Part 3: #soinviteme
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Nothing can stop this team. Nothing! Sounds like someone's got an optimistic hunch.

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I'm Barbara Schroeder and now episode three of Bad Bad Thing. We are just getting started here in class tonight as we have about 100 students in the class. This is social media management. It is the first social media course that's offered. You're listening to an old video I found online of Meredith Sullivan Chapman teaching her digital communications class at the University of Delaware.

She had a favorite quote she liked to share with her students. You've probably heard it before. Behave. What happens today will go viral tomorrow. So thanks so much for joining us. Where are you tonight?

I'm in Austin, Texas. This is Eric Qualman. He's a digital expert and an author. He was a frequent virtual guest in Meredith's classrooms. Yeah, Meredith is fantastic. I mean, I Skype into and Zoom into hundreds of lectures that use my books across the country and the world, really. But hers stood out. And it stood out because her students...

You could tell there was just like a love and that, hey, this professor gets it. She's young. She's dynamic. From day one, when I skived through the classes, through the eyes of the students, I could tell the appreciation and just the respect that they had for Meredith. So you did meet her in person, too? Yes. There was like a magnetism, as I mentioned, about her that just, you could tell it attracted people to her, just that personality, kind of a bright light.

Meredith was a shining star her entire life. After she graduated from the University of Delaware, where she'd been a cheerleader, she became a press secretary for a U.S. congressman. Then she got a job as a local TV producer, where in 2009, she helped put together an Emmy-nominated documentary about then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Also that year, Meredith got married to a tall, handsome man she thought of as her Prince Charming, Luke Chapman, who would go on to become a financial advisor, and a Newark, Delaware city councilman. Well, I have some exciting news to share with you today, so I thought, what better way to do that than via Facebook Live? So you ready for it? And in 2016, at the age of 30, Meredith herself decided to give politics a try. Today, I'm announcing my candidacy for the Delaware State Senate for District 8.

Now, I didn't reach this decision lightly, but District 8 has always been home to me in some way, shape or form. Meredith didn't win that election, and maybe it was a good thing, because there was something about her private life that she didn't want people to know. Online, her life looked amazing.

She shared photos of her favorite things, her little fluffy white and tan dog named Indy, her new gunmetal gray Audi convertible. She loved using green heart emojis, and she had a hashtag, always the girl in green. Meredith also posted lots of pictures of high-heeled shoes, apparently her shopping weakness. Meredith was 4 feet 11 inches tall. In one Instagram photo, she's holding up a bright pink t-shirt with the slogan, I'm not short, I'm just concentrated awesome.

It's a beautiful girl. Meredith had a playlist full of songs by Bruno Mars, Camila Cabello, and pretty much anything Ed Sheeran ever recorded. I found the love for me. But it was his song called Perfect that she loved the most. Meredith was a dreamy romantic at heart, and the lyrics from the song, I found a love, I'm dancing in the dark with you, you look perfect tonight, made her melt every time. Darling, you

Here's what Meredith wasn't sharing with anybody. Her marriage was in trouble. She and Luke were no longer having sex. He had been rejecting her for months. Meredith was hurt and not sure what to do. And so it was, under these circumstances, that Meredith Chapman met Mark Girardo for the first time when she interviewed him for a job in the marketing department, which she was now running at the university.

Actually, I stepped into her office on October 3rd. And, you know, I was a little concerned about the job, actually, because reporting to her, she was so much younger than I was and she was going to be my boss. I had all this experience and I thought, I'm going to know more things than her. It's just going to be awkward. But I kept an open mind. And when I first walked into her office and sat down and she started talking, within five minutes, I just was a bit taken back by...

How eloquent she was, well-spoken, and just smart as a whip. And I just said to myself, not out loud to her, that I've got to work for this person. Were you thinking she's really cute? Not at all. No, I didn't. I mean, I'm surprised. People are surprised by the fact that I wasn't. I didn't really notice. But I was so dumbfounded by her wits and her personality, her passion for the work. It wasn't about how she looked at all.

Meredith hired Mark almost immediately as one of her creative marketing directors. She asked him to start work as soon as he could, which is why Mark moved from South Carolina to Delaware by himself, ahead of Jenea. So you have four weeks by yourself with no Jenea. It was liberating to be by myself and to be able to just get up in the morning when you wanted to on the weekends, do what you want to do and go running when you want to do, have dinner,

stay up late. I hadn't had that experience in so long. And so it was liberating. And I relished the opportunity to do that. So Janera stays behind. Take us to the moment when you first realized, I have feelings about Meredith. We were in a meeting with a large presentation with an agency. And we were talking with them. And Meredith just started, she was talking for the group. And she bounced the ball to me. And I would pick up and I would

on the conversation and we were just hitting stride and really just connected on a very professional level. And afterwards she kind of high-fived me like, like this is, this is great energy. We're going to be a great team. And she said, you want to go get a drink? Cause we haven't had a chance to talk a week. Let's catch up on the work week. So yeah, we walked down the street to, um, a restaurant and, and, you know, I thought it would be a 20 minute conversation. And I looked at my watch letter had been three and a half hours.

So time just flew by. And as I recall, we didn't really talk much about work. It got really just personal right away. There was a connection person to person, not necessarily Boston employee. Shortly after that first dinner, Mark sent Meredith an email about an upcoming Joe Biden political event he had seen advertised. Meredith sent back a text immediately and asked Mark where he was. Dinner, he replied. With whom she texted? Mark said, myself.

Meredith sent them a hashtag, so invite me. And in that moment, their relationship took a turn. More dinners, more drinks, and great conversations followed. Can you describe how it unfolded a little bit? You guys had a spreadsheet that you kept together? One of our first dinners we had, we were just taken back by how many things we had in common. We were both physical conservatives. We were both pro-life, loved red wine. She loved red wine. And, you know, it was just...

Those are things you can kind of find common with a lot of people. But there's something that's very, I think, distinctive about me and my friends would always rouse me about my distaste for bananas. And we were, I was actually at a convenience store

Which I didn't. She loved this convenience store. And I said, do you want me to pick you up anything from lunch? She said, just get me some fruit. I said, what kind? She said, I don't care anything but bananas. I freaking hate bananas. And I said, you've got to be kidding me. So it was eerily similar how we had so much in common. And we just kept it. We started a spreadsheet of things we had in common, things we didn't have in common. And there were very few things we didn't have in common. So it was kind of amazing to find out those things.

The main thing Mark and Meredith had in common, though, they're unhappy marriages. Mark confided in Meredith that Jenner had been depressed recently about not working. She seemed more like a roommate than a wife. They were having no sex. He felt like he was just going through the motions of a marriage. Meredith couldn't say, "'Me too,' fast enough."

Did she explain her relationship with her husband? Somewhere along the lines, she had said, you know, we've been married for nine years and faking it for the last three. They were, in her words, they were not happy and they were living on opposite sides of the house. And again, in her words, just kind of faking it for public. Was she intending to ask for a divorce at any point? I think she was looking for the right person.

There were, you know, she had run for office just a year prior and her husband was still a sitting city councilman. And I think they maybe were trying to work out the timing on that. Were both of your marriages kind of average or kind of stale and you were both ripe for some excitement? I guess, you know, I had been numbed to potentially how unhappy I was in my marriage and I

From the beginning, I just, this is the way it is. Life isn't always great. Marriages aren't always great. You suck it up and you go with it. And I think that is normally the case. But it wasn't until the stark contrast between who she was, Meredith was, and who Janair was and how they treated me was too much to ignore. I mean, I just felt so respected by Meredith. Often I would feel very disrespected by Janair. She was my worst critic.

And who, I'll learn the other person first, to I have feelings that are beyond work or friendship. You know, I would think that I tipped my hat first because I was confused by what was happening. I was constantly thinking of her. We had dinner a couple times after that and I didn't really understand what was happening. I thought maybe it was something happening that I wasn't sure what my intentions were.

And I finally just had to break the ice. And I said, I have a professional crush on you. I think that's what this must be. And she kind of laughed and there was a funny term to use. And she agreed that, um, she had the same feelings for me. We went to a restaurant and at one point our legs touched under the table and, you know, normally politely professionals wouldn't lock legs, but we, we touched and we didn't not, we didn't let go. Um,

I guess the energy and the message between that is what really told us that we had something more than professional for one another. When did you guys first get physical? You know, we shared a kiss. I would say it was about a month in. Yeah. Were you trying to resist that? Did you say anything to each other like we shouldn't do this? Not at the time. Again, I think it... I was surprised by it, but it happened and we stopped at that. Nothing else happened. Um...

That next day, actually the whole evening, I laid awake on the couch, just feeling awful about having to let that happen. And the next morning we had plans to go running and we were running and I was not being myself. I wasn't, I wasn't talking with her. And finally I just stopped it in my tracks and said, we can't do this. She said, we can't do what? I said, I can't do this. I can't, whatever this is, this got to stop, which was very upsetting to her. And I didn't

Mark and Meredith went their separate ways that morning. But a few minutes later, Meredith sent Mark a text. I feel like such a fool, she wrote. So rejected. Mark texted, please don't. Meredith didn't reply. And when they saw each other at work, she acted like a complete professional.

A few days went by. Mark couldn't stop thinking about Meredith. And despite the fact that Janair was coming to live with him again in a few weeks, Mark sent Meredith a text. He wanted to see her again. Meredith waited a few days to reply. And when she did, instead of telling Mark her answer, she left a coffee mug on his desk with the inscription, hashtag, so invite me.

But their reunion would have to wait because Mark got an urgent phone call from Jannere. One of their pets, Abby, a golden retriever, was dying of cancer. Mark immediately flew back to South Carolina. But even during this sad time, Mark kept talking about Meredith. It made Jannere so uneasy. She actually told him, "Don't fall in love with her." Mark insisted there was nothing to worry about. Abby died a few days later in the vet's office, cradled in Jannere's arms.

while Mark was back in Delaware in the arms of another woman. And coming up after this break, Janair is on her way to Delaware now to move in with Mark again, just as his relationship with Meredith is heating up. We'll be right back. When is the first time you guys told each other you loved each other? And when's the first time you had sex? They were actually the same day. We had been, I think, I know I was struggling with not telling her how I felt about

And we just happened to be waiting in line after a basketball game on campus in the car. And I finally, it was quiet and I finally just had to say it. And I said it out loud. And it was kind of a relief from her. And she returned. And she loved me as well. So that night was the first physical? Yeah. And how did you feel then after that?

I think we were confused. You know, this all happened so quickly, and we didn't expect it. And Janair was still in South Carolina, and she was coming, and there was a specific date she was coming. And the analogy we kept using, and I guess I started it, was we've got to figure out how to land this plane. Because I felt like we were both soaring. She needed to figure out what she wanted to do, and I figured out, I needed to figure out what I wanted to do. Were we both willing to

destroy our marriages for what might be nothing. And so we really just had to give it time. On December 17th of 2017, Mark flew back to South Carolina to help move Janair and their two remaining pets, Huck the dog and Gypsy the cat, up to Delaware. Janair wanted to drive the moving van, so Mark drove her car. He was relieved to be by himself. He wanted to talk to his friend Mike.

He called while he was driving from the Carolinas. He called to tell me that he had met someone. What did he say about Meredith? How did he describe her? He was intoxicated. He was, and oh, by the way, I think I've also fallen in love with her. I'm not sure if it was exactly that way, but it was kind of that. And he was super, super excited. He asked me what he should do, and I said, follow your heart.

Did he worry about what he was going to do to Jenair? He did worry. He worried a lot. About hurting her, Jenair? About hurting her, about her reaction. He cared. Now that Jenair had moved in, it was harder for Mark and Meredith to get together privately. They did manage to steal some kisses behind closed office doors and sneak in a few after-work dinners where they would talk about what it would be like to be together and not have to hide their feelings.

Mark was confident Junaire didn't have a clue about his secret life. We tried to settle in and do our normal routine. It was New Year's Eve, and we were in our apartment together, had ordered pizza, and it was getting late. And I don't know what energy I was putting off, but she said something. And she said, what is it? What's wrong with you? Something's different. What is it? What's going on? And I just kept saying, there's nothing wrong.

It's nothing. I'm not actually abnormal at all. And finally, she just said, just say it, you fucking pussy. And that was a phrase that she would use when she wanted to upset me. She would call me names. And because of that, I blurted out, I want out. I want my independence. And I couldn't believe I said it. It just kind of hung in the air. And she was floored. And I saw the look on her face. And I tried to put the genie back in the bottle. I tried to say I didn't mean it. Just...

I didn't mean it. Give me some time to think. And she immediately suspected Meredith. Did she say? She said, it's Meredith, isn't it? And I denied it. I said, no, absolutely not. It's not Meredith. This has nothing to do with her. Why would she think it was Meredith? Because she had... She knew I admired Meredith, professionally speaking. And I talked a lot about Meredith, how great she was. And I think no wife wants to hear that. And I think that was just a sign to her that there was more.

In his book, Mark describes his relationship with Jenner at this point as being like a game of cat and mouse. Jenner was a stealthy cat, he wrote, and he was hiding from her, like a timid but tricky mouse. It was not a marriage any longer, he said, but a performance.

While working out at the gym one day, Mark heard an Ed Sheeran song, and he paused to listen. He looked up the words. The song was called Dive. Mark emailed Meredith the lyrics. There's no other girl like you, so let me know the truth before I dive right into you. I was so fascinated by her abilities and she with mine that we just shared that respect for one another. And the energy from that, you know, we became really good friends, inseparable. And it wasn't about a physical relationship.

It really wasn't. And did you feel like you'd met the love of your life? Soulmate kind of love? I don't know that I buy into that. I was a bit, who was this person who had just completely knocked me off my rails? I had not had that experience. And really, I don't know that Shannara did that to me 28 years before. It was something about her that just knocked me down. And I just, I couldn't ignore it.

At home with Jenner, Mark continued acting like a good husband. In fact, a few weeks after their New Year's Eve fight, Mark joined Jenner for the second annual Women's March in Washington, D.C., the 20th of January of 2018. Who sees our streets?

It was a great day for Janair. Not only was Mark by her side, but later that evening, while they were watching the NBC nightly news, she saw herself in the footage. She was holding the sign she made. It read, Change the things you cannot accept. But after the fun weekend together, Janair noticed Mark seemed distracted again. She repeatedly accused him of cheating on her with Meredith, but Mark insisted he was not.

Here's Dr. Romani. She's yearning for transparency in the truth. It's not to say that she wouldn't have been despairing even upon hearing that truth, but to have your reality doubted and twisted and contorted as it was in her case. No, this didn't happen. And that qualifies as emotional abuse.

Jenner desperately wanted to hear what Mark and Meredith were saying to each other, so she purchased several tiny audio recorders and sewed them into Mark's clothes. She also hid some in his car, attaching them with Velcro underneath the dashboard.

I think the desire to get answers, I think we have to be very careful to never judge that because we want our realities confirmed, right? And this is why I say, though, things like gaslighting, denying someone else's reality is so cruel. Because when a person is almost cellularly certain that somebody is betraying their trust,

that they are going to feel like it literally becomes a single-minded pursuit to figure this out, sometimes for no other reason than to confirm their own reality. Stealing someone else's reality is honestly the cruelest thing you can do to them. This is one of the first recordings Janair taped in early February of 2018.

It's hard to understand what Mark and Meredith were talking about. Janair had sewn the recording device inside the lapel of Mark's jacket, which makes for a muffled recording. But Janair was able to hear noises, like these moaning sounds. Janair wanted to enhance the recordings in order to hear everything more clearly, so she contacted an audio expert she used to work with. She sent him an email. This is an actress reading it. Please keep this between you and me.

I am recording Mark with his new boss, trying to find out the truth. It's the only act of control I felt I have, and he is denying this affair to protect her reputation because of the conflict of her dating an employee. I need to catch them in the act. We were happily married in November before he left. We were excited about a fresh start. I am devastated and heartbroken.

Mark has been hugging me and being nice, but he still won't kiss me or be intimate even though I make the moves. He almost recoils. Please pray for me. I asked him if he met someone and he denied it. Please don't tell Mark I wrote to you. I want to level the playing field of this game they are playing with me. The audio technician replied quickly. There was no way he would help Janair with this. He wished her luck working things out with Mark.

On her own again, Jenner ordered better quality recording devices. She purchased an iPhone recovery stick. Soon, she would have access to all of Mark's emails, texts, photos, and deleted data. She also bought a GPS device and stuck it into the trunk of Mark's car.

On the real-time tracking app, she gave Mark's blue car icon a nickname, Liar Jerk. It's interesting. The level of surveillance a person might engage in is often correlated with how dysregulated their personalities are. The more dysregulated a person's personality, the more likely they're going to do the full court press in terms of tracking. You can even call it stalking in some cases.

Jenner was a great spy. On February 5th of 2018, she followed Mark to a work meeting in Philadelphia. Mark never saw her, but she saw him going in and out of meetings and then in the afternoon walking around with Meredith. He was way too close to his boss and looked way too happy as far as Jenner was concerned. And then when I got home, she came out and told me that she had followed me, followed us the entire day, and she knew everything that we did and everything that we said to one another.

And I was, I didn't understand how that was possible that she would hear what we were saying. And she said she had hired a detective who had a parabolic microphone who could listen to us whenever we

She told him to. He would stand outside of our building and at the office and on campus and listen to us and everything that we had to say. Even though Janier's parabolic mic story sounded fishy, Mark was on high alert now. Did you tell Meredith? I told Meredith. I absolutely told Meredith. She suspects things. She knows things. Somehow she knows something. And I told her about the microphone. And that certainly, I guess, freaked her out. But at the same time, she didn't believe it either. We just didn't understand. And so we would...

When we had something sensitive to talk about, we would go somewhere in the middle of campus where we suspected no one could hear us. And then Janair had another idea to figure out if Mark and Meredith were actually having an affair. It would be her most extreme investigative tactic yet. She reached into the laundry basket and pulled out Mark's underwear. She would actually send them off to a DNA lab to get tested for the presence of another female. And so the energy...

which Jenner was putting into the surveillance of her husband. Maybe one would argue Jenner had too much time on her hands. I think she would have done it if she had two or three jobs. I don't think it would have mattered because her truth, her sense of justice was being challenged. So in order to get the justice and the truth she so desperately wants, Jenner now starts planning to recruit someone else to help her, an unlikely accomplice. More on that on the other side of this break.

Jenner wanted help with her investigation. She knew exactly who the perfect co-conspirator could be, Meredith's husband, Luke Chapman. Jenner called Luke at his office. There was no answer. So she left this shocker of a message. Your wife is having an affair with my husband.

Later that night, while Meredith and Luke were on their way to an event, Luke asked Meredith about the strange voicemail he had received. Meredith's heart must have been racing. She told Luke it wasn't true while surreptitiously sending Mark this text. It said, she called him, told him we were having an affair. Can I call you and put you on speakerphone for him to hear?

Mark texted back, of course, and he pretended to be shocked when Meredith called. Mark immediately blamed Jenner and said she was just upset about him working so much. Luke seemed to accept the story. Mark and Meredith were relieved, believing they had averted a crisis. Since Jenner's phone call to Luke Chapman didn't get the reaction she hoped for, Jenner hatched two new strategies to expose Mark and Meredith.

First, Jenner sent a letter to their supervisor at the University of Delaware informing them of the illicit affair between boss and employee. Here's an excerpt. I want Meredith fired immediately on the morality clause and the HR liabilities. I would like to beat them at this game they're playing. I want to catch her off guard. I want to put a pin in her reputation bubble. Mark is attracted to her drive and success. I used to have this, you know. I still have it.

I want to give them something unexpected like they did to me. I am sorry for this overwhelming letter. I'm sorry to have had to send this letter to you at all. I'm sure it was very uncomfortable to read, and you are astounded at even receiving such a personal and torrid thing. I'm hoping this won't backfire on me. Thanks for reading it. Please, please, please don't tell Meredith or Mark that I did this or show them the letter.

The second move Jenner made was on Valentine's Day of 2018. Earlier that week, she had called Luke Chapman's office and, using a fake name, made an appointment for financial advice. When Jenner finally sat down across from Luke, she revealed who she really was. And then she played him the secretly recorded audio of Mark and Meredith. Luke wasn't convinced the tapes proved their spouses were actually having a love affair, but Jenner certainly had his attention now.

A few days later, Friday, February 16th, Jenner sent Luke this follow-up email on how they could work together to catch the cheaters in action. Mark is very romantic and loves chick flicks and romantic movies and songs. He downloaded a bunch of songs from those romantic movies on iTunes for her birthday. He also probably gave her a card for Valentine's Day. You could look for those. The birthday stuff is probably in her office.

Her personality is a lot like me, only 25 years ago. Although I think I was more assertive and certainly more kind. I want to help people, not hurt them, so I'm not selfish like her. Mark is turning 50 in October and having a midlife crisis, obviously. When he got here, he became obsessed with working out, which he did about once a week before and ran. Now he works out every other day, if not daily, to keep up with Meredith.

He sends selfies of his progress now and then so she can compliment him. Wonder what she's going to think of his older man stuff, like his hair growing out of his ears and nose. Luke didn't reply to Jadare's email, so she sent him another email. Grab her underwear from today. I'll go have it tested with Marks. Hurry, before she gets rid of evidence. He immediately changed when he got back from work and his underwear was stained with something that should not be there during the work hours.

Luke was still not responding to Janair, and later that night, her pent-up emotions finally erupted. It was Valentine's Day week. I think Valentine's Day may have been on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and on Friday, Janair had made plans for us to have dinner together. And I think her idea was for us, she was going to confront me in front of a restaurant, but the table was very close. It was a very intimate restaurant, not a place to do it. So I think she was

chomping at the bit all the way home. And when we walked in the front door, she said, I know everything. I have recordings of you. I sent away your clothes for DNA. I, most damningly, she said, I met with Meredith's husband and told him everything. I had him listen to the recordings as well. And I knew at that time I couldn't lie anymore. And I guess maybe even more damning than that is that she told me she cloned my phone.

And everything that was ever said, every photo that was ever taken, she would soon have in her hands. She hadn't had that yet, but she had already sent it away to be cloned. And that's when I knew I needed to come clean. And I told her emphatically, I'm in love with Meredith. And how did that feel when you said that, when you were able to? I felt bad for saying it. I felt awful for having to say that. I know that must have pierced her heart, but...

At some level, I also felt liberating to come clean about it. I was tired of lying, and it was good to actually say it out loud. Jenner was devastated, but she also felt vindicated. She'd been right all along. And now she had a lot of questions for Mark. Most importantly, she wanted to know about Mark and Meredith's sex life. When and where had they done it? Did he use a condom? Mark refused to answer.

Janair and Mark talked and argued late into the night. Finally, nearing exhaustion, they made a plan. They would go to couples therapy to figure out what to do next. Janair never did admit to Mark that she had planted recording devices on him. He was still working with the detective parabolic mic story. The next morning, Saturday, the first thing Mark did, he texted Merida to let her know Janair told Luke about their affair and that she had hired somebody to spy on them.

Meredith wrote back, OK, interesting. Talk later. The first thing Jenner did that Saturday morning was email Luke Chapman. He still won't tell me the truth about any of the intimacy. He's protecting her reputation as his boss. He denies even kissing her.

Mark and I agreed yesterday to proceed with marriage counseling. I asked him to cool it and stop all personal activities with Meredith until we could put a best faith effort into that reconciliation. He promised that their involvement would be professional, work-related only. It would be really helpful to have a GPS on her car. I have one you can put under her hood. Let me know what you want to do about that.

Luke replied he was not going to help Janair, and he warned her not to get in trouble over Mark and Meredith's stupidity. That afternoon, Janair posted this on the online app Nextdoor. Please recommend an excellent marriage counselor for a couple on the brink of divorce. We will need someone experienced in dealing with issues including infidelity, depression, being accountable for actions, etc.,

Someone with a good track record of helping couples communicate better.

to rebuild the relationship or even come to clarity about its probability of success. Here's Dr. Romney. What is so telling is that Jenner would go onto an inappropriate platform like Nextdoor, which is really airing your dirty laundry for the neighbors, speaking about some of the dark underbelly of a marriage that's falling apart. It feels like there's multiple dynamics being played out.

At the more dark level are things like public shaming of her spouse. But at the other side are things like a call for help. This is very much a cry for help. When you go to a public forum that is inappropriate to seek out in some ways, this is less about asking for a counselor and a divorce attorney. This feels like a very unskilled attempt at seeking out empathy.

At work on Monday, Meredith told Mark that her husband, Luke, hadn't said a word to her about any of this, but he also hadn't been around much during the weekend. Meredith was nervous, on edge. And the day got exponentially worse, because Mark and Meredith found out they would no longer be working together. Janair's letter had triggered an official HR investigation. Their jobs were now in jeopardy. Mark and Meredith still didn't realize that Janair herself was recording them constantly.

And now that Janair had better quality recording devices, she was able to hear as Meredith's world started falling apart. Why the hell did I care so much about this damn place? Turn right onto Delaware 48 West, Lancaster Pike. It's all wrong, and I just... I just... I... Yeah.

I feel like you and I were the two, like, most kick-ass people in that place. You and I could have done so much good together. We could have. We were the best fucking combination for it. And having to break the two of us up, it's just all of it, like, it makes me so... We're going to do something together later. We just don't know yet. We are. I know.

Four days after telling Jenner he was in love with Meredith, Mark and Jenner walked into their first therapy session.

♪♪

This family counselor basically took my husband's side and told him true love is hard to find and he should pursue this relationship further to see if it really is. When I basically said, what the hell? He told me I was a smart, beautiful gal who would be okay and to move on with my life. I think it's unconscionable for the therapist to compare that relationship to true love. What BS? Be a grown up and call it for what it is. Anyway, do you want him to stay?

Why wait around for him to decide what he wants? Decide what you want. Well, yes, this is my problem. I can't accept all this and let him go. 24 years of marriage where that man and our life was my purpose.

He obviously does not love me, want me, or find me attractive in any way anymore. It's gross. She looks 15 years old and he's turning 50 this year. He's got his little porno dream girl. But I can't accept it. I can't turn it off. I can't visualize a life without him. My life is over, really. Your life is not over. You just need your mindset to match that reality so you can rebuild. You can do it.

Mark and Janair's second therapy session, a week later, was also full of drama because right before that appointment, Mark put on his jacket, adjusted the lapels, and felt a little lump. Thinking it might be an anti-theft device, he cut a hole in the seam and out slipped a tiny audio recorder with a blinking green light. Now it all finally made sense to Mark how Janair knew so much.

Mark's first reaction was to call Meredith to report that it was Janair who had been secretly recording them. Meredith was furious. Mark told her they would talk later because he was about to walk into the therapy session. And when he did, Janair tried to diffuse Mark's anger with the logic that she had to record him because Mark kept lying to her.

After a long and grueling emotional session, Mark and Janair came to this conclusion. She would stop recording him and he would stop seeing Meredith outside of work in order to truly focus on their marriage. As soon as the therapy session was over, Janair emailed Luke Chapman again. Well, they finally discovered my recording device in Mark's coat. And the ironic thing was Meredith was extremely upset about it.

Well, I'm extremely upset with her stealing my husband and breaking up our marriage. Mark was, by way of Meredith, threatening me with arrest for using recorders. It is a felony. He kept saying, I'm worried for you. Right. Sure you are, asshole. I'm really at a loss and now back to not having any control myself. The not knowing is what is killing me.

I'm going to have to stop any further investigation and just start taking the steps for my future now. I'm not sure what your plans are. Luke Chapman did have a plan. He told his wife, Meredith, he was divorcing her immediately. In fact, he would be expediting the paperwork. The Chapman marriage was done.

How did that affect Meredith when he did that? Was she like... She was very upset. Very upset at Janair for doing that, but also very upset that she hurt her husband. And he had to find out that way. Did she have a plan to tell him somehow or something? I don't think either one of us had a plan how this was all going to play out. Like I said, we were just trying to figure out if this is what we wanted to do. If we weren't sure, we were going to go forward completely. And then Janair...

exposed it and told everyone and it was too late to undo anything so in their next and final therapy session mark still refused to tell janeer if he'd had sex with meredith so janeer figured if he wouldn't tell her she would start secretly recording again but this time she wasn't just capturing what mark and meredith were saying she also started recording her own conversations with mark

We can't move forward with our lives. I can't get closure, regardless if I'm with you or not, until I know the whole truth. It's obviously bad because you don't want to tell me. Because if you just made out a couple times, it wouldn't be that. You tell me that. I'm going to tell you anything. Tell me the truth. Because you want to protect her until her dying day.

You're protecting her to the grave even now. 48 days you were alone with her, building a huge relationship. And you can't tell me that that passion of, I mean, people who go through those affairs, they fuck on the second night.

They fuck on the second night. No, absolutely not. How many times? I assume the worst as much as you want to. No, see, that's just it. Details. It's not all the details. I just want to know, did you, did you have sex early on and have, did you have sex at a hotel? I want to know the truth. No. Mark. Oh my God.

Someday you will. I don't want someday. I need to start this process now. There's no purpose to talk in detail about this. I will not do that. Why? I need it. I need it to move on. I need it to make decisions. And I need to understand how far this is. Giving you information, more information than you have, serves no purpose for me or for you. Why won't you tell me the truth about this? You have a recording device on you all times.

In this car, on you, you are not trustworthy. I am not recording you. Listen. You promised me a boot camp. You would never hurt me again.

I thought we were in a good place after that and thought we could get through anything. And this was really devastating to me, Mark. It's just despair. I do want to die. And it's awful. And in order for me to come to conclusions about our relationship, if there's a future, in order for me to even, if it's good, it's good. If it's bad, it's bad. I have to go through the grieving process. And that takes certain steps forward.

It's grieving, it's anger, it's acceptance, and it's forgiveness. And I can't do any of those things unless I understand the whole of it. This is for me. You're just going to have to wait. This is for me. Wait till when? Because she's safe. I don't care about that. I want to know for my personal health. You want to hurt her. I don't want to hurt her. I wanted to level the playing field. That's all I wanted to do.

There's two things I want from you. I want truth about the relationship in Tennessee, and I want truth about the plan. And if there's no plan, then I want the truth about your individual plan. Sit here and tell me right now you have no intention of rectifying our marriage or working on it at all. You have no interest in going to counseling, and you do want a divorce. If that is how you truly feel. I don't know. I've got to sort this out in my head.

Anyone who's ever done couples therapy, we know one of our hardest jobs is discerning whether both people on that couch are really invested in saving the marriage. And the most gifted couples therapists are really able to suss out, like, one of these people's trying to dismantle this and the other one's trying to hold on. And the quicker the shrink calls that one out and says, like, listen, you guys want two different things. One of you is trying to build a house, the other one's trying to build a boat. Like, this is not going to work. I want...

with your whole heart and soul? If I did, we would be done with this. I'm telling you the truth that I'm struggling with this. And I don't want to give you false hope, but I also don't want to necessarily shut the door because... For us or for her? Yeah, us. Answer my question.

You are in my heart.

It's not going away. And us being never connected again, you want to play that card that we'll never talk again, and we're just going to be enemies from here on out. It sucks. But... It breaks my heart just... I know. I get it. I get it. I totally get it. But you didn't say you wanted me. I don't know. See, that's really very telling. That just answers your question. You want her, and you don't even know if you want me.

Not only was Jenner frustrated with Mark, but she was also now starting to worry about what would happen to her if he actually divorced her. Mark was her only source of income. Jenner had an epiphany and sent Mark this email. He should accuse Meredith, his boss, of sexual harassment. Saving your job is the biggest priority. You need to respond to the university that you felt coerced in order to save your job.

She's still young and in the prime of her life, and she can easily recover from this little bump in the road. This is not a little bump in the road for us. You need to express in some way that she's a strong and impressive woman, certainly a force majeure. You do not want to let Meredith down. Throwing her under the bus will never get back to her unless you tell her. Your health and happiness are important to me, Mark, because...

Mark was incredulous. He refused to accuse Meredith of misconduct. They had both been willing participants in the affair.

Mark's defending of Meredith stoked Janair's anger even more. She was spinning out of control and kept demanding over and over that Mark, at the very least, come clean about the details of his sex life with Meredith. Finally, Mark gave in, sort of. He told her, yes, he and Meredith did have sex, but only a few times. And, yes, he had used a condom. But he still refused to give Janair details about how often, when, and where.

Then Mark reminded Janair that outside of work, he was no longer seeing Meredith and they certainly weren't having sex. Janair didn't believe him. In fact, she thought Mark had probably been with Meredith on this very day. Please understand, I'm not trying to interrogate you. This didn't happen. But if it did, you said you went to her house and fucked her today. You just said that happened today. Now what do you do? What's the information? What are you going to do with that?

Okay, so that's what you say, but I want the truth.

Janair could hardly wait to tell Luke Chapman what she'd found out. They have had sex, she emailed him. And she warned Luke to check his health because Mark most likely had been lying about having worn a condom. Luke wrote back a short email. He wasn't worried about his health. He and Meredith hadn't had any sexual contact for more than a year. He couldn't understand why Janair didn't end her marriage and kick Mark out, divorce him. Janair wrote back to Luke.

I'm going to take this marriage out as long as possible until I can get on my feet and take care of myself. So I don't want a divorce logistically yet. I still love him and am heartbroken, but this betrayal is not like a sex thing or a one night stand that I can possibly forgive and treat like a mistake and stay married. He loves her completely and has none left for me. I really don't see how I can compete with that on any level or fix my marriage.

Even if he caved over guilt, he would be miserable and pine for her and resent me the whole time. It would be a loveless marriage of convenience with no emotion, connection. I need to drag this out for my survival for now and custody battle over our dog.

Everything I am today, everything I enjoy in life started and stopped with him.

This was supposed to be a fresh start for us. I was so looking forward to a new job and a new market. It's what I want, to build a new life, explore, make new friends, be healthy, finally find myself and some joy. Meredith took all that away from me. And if Janair couldn't make Mark love her and only her again, well, Janair began dreaming of revenge. If I had a gun, I would kill her.

Thanks for listening. Coming up next, Mark's continued indecision drives Janair deeper into despair, and one night she'll record herself as she contemplates jumping off a seven-story building. She also does something else that night that's never been shared publicly before. That's all coming up in episode four.