep in the passenger seat.
Speaker 2: And I remember him waking me up as we were
Speaker 2: kind of driving into Chicago. It was nighttime and Chicago
Speaker 2: was let up. A lot of the buildings had purple
Speaker 2: lights on them for some reason, and he woke me
Speaker 2: up and he said, look, I called Chicago and had
Speaker 2: them light the buildings up purple for you. Because he
Speaker 2: knew that I liked purple.
Speaker 1: That weekend, they didn't have a plan. They just explored
Speaker 1: their way through the city.
Speaker 2: We found this really awesome restaurant that had Pakistani food
Speaker 2: and they were open all night. We went there at
Speaker 2: like one o'clock in the morning, this hole in the
Speaker 2: wall restaurant, and it was the most amazing food.
Speaker 1: Next they went to New Orleans.
Speaker 2: Even though I don'ate me, we ate alligator, it was
Speaker 2: pretty good.
Speaker 1: Back home in New York, they weren't living together, but
Speaker 1: they were in each other's lives in real, tangible ways.
Speaker 1: About two years into dating, Sick came to her with
Speaker 1: a proposition.
Speaker 2: He moved out of his apartment and into a townhouse.
Speaker 2: And he had said at one point that he thought
Speaker 2: that I would come and live with him, and I said,
Speaker 2: I can't come live with you. I have kids. And
Speaker 2: he said, well, you can just stay here when your
Speaker 2: kids aren't home, and I said that's fine. And at
Speaker 2: that point we had a conversation about how we really
Speaker 2: liked the life we had together, and we liked being
Speaker 2: together when we could be together, but that neither of
Speaker 2: us were really passionate about wanting to get married.
Speaker 1: Still Brooke had been careful about boundaries from the very beginning,
Speaker 1: especially when it came to her kids.
Speaker 2: For me, there was a lot of hesitancy about introducing
Speaker 2: someone to my kids, so there was a little bit
Speaker 2: of integration, but not a lot. We all went to
Speaker 2: the movies together a couple of times, and he came
Speaker 2: over for dinner a couple of times.
Speaker 1: Her kids really took to Sick and enjoyed having him around.
Speaker 1: After that, he wanted Broke to meet his family.
Speaker 2: His mom came to town and he asked me if
Speaker 2: I would meet her, and she invited me for lunch
Speaker 2: and tea. So I went over and we had a
Speaker 2: really nice afternoon together and we ended up talking about love.
Speaker 1: Sick was at work, so it was just broken his mom,
Speaker 1: and there was clearly a wink and a nod to
Speaker 1: the conversation because Sick had n't been completely honest with
Speaker 1: his mom.
Speaker 2: Sick k had told her that I was his friend. But
Speaker 2: she's a mom and she's not dumb, so I think
Speaker 2: she knew what was going on. She asked me what
Speaker 2: I thought about arranged marriage and if I thought it
Speaker 2: was good or if I thought love marriages were better,
Speaker 2: and we had a nice conversation about love, and she
Speaker 2: told me about meeting six Dad and their marriage. I
Speaker 2: didn't get any sense of disapproval from her at all.
Speaker 2: She was very kind to me.
Speaker 1: The meeting went so well. Broke and six Mom started
Speaker 1: sending letters and care packages back and forth, which made
Speaker 1: Sick a little nervous.
Speaker 2: I remember him being a little bit like, she's going
Speaker 2: to know, She's going to know, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I think she already knows.
Speaker 1: Brooke didn't see the big deal, but for Sick, his
Speaker 1: family expectations mattered, especially when it came to marriage.
Speaker 2: He talked about feeling like there was an expectation on
Speaker 2: him to marry a Pakistani girl and his family wouldn't
Speaker 2: accept him marrying a white girl. And I asked him, well,
Speaker 2: what if you just don't get married, would that be okay?
Speaker 2: Would your family accept that? And he said I think so,
Speaker 2: And I said, well, okay, let's do that. Then let's
Speaker 2: just not get married.
Speaker 1: Their agreement worked for almost four years, but when six
Speaker 1: residentcy ended, their relationship hit across roads. He started applying
Speaker 1: to fellowship programs across the country.
Speaker 2: We actually went to a couple of different places. We
Speaker 2: took a little road trip around for him to look
Speaker 2: at them and interview.
Speaker 1: The program he really wanted to go to was in DC,
Speaker 1: a sick hour drive from upstate New York. Brooke made
Speaker 1: it clear that relocating wasn't an option for her family.
Speaker 2: I don't think that trying to have a long distance
Speaker 2: relationship is a good idea, especially given that I have
Speaker 2: kids and he's going to be living states away. And
Speaker 2: he acknowledged that, and we had a couple of conversations
Speaker 2: about it, while ultimately he decided that it was important
Speaker 2: for him to go to this program. It was a
Speaker 2: program that his brother had done, so it was kind
Speaker 2: of a family legacy.
Speaker 1: It was bittersweet, but Brooke supported Sick if he wanted
Speaker 1: to start his career in America. This really was for
Speaker 1: the best.
Speaker 2: I was very happy for him, congratulated him. I bought
Speaker 2: him a cake and helped him start looking for places
Speaker 2: to buy down there, and helped him paint it, and
Speaker 2: helped him pick out furniture and decorate it. And then
Speaker 2: you know, we kind of said goodbye after that, but
Speaker 2: of course goodbye wasn't really goodbye, as often happens in
Speaker 2: these relationships.
Speaker 1: They knew they had an expiration date, but they were
Speaker 1: having a hard time letting go.
Speaker 2: I remember walking into the airport with tears streaming down
Speaker 2: my face, bawling after saying goodbye to him, and tsagent
Speaker 2: came up to me and she said, are you okay?
Speaker 2: And I said, yeah, I just said goodbye to my boyfriend.
Speaker 2: But I'm sure she thought something was horribly wrong, just
Speaker 2: from the amount that I was crying. We said a
Speaker 2: lot of goodbyes that year.
Speaker 1: This began a new era of their relationship, one where
Speaker 1: they kept finding their way back to each other weekend
Speaker 1: by weekend.
Speaker 2: We weren't in a relationship, we were not together, but
Speaker 2: what we would end up doing is anytime either one
Speaker 2: of us had like a long weekend free, or if
Speaker 2: it was one of our birthdays, we would take a
Speaker 2: little trip together.
Speaker 1: For her thirty seventh birthday, Sick planned a trip to
Speaker 1: the Poconots.
Speaker 2: We stayed at a bed and breakfast up in the mountains, fireplace,
Speaker 2: woody romantic get away, candle at dinners and fireside chit
Speaker 2: chat every night.
Speaker 1: You know, Brooke didn't know it at the time, but
Speaker 1: what happened that weekend would affect the rest of her life.
Speaker 1: At the end of their trip, they said another tearful goodbye.
Speaker 1: It was a great time, But that whole weekend, Sick
Speaker 1: had been keeping a secret. He just couldn't bring himself
Speaker 1: to tell her in person.
Speaker 2: He called me a couple of days later, and he
Speaker 2: said that he wanted to talk to me, and he
Speaker 2: wanted to let me know that he had talked to
Speaker 2: his mom and that he had agreed to let his
Speaker 2: mom arrange him a marriage.
Speaker 1: After a romantic getaway for Brooks birthday, Sick called her
Speaker 1: with surprising news he was moving forward with an arranged marriage.
Speaker 2: I was surprised because he had not been interested in
Speaker 2: an arranged marriage and hadn't expressed any interest in it.
Speaker 1: She always thought Sick wanted a love marriage, and when
Speaker 1: he broke the news, he didn't even seem excited about
Speaker 1: the idea.
Speaker 2: He seemed resigned to it. He seemed sad about it.
Speaker 2: He talked about it like he was going to get
Speaker 2: a girl who wanted to marry a doctor.
Speaker 1: Brooke tried to hide it, but she was hurt.
Speaker 2: I felt sad, but I think that part of me
Speaker 2: had been expecting it, because we'd basically been trying to
Speaker 2: say goodbye for a year. So even though part of
Speaker 2: me felt like he was still mine, he really wasn't
Speaker 2: mine anymore.
Speaker 1: If he was serious about pursuing this, that meant their
Speaker 1: relationship had to be over.
Speaker 2: I told him that if that was happening, then we
Speaker 2: really needed to stop talking to each other, because it
Speaker 2: wasn't fair to another woman to think that she was
Speaker 2: getting a husband and have her husband over here in
Speaker 2: the United States talking to me and going on trips
Speaker 2: with me. That's just not fair. And he agreed, And
Speaker 2: for all the times we had tried to say goodbye
Speaker 2: over the past year, I think that finally seemed to
Speaker 2: be the thing that let us stop talking to each other.
Speaker 2: After that conversation, I think we went the longest period
Speaker 2: we had ever gone without talking. It was over two weeks.
Speaker 2: Neither of us reached out, and then I realized my
Speaker 2: period was late, so I took a pregnancy test and
Speaker 2: it was positive.
Speaker 1: Brooke knew it happened during their Poke Knows trip.
Speaker 2: The moment I realized I was pregnant, I started thinking
Speaker 2: about the baby and who he was going to be.
Speaker 2: I really just felt like that was my baby. From
Speaker 2: the minute I knew I was pregnant.
Speaker 1: It felt like a gift from the universe. She knew
Speaker 1: this would be her last baby, and it just felt right.
Speaker 1: But now she faced another decision.
Speaker 2: I wasn't sure if I should even tell him. Part
Speaker 2: of me thought, if I don't tell him, he'll never know,
Speaker 2: and I just have the baby and go on with
Speaker 2: my life and he can go on with his life.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, it felt wrong to keep this
Speaker 1: from him.
Speaker 2: Is it fair of me to not give him that
Speaker 2: choice and that opportunity to take part in his child's life.
Speaker 2: I knew how much I liked being a parent, and
Speaker 2: I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to be in
Speaker 2: my child's life. So I decided to tell him because
Speaker 2: I thought that it was the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: She told him over the phone. He was quiet for
Speaker 1: a few seconds, and then.
Speaker 2: His immediate reaction was to ask me to have an abortion.
Speaker 2: I told him I couldn't, and he didn't have to
Speaker 2: be involved. He didn't have to financially support the baby,
Speaker 2: he didn't have to have anything to do with the baby.
Speaker 2: I was already a single mom. I loved having kids.
Speaker 2: I'm good at raising kids. If he doesn't want to
Speaker 2: have the baby, that's fine.
Speaker 1: She went to the doctor and learned the baby was
Speaker 1: perfectly healthy. It was a little boy.
Speaker 2: I was already picking out names before I was even
Speaker 2: showing because I already knew who he was. I decided
Speaker 2: to name him Makai and call him Kai for short.
Speaker 1: But Sick wasn't on the same page. After she told him,
Speaker 1: he started spiraling.
Speaker 2: That started months of phone calls and text messages, begging
Speaker 2: and pleading with me to have an abortion, and telling
Speaker 2: me that I was ruining his life, that this was
Speaker 2: going to cast shame on his family in Pakistan, that
Speaker 2: his mother was going to be ridiculed and he was
Speaker 2: going to be an outcast, and that I was causing
Speaker 2: him mental anguish.
Speaker 1: She understood that having a baby outside of marriage wasn't
Speaker 1: part of his plan, but plan or not, this was happening.
Speaker 2: All of that text message and the phone calls about
Speaker 2: your ruining my life, You're ruining my mom's life. That
Speaker 2: all made me pretty mad.
Speaker 1: She kept waiting for Sick to come around every time
Speaker 1: she talked to him. He tried a new tactic.
Speaker 2: One day, I was sitting on my bed and I
Speaker 2: was on the phone with Sick, and he said that
Speaker 2: he had talked to a friend of his who was
Speaker 2: an opigi N and that his friend had told him
Speaker 2: that I could take mesaprostal and that it would abort
Speaker 2: the baby, and that I could do it right there
Speaker 2: at six house and it would all happen very easily,
Speaker 2: and I wouldn't even need to go to the hospital
Speaker 2: or anything, and Sick could be there with me the
Speaker 2: whole time. And Sick asked if I would be willing
Speaker 2: to do that, and I said absolutely not. No. He
Speaker 2: said that he wasn't trying to pressure me, but that
Speaker 2: we were running out of time because we could only
Speaker 2: do this in the first trimester, and my first trimester
Speaker 2: had been coming to an end. So he wanted me
Speaker 2: to do this, and I said now.
Speaker 1: When she started the second trimester, the conversation was over.
Speaker 1: She'd made her choice. The window for second guessing had closed.
Speaker 1: Now that it was official, Brooke shared the news with
Speaker 1: her two kids.
Speaker 2: We had a little gender reveal cake for the baby.
Speaker 2: We went shopping and bottom a bunch of clothes and
Speaker 2: some stuff for his crip.
Speaker 1: She didn't hear from Sick for a few weeks, but
Speaker 1: when he did reach out again, he'd had a change
Speaker 1: of heart.
Speaker 2: Eventually he starts talking about setting up a bank account
Speaker 2: for me and the baby, and then he asks me
Speaker 2: if I'll come down to see him so that we
Speaker 2: could figure out a parenting plan and figure out a
Speaker 2: way that we could have this baby together and him
Speaker 2: still be in d C and maybe in New York,
Speaker 2: but still have this baby together.
Speaker 1: Finally, the Sick she knew was back. She made plans
Speaker 1: to drive down to d C right after her four
Speaker 1: month ulder sound appointment.
Speaker 2: The morning that I left, I went to the doctor,
Speaker 2: we did a fetal heart rate. Everything looked good, and
Speaker 2: I left and set off to go down to d
Speaker 2: C to see him. I drove the whole way down there.
Speaker 2: He's texting me reminders to get up and walk so
Speaker 2: I don't get a blood clot and reminding me to
Speaker 2: drink water, asking me how my drive is going.
Speaker 1: When she got to Sick's house, he gave her a
Speaker 1: long hug.
Speaker 2: Everything seemed back to normal, except for one thing. He
Speaker 2: didn't say anything about my belly. He didn't try to
Speaker 2: touch it or anything like that.
Speaker 1: When he came to the baby, he still seemed to
Speaker 1: have a wall up.
Speaker 2: He hadn't even wanted me to tell him the gender
Speaker 2: of the baby, so I knew it was a boy,
Speaker 2: but he didn't. At one point that evening, I did
Speaker 2: start to bring up the baby, the pregnancy, and he said,
Speaker 2: let's wait and talk about this tomorrow, and I said okay.
Speaker 2: And the next morning we got up and we start
Speaker 2: making breakfast together, which we've done hundreds of times before.
Speaker 2: I'm making eggs and he's making coffee, and he's making
Speaker 2: coffee that we had gotten when we went to New Orleans,
Speaker 2: and it's this chickory root coffee, so it's a little
Speaker 2: bit stronger. So when I started drinking it, I noticed
Speaker 2: that it burned my stomach a little bit, and I
Speaker 2: kind of just thought, you know, I'm pregnant. I probably
Speaker 2: shouldn't be drinking so much coffee. I'm probably developing an ulcer.
Speaker 2: Maybe I shouldn't drink this. So I didn't finish my
Speaker 2: cup of coffee. I said it aside, finished breakfast and
Speaker 2: went on about our day. Got ready went shopping.
Speaker 1: But as soon as they got to the mall.
Speaker 2: I was having a queasy feeling, so I ended up
Speaker 2: going into the bathroom quite a few times. At some
Speaker 2: point he asked me if I was feeling okay, and
Speaker 2: I told him no, that I had an upset stomach.
Speaker 2: His response was just, oh, okay, and that struck me
Speaker 2: in that moment as being very odd because he normally
Speaker 2: would have asked if I needed anything, or gotten me
Speaker 2: a drink, or had some follow up to make sure
Speaker 2: I was all right, And in that moment, I remember
Speaker 2: thinking that I wondered if he was hoping that something
Speaker 2: was wrong, And then, of course I convinced to myself
Speaker 2: to put it out of my mind.
Speaker 1: As the day went on, she started to feel better,
Speaker 1: so they decided to get take out and go back
Speaker 1: to his.
Speaker 2: Place after dinner. He put on my favorite movie and
Speaker 2: said that he was going to make me a cup
Speaker 2: of tea for my stomach. So it was dark in
Speaker 2: the room. He brought me the tea, and when I
Speaker 2: tasted it, I noticed that it was unusually sweet, which
Speaker 2: was not how I took my tea, and he said
Speaker 2: that he had accidentally put in both sugar and honey,
Speaker 2: which was odd because he always remembered how I took
Speaker 2: my tea. But I drank it anyway, and when I
Speaker 2: got toward the bottom of the cup of tea, I
Speaker 2: took a sip of it and there was grit in
Speaker 2: the bottom, and from being a nurse, I knew that
Speaker 2: texture was ground up pill. So I spit it back
Speaker 2: in the cup and I put the cup down, and
Speaker 2: I said that I had to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2: I went into the bathroom and I put my finger
Speaker 2: down my throat and then I put a toothbrush down
Speaker 2: my throat to try to make myself throw up, and
Speaker 2: I couldn't. And I sat there in the bathroom and
Speaker 2: I wasn't sure what to do.
Speaker 1: As the minutes passed, she started doubting what she'd seen
Speaker 1: at the bottom.
Speaker 2: Of her cop I've known him for years. I've been
Speaker 2: dating him for years. This man loves me. The man
Speaker 2: I know wouldn't do that. And then I remembered that
Speaker 2: conversation where he told me that his friends suggested that
Speaker 2: I take me as apostal and it would cause an abortion,
Speaker 2: and I told him no, and I just I knew
Speaker 2: that's what he did. But then I kept going back
Speaker 2: to maybe I'm crazy. Maybe there weren't pills in my
Speaker 2: cop He wouldn't poison me, so maybe I'm insane. But
Speaker 2: then if he did that to me, what else would
Speaker 2: he do? If I go out there and he knows
Speaker 2: I know, and he actually did it. Will he kill
Speaker 2: me if he wants to get rid of the baby
Speaker 2: so bad that he'll poison me? Is he going to
Speaker 2: kill me? So I can't let him know that I know?
Speaker 1: In that moment, she came up with a plan. And
Speaker 1: before we keep going, I want a flag that what
Speaker 1: Brooke is about to describe could be emotionally triggering for
Speaker 1: some listeners. If you've had experience with pregnancy loss, please
Speaker 1: take care while listening. Now back to Brook, Here's what
Speaker 1: she decided to do.
Speaker 2: I'm going to wait until he goes to sleep, and
Speaker 2: I'm going to sneak out of the house and I'm
Speaker 2: going to go to the hospital. And so I sat
Speaker 2: down on the couch with him, and the movie was
Speaker 2: almost over, and I told him that I was tired
Speaker 2: and I wanted to go to bed, And so the
Speaker 2: movie ended and he got up to take my dishes
Speaker 2: to the kitchen, and I said I'll take them, and
Speaker 2: he said, no, I'll take them, and he pulled them
Speaker 2: out of my hands, took the dishes to the sink,
Speaker 2: and I saw him tip the cup into the sink,
Speaker 2: and then he went into the bathroom, and when he
Speaker 2: went into the bathroom, I thought, I have to know,
Speaker 2: so I turned on the kitchen light and I looked
Speaker 2: and there was pill fragments in the bottom of the cup.
Speaker 2: So I got a plastic baggy out and I scooped
Speaker 2: out the rest of the pill fragments that were in
Speaker 2: the cup, and I zipped him up in the little
Speaker 2: plastic baggie and I hit him in my purse. And
Speaker 2: I thought, when he goes to sleep, I'll go to
Speaker 2: the hospital, because now I don't so much think I'm insane.
Speaker 2: I think he probably did poison me. But now I
Speaker 2: really do need to wait until he's asleep.
Speaker 1: Now that she had seen the proof, the panic came
Speaker 1: flooding in what had he given her and how much
Speaker 1: of it did she drink? But she had to stay
Speaker 1: calm so she could get out and get help.
Speaker 2: So I got ready for bed, and I laid down
Speaker 2: next to him, and I just listened to him breathe
Speaker 2: it and waited to hear his breathing change so I
Speaker 2: could hear when I got deeper so I could sneak
Speaker 2: out of bed. And while I was laying there, I
Speaker 2: felt a pop, and I felt myself start bleeding. I
Speaker 2: got up and ran into the bathroom and I was
Speaker 2: bleeding and I started crying and laid down on the
Speaker 2: bathroom floor. At this point, I was almost twenty weeks,
Speaker 2: a long four months pregnant. The baby was fully formed,
Speaker 2: so having this happen in his bathroom at his apartment
Speaker 2: is certainly medically dangerous for me. And he came in
Speaker 2: and he said what's wrong. And I said, the baby's dying.
Speaker 2: You need to call nine one one, and he said, no,
Speaker 2: you're fine. I'm a doctor. I can take care of you.
Speaker 1: Brooke planned to get out of six house quietly and
Speaker 1: drive herself to the hospital. Before she could, she started
Speaker 1: bleeding four months into the pregnancy. She knew she needed
Speaker 1: to get help quickly, but when Sick found her on
Speaker 1: the floor of the bathroom, he didn't want to call
Speaker 1: an ambulance.
Speaker 2: And I said, you need to call nine one month
Speaker 2: and he said, no, you're okay, I'm a doctor. You're
Speaker 2: going to be fine. I didn't know if he was
Speaker 2: refusing to call nine one one because he wanted to
Speaker 2: kill me.
Speaker 1: She was terrified for herself and for her baby.
Speaker 2: Part of me was really hopeful that maybe if I
Speaker 2: could just get to a hospital. Somehow the baby was
Speaker 2: going to survive. So I was desperate for him to
Speaker 2: call nine one one. I said, you don't understand your
Speaker 2: son is dying, your son, and if you don't call
Speaker 2: nine one one, then I will.
Speaker 1: She hadn't told him the sex of the baby until
Speaker 1: this moment. When she called the baby his son, something shifted.
Speaker 2: For Sick, and then he said, okay, I'll call, and
Speaker 2: he went and he called nine one one, and then
Speaker 2: the ambulance came. And at this point I was bleeding
Speaker 2: a lot more.
Speaker 1: The paramedics picked her up from the floor and laid
Speaker 1: her on the stretcher.
Speaker 2: As they're pushing me out of the apartment, I see
Speaker 2: my purse sitting on the counter and I remember that
Speaker 2: the pill fragments are in a baggie in my purse.
Speaker 2: So I ask the paramedic to hand me my purse
Speaker 2: and he says, you don't need it, and I say, no,
Speaker 2: I want my purse, and Sick picks it up and
Speaker 2: he says, I'll take it. I have another moment of panic,
Speaker 2: thinking if the paramedic asks me for my insurance card,
Speaker 2: Sick is going to open my purse and he's going
Speaker 2: to see that baggie in there with the pills in it,
Speaker 2: and he's going to get rid of it. So they
Speaker 2: loaded me into the ambulance, and gets into the ambulance
Speaker 2: with us. I just keep thinking, if I can get
Speaker 2: this paramedic to just make eye contact with me, he'll
Speaker 2: see in my eyes that I'm afraid and I don't
Speaker 2: want Sick here.
Speaker 1: But the paramedic was too busy triaging Brooke to notice
Speaker 1: all the while Six stayed right by her side, acting concerned.
Speaker 2: So we get to the hospital and the whole time,
Speaker 2: Sick is holding my purse. Finally we get up to
Speaker 2: labor and delivery and he sets it down on the
Speaker 2: counter in the room.
Speaker 1: Sick wouldn't leave her, and he made it known that
Speaker 1: he was a doctor.
Speaker 2: She's right there the whole time, right next to my bed,
Speaker 2: helping them move me from stretcher to bed and talking
Speaker 2: to the doctor about their medical training and where they've
Speaker 2: both worked, and he's that normal person that everybody likes
Speaker 2: in that room. Finally he goes into the bathroom and
Speaker 2: I whispered to the nurse to make him leave. I
Speaker 2: could just see the colored drain out of her face.
Speaker 2: She looked at me and she whispered back, are you okay?
Speaker 2: And I said no. A couple of minutes later, the
Speaker 2: charge nurse came in and got Sick and said that
Speaker 2: she wanted to show him the father's lounge, and she
Speaker 2: took him out. And then the nurse and the doctor
Speaker 2: came and asked me what was going on, and I said,
Speaker 2: I swear I'm not crazy, but I think he poisoned me.
Speaker 2: I found pills in my tea and they're in a
Speaker 2: baggy in my purse.
Speaker 1: The nurse went into Brooks bag and grabbed ziploc with
Speaker 1: the pill fragments. She wanted to send them to the
Speaker 1: lab for testing.
Speaker 2: Not long after that, my water broke and Kai was born.
Speaker 2: He was not alive. Part of me still hoped he
Speaker 2: would cry when he was born, but he didn't. But
Speaker 2: they wrapped him up in a blanket and put a
Speaker 2: little tiny hat on him and brought him to me.
Speaker 2: They let me hold Kai for a couple of hours.
Speaker 2: When I was holding Kai, I wasn't thinking at all
Speaker 2: about what Sick had done. It was more thinking about
Speaker 2: the loss. Even though Kai wasn't alive, still looking at him,
Speaker 2: there was sort of this amazement about who he was
Speaker 2: as a person, which is odd to say about somebody
Speaker 2: who wasn't alive to recognize who they are as a person,
Speaker 2: But he was. He was a little person with little
Speaker 2: long fingers and long toes. And that's what I was
Speaker 2: thinking about when I was looking at him, that he
Speaker 2: probably would have played basketball, and he would have been tall,
Speaker 2: and maybe he would have played piano because he would
Speaker 2: have had long piano playing fingers. Probably sounds strange to
Speaker 2: somebody who hasn't lost a baby, but that's what I
Speaker 2: was thinking about in that moment.
Speaker 1: Sick was in the room too.
Speaker 2: When he saw what Kai actually looked like, Sick cried.
Speaker 2: I almost think that that is the first time Sick
Speaker 2: realized that it was a whole human. I think that
Speaker 2: was really the first time that it was real in
Speaker 2: his mind that that was his son.
Speaker 1: After they took Kay's footprints and filled out the paperwork,
Speaker 1: his body was taken for an autopsy.
Speaker 2: Seven am rolls around and the day shift nurse comes
Speaker 2: in and she takes me in the bathroom and she
Speaker 2: very quietly asks me what happened.
Speaker 1: Once again, Brooke told the story.
Speaker 2: And she says, what are you going to do and
Speaker 2: I said, I don't know. I don't know what to do.
Speaker 2: And she said, if there's any part of you that
Speaker 2: thinks that this man poisoned you and killed your baby,
Speaker 2: you need to report him. Brooke agreed, and she said
Speaker 2: have you asked him? Have you asked him if he
Speaker 2: did this? And I said no, and she said I
Speaker 2: think you should.
Speaker 1: So they went back in the room just as Sick
Speaker 1: was walking back in.
Speaker 2: And he said he was going to go back to
Speaker 2: his apartment and take a shower, get changed, and bring
Speaker 2: me some clothes. And I said that before he left,
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask him a question, and I asked him,
Speaker 2: did you poison me? And he said, do you honestly
Speaker 2: think I would do that to you? I said, yes,
Speaker 2: I do. And I told him I found ground up
Speaker 2: pill in the bottom of my cup and I gave
Speaker 2: it to the nurse and they're going to have it tested.
Speaker 2: So if you did this, you need to come clean
Speaker 2: with me right now. And he started crying and he
Speaker 2: put his head down on the bed. He was sitting
Speaker 2: in a chair next to the bed, and he put
Speaker 2: his head down on the bed and just started bawling.
Speaker 2: And he told me that he had put me sprostal
Speaker 2: in my coffee that morning, and that's why I had
Speaker 2: a stomach ache, and when it didn't work, he ground
Speaker 2: up more and put it in my tea that night.
Speaker 1: It was the final confirmation. She just stared at him
Speaker 1: in silence, heartbroken. Sick continued talking and tried to rationalize
Speaker 1: what he'd done.
Speaker 2: And he said that the reason that he did it
Speaker 2: is because he knew that I loved him and I
Speaker 2: wanted to do what was best for him. But he
Speaker 2: knew that if I made the decision to have an abortion,
Speaker 2: I would be unhappy about it, so he was making
Speaker 2: the decision for me so that I wouldn't have to
Speaker 2: live with it. He said it like he thought that
Speaker 2: he was doing something benevolent for me, but he wasn't.
Speaker 2: He was taking from me somebody that I loved, somebody
Speaker 2: that I wanted in my life, and he was justifying
Speaker 2: it and acting like he was doing it for my benefit.
Speaker 1: He really seemed to believe he had done the right thing.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe what he was saying to me. I
Speaker 2: couldn't believe it. I felt betrayed. I felt like, that's
Speaker 2: not your decision to make. And he was completely selfish.
Speaker 2: Rather than taking on what he thought was going to
Speaker 2: be ridicule, he was causing pain to other people. That's
Speaker 2: a coward. And while he was saying it, there's a
Speaker 2: knock on the door to my hospital room, and that
Speaker 2: was the police.
Speaker 1: The police took Sick into another room for questioning.
Speaker 2: And he confessed that he had poisoned me, So they
Speaker 2: arrested him and took him to jail.
Speaker 1: Brooke wouldn't see him again until his sentencing hearing, but
Speaker 1: Sick had left his phone with her, so she picked
Speaker 1: it up and made a call.
Speaker 2: I called his brother, who lives here in New York,
Speaker 2: and I told his brother Sick had been arrested and
Speaker 2: what he had been arrested for, that he had poisoned
Speaker 2: me and killed our baby. And his brother said he
Speaker 2: didn't know that I was pregnant. I said that I
Speaker 2: couldn't take care of Sick anymore, that he was not
Speaker 2: my responsibility and he needed to come down here and
Speaker 2: take care of his brother.
Speaker 1: Before they hung up, Six's brother had one more.
Speaker 2: Thing to say, while he didn't know that I was pregnant,
Speaker 2: they did know that Sick and I were seeing each other.
Speaker 2: And his mom had known for years. She'd known since
Speaker 2: the day she met me, and they had just been
Speaker 2: waiting for him to tell them.
Speaker 1: It was a tragic revelation. The pressure Sick put on
Speaker 1: himself to live up to his family's expectations was self imposed.
Speaker 1: His family would have accepted brook and There's Brooke called
Speaker 1: a friend who flew down to DC to pick her
Speaker 1: up at the hospital. Before they started to drive home,
Speaker 1: they stopped by six apartment to get Brooks bags.
Speaker 2: The police met us there. It was very strange to
Speaker 2: go in. There's crime scene tape in his apartment and
Speaker 2: it's been ransacked by the police. Just an odd feeling
Speaker 2: knowing that that's now the scene of a crime and
Speaker 2: it's a place that you painted and decorated.
Speaker 1: The police had turned the apartment upside down to find
Speaker 1: more evidence, and they did. They found white powder in
Speaker 1: a pack of one hundred missoprystal tablets with ten doses missing.
Speaker 1: He had given her all ten in one day. It
Speaker 1: was a massive overdose.
Speaker 2: So he had given me two hundred milligrams in the morning,
Speaker 2: and then when that didn't work, he gave me an
Speaker 2: additional six hundred milligrams in the evening. He probably needed
Speaker 2: to give me that dose because I was way further
Speaker 2: along in pregnancy.
Speaker 1: The police told Brooke they'd be in touch, and that
Speaker 1: was it.
Speaker 2: The drive back to New York was awful. There's no
Speaker 2: eloquent way to say that. It was just awful. I
Speaker 2: cried most of the way back. I missed my baby.
Speaker 2: I went down to DC thinking that I was making
Speaker 2: a parenting plan, and I came back missing my baby,
Speaker 2: with business cards for investigators and victims assistance phone numbers
Speaker 2: in my luggage, doubting who I knew for the last
Speaker 2: five years. My whole world had changed.
Speaker 1: And then came the regrets. Even though she knew it
Speaker 1: wasn't her fault, all she wanted was to go back
Speaker 1: in time.
Speaker 2: You know, blaming yourself. I wish I had never driven
Speaker 2: down there. I shouldn't have done that. I should have
Speaker 2: known better. I've worked through that. I don't still blame myself,
Speaker 2: but at that time I did. I kept thinking that,
Speaker 2: how stupid was I to drive down there.
Speaker 1: When she got home, the loss became even more real
Speaker 1: because she had to find a way to tell her kids.
Speaker 2: Not only was I dealing with my own emotions, but
Speaker 2: I had to tell my kids that I wasn't pregnant anymore,
Speaker 2: and they weren't getting a baby brother. And not only
Speaker 2: were they not getting a baby brother, but their baby
Speaker 2: brother was murdered. And not only was he murdered, he
Speaker 2: was murdered by somebody that they knew and trusted. And
Speaker 2: I have to help them through that. While I'm trying
Speaker 2: to manage my own emotional fallout from this and also
Speaker 2: figure out what to do about this criminal case, I
Speaker 2: can hardly function to get dinner on the table.
Speaker 1: Her kids weren't just mourning a baby brother. They were
Speaker 1: mourning a sense of safety, and Brooke had to carry
Speaker 1: all of it. She took leave from work, leaned on
Speaker 1: her friends, and found a therapist. Even with all the support,
Speaker 1: she stayed awake at night trying to make sense of
Speaker 1: what happened.
Speaker 2: I really went through this period of wondering if I
Speaker 2: ever knew him at all, and did I ever see
Speaker 2: him or was I fooling myself? Was he a monster
Speaker 2: this entire time? And I just didn't want to see it.
Speaker 2: And I really did have to think about that because
Speaker 2: either I loved a monster and never knew he was
Speaker 2: a monster, or I loved a man. And then he
Speaker 2: became a monster. One of those is true, her heart
Speaker 2: tells her it was the latter. I had to objectively
Speaker 2: look at the person that he was, and look at
Speaker 2: his actions leading up to that time, and look at
Speaker 2: the way he treated people. I really think that I
Speaker 2: loved a man who became a monster.
Speaker 1: Sick was charged with premeditated fetal homicide. He initially pled
Speaker 1: not guilty.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to go to a trial. I really
Speaker 2: just wanted him to plead guilty and take responsibility for
Speaker 2: what he did. That's when I decided to speak out
Speaker 2: about what had happened.
Speaker 1: Brooke went the local news to tell her story.
Speaker 2: After I talked to the media, he changed his mind
Speaker 2: and decided to plead guilty.
Speaker 1: After that, the only thing left was the sentencing hearing.
Speaker 2: He was facing twenty years to life in prison. He's
Speaker 2: not an American citizen, so whenever he completed his sentence,
Speaker 2: he was going to be deported back to Pakistan. So
Speaker 2: when he decided to plead guilty, what I decided to
Speaker 2: do was to ask for leniency for him. So I
Speaker 2: wrote a letter to the judge and asked for leniency,
Speaker 2: and I explained to the judge that my son is gone.
Speaker 2: My son is dead. Kai's life is over. He will
Speaker 2: never do anything with his life. He's gone. He won't
Speaker 2: have a chance. But six still does. He still has
Speaker 2: a chance. And I would hate to see two lives
Speaker 2: be gone because of this. And I really think that
Speaker 2: rather than wasting the rest of his life sitting in prison,
Speaker 2: Sick owes it to Kai to do something with his life.
Speaker 2: The judge wrote my letter and granted him leniency and
Speaker 2: sentenced him to four years in prison. Otherwise he would
Speaker 2: have given him twenty years to life.
Speaker 1: Sick was released from prison in twenty twenty one and
Speaker 1: deported to Pakistan. Today, it's been eight years since the crime,
Speaker 1: and despite everything she's gone through, she manages to live
Speaker 1: a joyful and fulfilling life today.
Speaker 2: I have finished my master's degree in nursing and I'm
Speaker 2: teaching nursing. I do Brazilian jiu jitsu a couple of
Speaker 2: times a week as a fun hobby and exercise. It's
Speaker 2: very empowering. I love doing that.
Speaker 1: She and her kids chose to memorialize Kai.
Speaker 2: His brother got a burial plot and said a prayer
Speaker 2: over him, and we buried him in a cemetery here.
Speaker 2: So He's got a little gravestone and a cemetery up
Speaker 2: here in Upstate New York with his little superhero on it,
Speaker 2: and it says superheroes never sleep.
Speaker 1: We end all of our weekly episodes with the same question,
Speaker 1: why do you want to share your story?
Speaker 2: When people hear my story, it is a little bit shocking,
Speaker 2: and people often say, oh my god, I can't believe
Speaker 2: that happened to you. But what I like people to
Speaker 2: take from it is, no matter what happens, no matter
Speaker 2: what you go through, you'll get stronger and you learn
Speaker 2: to carry it. I was surprised that I made it through.
Speaker 2: I was surprised by the amount of strength that I
Speaker 2: came up with, and looking at it from the other side,
Speaker 2: I look back and I think, wow, I made it through. That.
Speaker 2: If I could make it through, that people can make
Speaker 2: it through anything. They really can't.
Speaker 1: Next week on Betrayal Weekly, I go.
Speaker 3: What are you involved in? Are you being investigated by
Speaker 3: the FBI? And he looked at me so coldly like
Speaker 3: he never knew me, and he said, if I go down,
Speaker 3: I'm taking you with me.
Speaker 4: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal
Speaker 4: team or want to tell us your Betrayal story. Email
Speaker 4: us at betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal pod
Speaker 4: at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: We're grateful for your support.
Speaker 4: One way to show support is by subscribing to our
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Speaker 1: Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank
Speaker 1: you to all of our listeners.
Speaker 4: Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of
Speaker 4: Glass Entertainment Group and partnership the iHeart Podcasts. The show
Speaker 4: is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted
Speaker 4: and produced by me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by
Speaker 4: Monique Leboard, also produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are
Speaker 4: Kristin Mercury and Caitlyn Golden. Our iHeart team is Ali
Speaker 4: Perry and Jessica Krincheck.
Speaker 1: Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, additional editing support
Speaker 1: from Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music
Speaker 1: library provided by my Music
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