S12 E3: I'm Being Followed
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And then eventually I was like, am I going to get vetted in? And he was like, well, they've been vetting you in since the beginning. They've done background checks on you and everybody in your life to make sure everything's fine. And I was like, well, but like, are they going to talk to me or anything? Shouldn't I be talking to someone? I don't know. There'd be some kind of meeting. And he's like, not really. You're not fully involved like that. No one's after you. And I was like, I feel good.

feel kind of involved. He would have like a weekly debriefing with them. And he's like, I can talk to them in the next debrief and see if we can have an agent reach out to you so that you feel better. And I was like, I would really like that. So he did that. And I had an agent. His name was Ward or his alias was Ward. Ward, he was my guy and he was like an older guy. And if there were things I needed to know, he would let me know. I remember there was one time my sister was flying an

And her flight was, I guess, like moving really fast, like caught like a wind. It was like an hour and a half early. And Joe at the time couldn't reply to my messages. And Ward was like, hey, I'm going to reply. We've been tracking your sister's flight. It's going to land about an hour early, which is super unexpected. And I was like, oh, OK, thank you. At the time I was hiking. It was a weird like I didn't expect this text message. And Ward was like, he was called me, Miss. Hey, Miss. We

we've been tracking your sister's flight. She's running an hour early. I know you're out right now. You should probably head home. And I was like, oh my God, thank you. And I remember my sister landed and she was like, oh my God, you're probably not even at the airport yet. Our flight was an hour early. Can you believe it? And I was like, actually, we have a car waiting for you there. And she was like, how did you know? And I was like, oh, eyes in the sky.

Joking with her. I would be out and then I would come home and as soon as I'd pull in my driveway, I would get like a text from Ward or Joe being like, hey, I see your home. Or like, oh, you're back. Or like, you know, things like that where I was like, how the hell did you know that? Right?

I checked my car for trackers. I checked my house for bugs. I'm not going to find them realistically. I'm not smarter than them. But I still tried to figure out how everybody always knew where I was. And we would be out and about and there would be cars following us, sometimes obviously, sometimes not obviously. And he would point things out like there's one of my guys down there and there'd be just like a guy sitting in his car hanging out. It taught me to pay attention to license plates and stuff a lot more.

And I started to notice patterns of ones that would follow me to work and stuff. I just learned to do it. But what I was being told is that they were keeping an eye on me and that everybody was keeping me safe. Maybe that was like comforting in a time of a pandemic. Very surreal. Very surreal. Did you talk to Agent Ward on the phone or was all your communication over text or how did that work?

I never picked up the phone and tried to call him, and he never called me. He would send texts, and I was just fine with that. I definitely did continue to push to meet one of them in person. During all of this really bad stuff, there was an underlying good thing that went on, which was that he was selling a show that he was working on, and it sold, and that was really exciting. This was like a super big highlight for our relationship. He was working directly with Sony,

And he told me that he had done a lot of work with them before and that he got the opportunity to sort of pitch this show to them and they liked it. And he got to fly out to L.A. and shop this show around. And now at this point, we're in probably end of summer.

I would say we've been together seven months and there's been a lot of chaos. This was that breath of fresh air. Like things are looking up. Things are looking good. This is awesome. He went and shopped his show around and he was showing me that he was at the Netflix offices and going out to dinner with these people and so excited about this.

It got picked up, which was amazing. And his show was called Emerita. When he told me the premise of the show, I was like, this reminds me a bit of your life. I feel like you pulled from what you know. But it was a guy who witnesses a shooting and the guy's a doctor. He goes and takes care of the people that got shot and fixes them up and saves their lives. It sort of had like an Ozark meets The Sopranos vibe to it.

I liked it. I was like, that sounds like a great idea. He told me all the characters' names. He told me the actors that were in it. He didn't have them all picked out. Setting up for the show was a whole nine-month thing on its own of him having to go do interviews and readings and finding his crew and everything. I mean, it's very involved.

I work in film. So everything he was saying, yes, that is all things that need to be done. Totally get it. And he had eventually shown me things that he had been on and worked on in the past of shows and stuff he was involved in. And I was like, oh my God, this is really cool. I was very, very proud of him when this came through.

When we first started dating and he was saying, you know, he works in film and whatnot, we were hanging out one time on the couch and he was like, oh, I worked on this movie. And I was like, oh, you did? And he was like, yeah, I'm in the background here. And we fast forwarded and there he was very blatantly in the movie. And I was like, oh, and he was like, yeah, yeah. I was sometimes every once in a while I would stand in and have some fun with it, play around.

There he was. And it just randomly seven o'clock on like a Wednesday. There he was. And I was like, okay, well then you are, you are telling the truth.

what's the name of your show? He had something. You know, who's the actor? He had something. How was your day? He could somehow like kind of tie it back. And it was all so reasonable. It's not like he was bragging about it. You really had to go out of your way to ask. It's kind of curious too, like what was the marketing plan for the show? I had worked with a lot of agencies and I just kind of was curious, like in this world,

How engaged are you? What's the PR plan? How do you pull together those campaigns? Do you have any visibility to like the poster, the creative, kind of that aspect. And I remember he looked at me like, well, I don't care. I don't, that's not my job. My job is to get the show produced. He responded very rudely about it. So,

So I was like, all right, well, I won't push on that. He always had something. And he always reacted in a way to kind of cut off communication. I think he was slowly manipulating all of us, definitely. Like he knew our soft spots as like a friend group. He could touch on them. He knew how to interact with you and manipulate how you felt emotionally.

With his show, he was like so kind and humble about it. He was always saying how his co-workers were just amazing, that he's really not that talented. It's them who got him to where he was and he just got lucky and he doesn't deserve it. And when Christmas rolled around, they were shooting the pilot and he was like, I'm going to give my paycheck to

my crew. I'm just going to divvy it up and give it to my crew and give it to them as a surprise gift because it's been COVID and people are stressed out and it's Christmas. I just want to do good. And that was something he did. He liked to go donate to charities and things like that. I had gone with him.

Sometimes in the morning, we would go around to the charity fridges like that are set up in the city and we would go to Walmart or something and do a giant purchase. And he would fill up all the fridges around the city. That was something he did a lot. He was always giving me things. He was just so kind and so giving and so thoughtful in that way.

Joe shared with Kenzie that one of the producers he was working with on his show was Ryan Murphy, an American television writer, director, and producer best known for creating Popular, Nip Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story, Scream Queens, American Crime Story, and many other successful shows.

He was like, he's coming working on this pilot on the show that I'm working on that we're building. And it's really exciting. We hit it off really well and yada yada. So he would have, quote, Ryan Murphy send messages on my birthday and stuff to his phone and then show them to me. And then we would have a back and forth between me and Ryan Murphy or like sometimes some of the other actors. I've worked in television my whole life. I'm not starstruck. I'm like, oh, cool. That's great. Like, sweet.

If Ryan Murphy ever hears this, thank you for wishing me a happy birthday. There was one memory where we're watching prom and I'm dancing in front of the TV because I'm loving this movie so much. I watched it so many times. It's such eye candy. And so he films me dancing in front of the TV to prom, super happy and excited, and then sent it to Ryan Murphy being like, she's your biggest fan. And then he's like, Ryan said he's super happy that you're such a big fan and that really means a lot and shows me those messages.

Fall of 2020, the trial for the shooting Joe had witnessed began. This was the first step in their journey of being phased out of the program. Finally, it was like time for all of this to come to an end. The year was coming to an end. Court was happening. Court was stressful. I would say that was the most stressful time of our relationship. We didn't really fight, but when we would fight, we would always communicate and resolve. We were good at fighting. I don't know how else to explain it but that.

But when court came around, we were both really stressed out. And restrictions from WITPRO got tighter and tighter because he was like, the guy who's after me, we're coming down to the wire here. And me being a witness in court, he wants to get rid of me. There was other witnesses too, two others as well. He's like, they have to have tighter security for a little bit because this guy's going to go to any length to get rid of us because he does not want us to testify. ♪

There was two very scary moments that happened that I said, no, I don't like this. He told me. He was at court, but the

The case hadn't started yet, but I think he had to meet with the judge beforehand. Two goons showed up to court outside of the court and tried to harm him. Basically, the WIPRO guy picked him up by the waist and ran him inside. And there was fighting that happened. The fact that they came to the courthouse, I was like, that's really scary. It's scary. The second thing that happened to me, I live in a very safe neighborhood. I do walks at night all the time because I've never felt threatened.

And I was out walking and this white van drove by me. And I was like, that's weird. And I didn't really think too much of it. The van circled back again. And I was like, it's the same van. And I did notice that. And, you know, I'm at the point where I'm paying attention to license plates and stuff. Okay.

okay, that's a little weird. I'm going to like turn my headphones off and kind of see like what's going on with this van. I have a usual route that I go and I noticed that van was going that route. It was a four-way stop. And so instead of going straight, I decided to go left. The van went straight and I went left. And then the van like skirted to a stop and it did a U-turn and it started to come back my way. And I was like, I'm being followed.

This is freaking me out now. I start running and I'm running and this van is chasing me. I veer off into a neighbor's backyard and the van passes me and the van goes up about three houses and stops and it waits. It just sits there. This is not my house and this is not my street. I need to still get home. I'm like, oh my God, I am panicking right now.

I kind of peek my head out. I see the van. I see a neighbor across the way who's on their porch, who's seeing the whole thing happen. And he's like looking at me. Okay, cool. I might have a witness here. I'm like, I got to get home. I called Joe. He picked up and he was, it's late at night. And he was like, what's going on? And I was like, I have a van following me. It's freaking me out. And I bust out of the bushes and I stay towards the bushes and trees towards the edge of the road that are making a lot of shadows. So I'm going to stay in the shadows and see if I can round about my way back to my house.

I do this and I'm like, please stay on the phone with me. And he was like, absolutely. I just want to know that you're safe. And I was like, okay. This van starts circling the neighborhood. I mean, this van is absolutely looking for me. There is no doubt in my mind that this van is looking for me. And it scared the shit out of me. I made it back to my house and Joe was like, I'm going to tell the feds we'll have somebody sitting outside of your house for the rest of the week.

I'm so sorry this is happening. And I'm like, yeah, this is a lot. You deal with court and this high security stuff on your own. I can't do this. I was like, this is too much. I want to...

step back a little bit after everything that's happened, COVID, your mom, this whole thing. I think that we should not be chatting while you go through this court process, especially because everything's so restricted. He couldn't come and see me. He couldn't come and talk to me as much as we were used to, which was stressing me out even more. Things were apparently really dangerous. I was like, for

Like, for the month of you dealing with this, I'm just going to separate myself. And he was like, I totally understand. I don't blame you. He was super nice about it. And he was like, we'll get through this. We'll come out on the other side. And then I'll get to start weaning out of WITPRO. It's a weaning process. You're not just like, I'm done. Woo! He was like, I think this is a good idea. I think this will be the best thing for our relationship. I'll get through this and then tell you about it on the other side. And I was like, okay, good.

Scared the crap out of me. She would be on the phone with me when she was on those walks and she'd be like, hold on, I gotta like duck around this corner because I actually think I'm being followed. Or she would see cars like sitting outside of her house. I didn't know what the whole like trial was centered around. She never really discussed that with me, like whether it was like a terrorist group or a gang or whatever.

I was just kind of left to guess about that. But I thought to myself, any of those things are scary. So if she's out with him in public and somebody recognizes her or if like she ends up marrying this guy and they find out that she's this new guy's spouse, like it. Yeah, I had like visions of her like getting kidnapped or shot or whatever.

Yeah, absolutely. It was scary. Do you really want to be married to a guy who's looking over his shoulder every single day of his life? You guys are going to end up having a kid together and then your kid is going to end up living that life where you're always in fear that they're going to be, you know, whatever, possibly kidnapped at school or something or have some kind of threat. Even if you're out of witness protection, you're still a target. If there's people out there looking for you, they're always going to be looking for you. I was definitely scared for her.

My friend Charlotte decided to set up a bonfire since everybody was back for a little bit. And I was like, I'm going to tell everybody face to face what's going on because I want them to know everything. Despite me telling him I'm never going to tell anybody, it just felt safe and smart to communicate to the people in my life and tell them what was going on, especially after that weird van thing and him going through court and things getting a little bit scary. I'm going to tell everybody. So I did. I told everyone. And unfortunately,

Again, all sorts of different inputs and opinions. I have great friends. No one ever said anything negative. Everyone's like, we're here to support you. One of them works in the news and is like, I hear about stuff like this all the time and I actually don't think it's that far-fetched. Another one was on a juror for a murder trial herself. So she had a lot of input that was weird.

really, really aligning with the things that he was telling me. And I was like, okay, that's interesting. And so everyone was like, yeah, these things happen. Is he good to you? Are you happy? Aside from this awful thing that is surrounding you, what's the relationship like? I was like, the relationship is great. So they're like, that's what matters. And I was like, I agree with you. And I felt that way myself, which is why I was still there. We always said that to each other.

Our outside factors are nuts. But when we're together, everything's so good. Sometimes life is bad. And if you can like weather it together, you just make a stronger relationship out of it. I guess I just accepted it really at face value. I didn't really question it. It seemed like he would lie about that.

There are so many things that can happen to you and to anybody in life. And I feel like just because I have an experience, that doesn't mean it's invalid. This is strange, but okay. I trust Kenzie to do that due diligence. If you've checked it out and you've asked those questions, you've kind of asked for that proof. Like, okay, I guess we just have to roll with it. So we get through all that and he spends Christmas with me and my family. It's wonderful. My sister finally gets to meet him.

We were all happy to be around one another anyway because it was the holidays, but he was great. My sister had been with him for a year. Did you think he was the one for your sister? There were so many unanswered questions for me that I felt like I wanted to feel that way, but I couldn't. Maybe in the beginning when she was really wrapped up in him, but the more time that went by that things just weren't kind of like lining up for me, the less comfortable I felt about her spending the rest of her life with him.

I mean, they were talking about having babies and buying houses and all that fun stuff. But I just felt like he made her a lot of promises that he didn't follow through on. So I wanted him to be, but at the same time knew like in my heart of hearts that he wasn't.

If you're the one for him, he wants you to know his daughter. So the fact that over a year had gone by, a year and a half, and she still hadn't met Ruth, how could he be the one or how could she be the one for him if that didn't even happen yet? How could they even figure that out? It was like this big piece of it that still was missing.

While Kenzie's sister and friends may have had hesitations about her relationship with Joe, she was starting to feel like things in their life and relationship were calming down a bit. The trial Joe was testifying at concluded, 2020 was finally over, and the couple was ready to start planning for their future together.

We go into the new year and we're like feeling good. Life is good. Our relationship is good. We're ready to start taking our next steps. We're talking about moving in together. Maybe we can buy a place. He hasn't been settled because he's been a WIT pro, but now that he's leaving WIT pro, he can actually buy a house. We can get a place together. This is super exciting.

we're touring these beautiful $2 million homes and he like has a car service set up and champagne and we're making weekends out of it and we're looking at places online and we're like, oh yeah, like the dream is starting to unfold for me. And I'm like, okay, like this is great. Life is

We're wining and dining and going out and...

And now the only thing was that we're talking about moving in together, but I have yet to meet his daughter. I have sent her Easter baskets and Christmas gifts and heard her mom on the phone and seen plenty of pictures, but I haven't met her yet. And I feel like it's weird for us to move forward moving in together if I have yet to meet his daughter.

What if we don't get along? What if there's tension between the three of us? I think that's a big puzzle piece that we need to address. And I say that to him. And he was like, I agree with you. Like, yeah, we do need to figure that out. But still, as we continue to like set up meetings with Ruth, he would push them off. Something would come up or Ruth's mom would cancel for whatever reason. And I'm starting to get really frustrated with it.

We had this weird moment in the spring, which totally threw me off, where he came home and he had a total meltdown, like a complete freakout. I was like, I don't even know who this person is. He was like laying on the floor crying, saying how he is not happy with his life. He doesn't know what to do. He isn't ready for me to meet Ruth. He isn't ready to take these next steps with me. He's losing his mind in front of me. I mean, he is absolutely losing it.

And it was so out of left field that I remember being completely shell-shocked as I'm watching this grown man, snot running down his nose, crying, laying on the ground. And I'm like, this is all coming from me wanting to meet Ruth? And he's like, it's just been a lot. Like, I'm coming out of this witness protection. We had COVID last year. I lost my mother. Like, it's all just a lot. I'm losing it. I'm melting down. Yeah.

He's like, I'm questioning everything in my life. I don't even know if I want to do this show anymore. I think I'm going to quit. And I was like, are you crazy? Like your show's going great right now. I don't know why you would want to leave such a great opportunity. Me meeting Ruth is not a big deal. It's going to have to happen eventually. I understand your trepidation, but you're freaking out over nothing. He was like making no sense this day. Like this was not the person that I was dating. He was like, what if Ruth and I just break up?

run off to LA and live alone and never see anybody. And I was like, what? That doesn't even make any sense at all. And I was like, and also her mom would never let that happen. And he was like, well, maybe her mom's been a parent long enough and doesn't want to be her parent anymore. And I was like, that's not how moms work. It doesn't make any sense.

And finally, I got him to calm down. It took like, I think I actually took a day off of work from this. We started this process on Sunday when he started freaking out. I took a Monday off of work because he was losing his mind. And I was talking this man off of a ledge of like, I'm going to go quit my job. I'm going to leave you. I'm going to run away with my daughter. And I was like, who even are you right now? I was like, I don't understand. Like, what is this all about?

After talking about it through two days, the long of the short of it was that it was trauma from everything. And he's not used to being in a committed relationship. And we needed to work through it. And that maybe we don't go buy property right now. Maybe what we do is, and this was my solution to him. I was like, okay, look.

We've toured homes and stuff. Maybe we don't buy a home, but also I don't want to move in with you. I don't want to buy a home with you unless I've met your daughter. So why don't you move in here?

And we get some solid normal life outside of the program and everything just every day together. And we can make the upstairs room Ruth's room. And we can start to have her here on the weekends and start to do it that way. If this doesn't work out, we can separate and go our own ways. We don't have like our names on a mortgage or something. Yeah.

I wanted to be smart about this whole thing. He liked that idea. He was like, I think that that might be what we need to do. And I was like, okay, cool. Let's plan for that then. We'll get you moved in. We'll set up Ruth's room and then we'll bring Ruth into the picture and we'll get you used to normal life a little bit more. You obviously have some issues. I also think you should see a therapist. And he was like, I agree. So we started seeing a therapist and we'll work through this. It'll be fine.

It's always just so crazy to me how these life things happen and you're like, oh my God, this thing happened for a reason. And this is absolutely the thing I needed to hear at the exact time. And I had one of those moments and it was at a time where Joe and I were a little rocky. I was working on a project at the time and I

The people I was working with, I had gone into the office that day and everyone decided to go out to lunch except for me. One other girl stayed behind and her and I were chatting naturally. And during our time together on this project that we were working on, she had mentioned in passing the event, something that had happened to her in her past, this event that had really affected her. She was pretty private about it. We're sitting there eating lunch.

And she goes,

Well, about four years ago, I was out and about in the city. It was a holiday and people were celebrating. And I was out at a restaurant with my boyfriend at the time. And apparently what was going on down the street was a big gang shooting that had started.

And this gang shooting led into a car chase and the cops are chasing these gang members and there's a shootout. I mean, some movie stuff. The car ends at the area right in front of the restaurant that she's staying. And as the car rounds the corner to the restaurant that her and her boyfriend are at, the driver gets shot in the head by a cop.

And the car crashes into a pole. The other gang member who was standing outside of the sunroof gets severed at their waist. And the top half of their body lands in front of my coworker. And she did what we would all do, which is screamed her head off.

Cops showed up. This was involved with gangs. This was scary. This was dangerous. And she's telling me this story. And I am just thinking about Joe. And I'm thinking about, holy crap, he witnessed something also at a restaurant. She's telling me all this information. And she was like, yeah, like the court case just ended a couple of months ago. That was exactly the same month his court case ended. And I'm thinking, is this the same? Is this the same event? No.

Now, it wasn't the same event. I got some more details, very specific details about it. But as she's telling me this, I'm about to vomit. I'm getting hot inside. I'm like sweating. And I was like, oh my God. And I want to tell her about Joe. But at the same time, I don't know what I'm allowed to say. I don't know if I'm going to get in trouble. I'm tearing up. I'm tearing up from the story too, because this is awful. But...

I was like, I'm just going to step out for a second. So I leave to call Joe because I had to tell him this. And I asked him if I could tell her about our story because obviously we're all in this same boat right now. And I really wanted to connect. He was like, absolutely, absolutely. And he gets emotional on the phone with me. And he's like, I cannot believe this happened. He's like, this is amazing.

this is fate. This is fate right here. What are the odds that you just happened to be working on a project and happened to meet this person, this person who I've been sitting next to every day for like a couple months, maybe at this point, having no idea what she's going through, no idea she's going through a similar kind of thing that I'm going through, that he's going through. And so he says to me on the phone, there's a lot of us out there.

And we're not allowed to talk about it. But this is exactly what I've been telling you, that this is more common than you think. Things like this happen in big cities. There's a lot of us out there. And I'm just so excited that you can have somebody to talk to about this. It's really important to me that you can have an outlet and somebody you can express to about things. And I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. I go back downstairs and I go, I want to tell you something. I sit with her and I tell her everything.

Here's what Joe witnessed. Here's what we're going through. And she was like, oh my God. So she's emotional. I'm emotional. She's the one who witnessed things and he's the one who witnessed things. So she's comparing what her partner does for her. And I'm saying things I do for Joe. And we're like, this is just...

such serendipity. She's also getting upset because she's saying how she can never really find the right people to talk to, the right therapist, because this is such a rare and unique situation. Like, who do you talk to about it? People don't really understand. She found the most comfort talking to other cops and detectives and things, people who are involved in these kinds of situations every day, than she did from talking to therapists or friends or whatnot, because she was like, they don't understand and it's not their fault. This is serendipity.

is such a rare situation. So this was really exciting. I was like, you need to come over. We all need to hang out. We all need to meet up. And so she did. She came over with her partner and we all talked and Joe and her sat there and cried as they went over the details of the things that they've been experiencing and the situations and the discomfort and how things are hard on relationships.

Completely connected. This was the most amazing therapy for us. I mean, this was exactly what we needed for our relationship. It got us right back on track again. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Can you believe that? Yeah.

So we continue on through the spring. He moves in with me. He's going to therapy. He talks to his bosses and he says, hey, I'm having a hard time. I'm not going to quit, but I do want to step back from some of my responsibilities. He steps down a position basically at his job, but the show is still in full swing. And he would talk about the show premiere all the time. He was like, oh my gosh, like this coming September, you and I, the show is going to premiere on

We're going to LA. We're going to get you a nice expensive dress and we're going to walk the red carpet. It's going to be amazing. I have such a good feeling about how this is going to go. It's going to change people's lives. He spoke about it so highly and I was very excited for that red carpet moment. Life was good. We went and visited my sister for her graduation and he started to get really close with my friend groups. The vaccine...

came out in spring, I think, late spring, maybe. And so people started to come back to the city, which meant that he started to really meet a lot of people in my life. And he was really getting integrated. He was exchanging numbers with people. We were hanging out with people. We were around people all the time. And that was really great and exciting for me because I was nervous that I had been dating this man for almost a year now. And he had not really been involved in like my real life because COVID had altered everything so extremely.

I was worried, will people like to be around him? And will he get along with my friends and whatnot? And they got along great. He was awesome. Started texting them without even me being in the text groups.

He would make it a point to reach out to us, like check in. I remember at one point I was at home on a Sunday. I think I was doing laundry and Joe texted me and he was like, Hey, I'm leaving. I'm so close to you. Is there anything you need? And I remember being like, that's so nice, but also kind of weird. I felt a little bit uncomfortable. And

And I responded back, no, I'm good. I'm just doing laundry. It's a chill Sunday. And then his response back was, sorry if that was too much. And I thought that was weird. I didn't feel weird about it until he said, sorry if it was too much. I remember I texted Kenzie right away or told her like the next day. And she was like, oh yeah, he told me he was going to do that. He's just a nice guy.

He's thoughtful. And he was thoughtful, or he at least seemed to be thoughtful. At one point, we had like cheese at someone's house and he had bought a bottle of champagne. I remember saying, oh, that champagne's good. You know, it's a good one. And then the next time I saw him, he came over, he bought me like five. He was thoughtful or, you know, acted thoughtful.

He got my boss's number and set up a surprise birthday for me at work and set up like a whole big birthday shenanigan with my friends as well, where we went tubing and drank and had brunch and like did all these things. And he paid for everyone and took care of all these things. And it was great. Our life was really good. This was the best relationship of my life, hands down.

One time he planned Kenzie a whole birthday thing and he was going to rent like a party bus and we were gonna do this whole day trip down the water in these tubes. He was paying for everything because of course he would. And there was a couple of things that were funny in that day. One being that on the way to the event, he wasn't able to get the party bus, but he did get...

black cars. And he had mentioned how expensive the whole day was. And that to me was like, you offered to do this whole day. So why are you complaining about it? Also really lame of you to complain to Kenzie's friends when she's not in the car about how something was more expensive than what you were told. And you're

You're this millionaire. What a douche move. I promptly said, do you want me to Venmo you? Because I'm happy to do that. Your payment means nothing for me, douche. Then when we got to the place getting the tube, someone has to turn in their driver's license. And he magically said he didn't have one on him. And at that point in time, he had gotten a new name. Witness protection sites you have with a whole new ID.

And the fact that he didn't have one, I remember one of our other friends bringing that up that stood out to her.

That's one of the moments I'm like, wow, it was right there. But mostly what stands out to me was that he started off as a great partner, but I think over time he was not nice. I think he purposely played kind of mind games with each of us. That side of him started to come out, that narcissism. He would say side things that were rude and kind of be an asshole, but like try to be a funny asshole. But it was just straight up an asshole. ♪

As life is good with us, he's living here, friends are back in town, going out to dinners and movies and it's being normal again. I'm still...

Really curious as to why I haven't met Ruth. And I get that we're working through his mental health and stuff, but really needed that to happen so we could move forward with our relationship. We have, at this point, picked up furniture for her room upstairs. We started to paint and sand and we got rug cleaners and really making it look nice up there. And I'm super excited about it. It's going to look so cute. I'm real pumped.

I'm also real excited at this point at being a stepmom. I love kids and I had all these plans for her that we were going to do together, especially when the holidays started to roll around. I was in a really good headspace. And then again, though, we would plan a weekend with Ruth and we'd get canceled. We'd plan a weekend with Ruth and we'd get canceled. And I was like, why does this keep happening? And finally, he came home one day and he goes, I have really bad news.

That's next time on Something Was Wrong. Thank you as always for listening. Until next week, stay safe, friends. Something Was Wrong is an Audiochuck production created and hosted by Tiffany Reese. Our theme song was composed by Glad Rags from their album Wonder Under. You think you know me, you don't know me at all.

So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? If you like Something Was Wrong, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad. I'm like, stop f***ing around. She's like, I can't. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls. With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah.

No, it's hysteria. It's all in your head. It's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating. Is this the largest mass hysteria since The Witches of Salem? Or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here. Something's not right. Leroy was the new dateline and everyone was trying to solve the murder. A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. Hysterical.

Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.