All language subtitles for Dont.Date.Brandon.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

- Brandon was
the full package.

- Flex your arm.

Yeah! Do it the other way now.

- Very tall, 6'3",
thick, brown hair,

very muscular build.

- He was vulnerable,
open, funny, honest.

- Brandon was a good dad.

He adored her.

He was very much involved,
very protective of her.

[laughter]

I loved him very much.

[laughs]

[tense music]

- Stop, stop, stop talking!

God!

- Obviously, it was
too good to be true.

And I just was dumbfounded
at what I was hearing.

I caught him cheating on me.

- I went straight
to my social media.

The floodgates opened,
and more and more

women started coming out.

That was just
the tip of the iceberg.

- Just another way that he's
able to control and manipulate.

- The person that I thought
he was, he didn't exist.

- When you do break up
with Brandon,

that is when
the stalking begins.

[phone chiming]

- I was really scared for her.

- He was completely unhinged.

- He knows where I am.
He's following me.

That's when I found
the tracking device.

- Brandon was dangerous,
and he was escalating.

- He's everywhere, trapping me,
holding me by my arms,

not letting me leave.

- Duct tape.
He had knives, zip ties.

- I discover the crossbow.

- I was terrified.
I saw the devil in his eyes.

- I knew something horrific
was about to happen.

- They should run
for their life.

- Who the fuck did I marry?

[glass shatters]

[blips]

- In 2013, I was 35.

I had just moved to Portland.

I was ready to settle down,
start a family, get married--

find a good guy,
my Prince Charming.

So I started online dating.

I started getting the dings.

[phone chimes]

And then one day,
I matched with a guy

called Brandon Johnson.

Brandon stood out.
He really did.

Brandon was in Seattle,
3 1/2 hours away from me.

But the messages
were incredibly sweet

and incredibly sincere
and thoughtful.

And so I felt like,
you know what?

I need to give this guy
a chance.

We spoke for about a month

before we actually met
in person at a bar in Seattle.

I just didn't know
what to expect.

I'm sitting there.

Brandon comes through the door.

- Hi.

- And I remember just
feeling so nervous.

He's very witty.

He's very charming.

Most importantly,
how he made me feel.

And as the night was going on,
I liked him a little more

and a little more.

And I just remember thinking,
Okay, this is gonna be

the start of a good thing.

- You like that, baby?

- There was definitely a spark

very early on
in the relationship.

Every weekend, we would just
have the most incredible dates

and so much fun.

- I got the cayenne on it.

- Cayenne, okay.
Now you need to chug it.

- Okay.
- Is that pretty intense?

- And I was so smitten that
I just felt like I met my guy.

I think this is it.

- We were just
very happy for Amber.

He seems very friendly.

We were definitely hopeful that
this would be the right one.

Maybe this would go somewhere
into a relationship,

marriage, maybe a child.

- Everything was going great.

About six weeks into my
relationship with Brandon,

we were at a bar.

And out of nowhere,
Brandon leaned over,

opened a box,
and asked me to marry him.

[camera clicks]

I was absolutely
not expecting that.

It was a beautiful moment.

It was a beautiful ring.

And I couldn't wait
to marry Brandon.

- Six weeks into their
relationship, they got engaged.

I thought it was fast,
but at the same time,

I thought, well,
she's old enough

to know what she wants now.
- Yeah.

- When Amber first
talked about Brandon

and all the great qualities
that he had,

I was super happy for her.

He was somebody that was
stable, financially as well as

emotionally, and was somebody
who she could settle down with

and really have
a great life with.

- After we got engaged,
it made natural sense

that I would be the one moving
from Oregon up to Seattle.

Brandon was newly divorced
from his first wife, Athena,

and they had
a young daughter named Sydney.

And then Athena also had
an older child called Lexus

from a previous relationship.

And that was his whole meaning
for life, was this little girl.

- Whoa!

Whoa.

- Ow!

- You hit your butt?
- Yeah.

- I would never take
a father from his child, ever.

Brandon introduced me
to Sydney,

and she was the sweetest
little thing ever.

She was four years old,
very chatty, very open

to meeting me.

Whoo!

I loved her.

- It was a very big step
for Amber to move to Seattle.

She didn't know
anybody in Seattle,

so it was basically relying
on Brandon for everything--

social life, friends.

She was unsure about work.

- He promised me the world.

So I quit my job,
sold my furniture.

I was ready to take a chance.

A week before I was
supposed to move to Seattle,

I got a message on Facebook
that made my heart sink.

It said, "Amber, I think
you should know something."

It said,
Brandon was on match.com.

[suspenseful music]

♪

I wanted to die.

I about had
a heart attack that day.

How could this possibly
be happening to me?

Everything was so perfect.

And to make matters worse,
it was actually a picture

that Brandon cropped me out of.

It was the same night that
we had our engagement party.

I felt like my whole world was
collapsing in front of my face.

I felt trapped because
I had already quit my job.

I'd already sold
half my belongings.

And I called Brandon.

He was begging
and pleading and crying.

You--you don't
understand, Amber.

It was just
a lapse in judgment.

And the last time I put
a ring on someone's finger,

it was my ex-wife, Athena.

And I've told you
how horrible she is.

Brandon told me that he found
out that Athena cheated on him

at her bachelorette party.

He's like,
this was my family unit,

and now it's being all
torn apart because of her.

I could hear it
in Brandon's voice,

how hurt he was
by Athena cheating on him.

The person that he had
shown me all those weeks prior

did not align
with this one action.

And when he said, I never
went on another date, I--

I believed him.

I trusted him.

And I'm a forgiving person.

So I forgave him.

- When Amber told me about
the match.com profile,

it definitely was
the first red flag for me.

That was like, mm,
tread lightly

because this is not
normal behavior.

- But I felt that Brandon
was worth the risk.

So I moved to Seattle.

Brandon said,
hey, can you do me a favor

and block my ex-wife,
Athena, on Facebook?

He basically said, Athena
meddles a lot in my life,

and I just don't want her
to get in between us

and cause trouble.

But I just--I don't know.

I had this gut instinct of,
you can learn

a lot by what people post.

And so I wanted to know
what this woman is all about

because I'm hearing from him,
but I feel like I just wanted

more info than I was getting.

So I took a peek on Facebook.

First thing I see is
a picture of Athena looking

beautiful but in a very sexy
photo in her wedding gown

that she married Brandon in
as her profile picture.

[intriguing music]

Then I see a little photo
that says, I bumped into my ex,

and so I backed up
and ran over him again--

clearly meant for Brandon.

So I kept Athena blocked.

I knew there were some issues,
but I had no idea the extent

of how crazy she was.

He said that
she took the credit cards

and just racked $100,000.

She demanded that he pay
$30,000 for her wedding ring.

He said that Athena
was a gold digger.

So yeah.

- I remember Amber
being very disheartened

and nervous about what
Brandon told her about Athena.

She was jealous.

She wanted him back.

She was causing
all kinds of problems.

[phone buzzes]

- Brandon told me
that Athena joked

about having
a third child with him

so she wouldn't have
another baby daddy.

That was kind of
the shift for me.

I was doing good
up until that moment.

And then I was like, ooh,
now she's disrespecting me.

So at that point,
I'm like, mm-mm, hard stop.

You have a crazy ex-wife.

♪

- Athena. IV. Take 1.

- Hi.

My name is Athena, and I am
Brandon Johnson's ex-wife.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- I am Brandon Johnson's
ex-wife.

I am also known as
the Puppet Master,

also known as Queen Bitch.

He also refers me to
as the woman who has

sought out to ruin his life.

Brandon was seriously involved
with a woman named Amber.

Brandon told me that
Amber was very insecure

and very jealous of me.

Now that I knew
Amber was gonna be a part

of my daughter's life,
I felt I needed to meet her.

That's when I invite her
to Sydney's

gymnastics performance.

- Leading up to meeting Athena
was a little nerve-wracking

because Brandon
gave me a little bit

of a prep session before.

I was told
she was gonna be fake.

Don't talk to her.
Don't stand next to her.

It was nerve-wracking.

I didn't know
what I was gonna walk into.

- At that gymnastics practice,
she was cold as ice to me.

- I didn't wanna cause any
trouble, but in my periphery,

I could just feel
the daggers staring at me.

- The way she acted
towards me,

it felt like she was
following orders,

that she wasn't allowed
to speak to me.

- It was so uncomfortable.

You could just feel it.

I felt like, oh, God,
this is such a mess.

This is such a mess.

- Brandon made it
very clear to Amber

that she should stay as far
away as possible from Athena.

- I didn't have any
communication with her,

so it was all
what Brandon told me.

Then I'd have his family
saying how terrible Athena was,

and then his friends
would say, mm, yep, Athena,

she's a monster.
She's the devil.

She's the worst ever.

- Amber did not take
a liking to my mom whatsoever.

We didn't know why.

She was, like, just so brash.

- I was really just trying
to start my new life

in a positive way,
and I just felt this ex-wife

that was just
constantly involved.

It was like this
crying for attention.

[phone buzzes]

Then I'd be sitting on the
couch, and she'd be calling.

He would just pick it up
and be like, ugh, it's Athena.

And there'd be an emergency,
and, oh, I need this.

Oh, can you do this?

Just the constant,
constant stress

of him and her
going back and forth.

It was collective over months
and months and months.

I told him, you need to protect
me and our relationship.

And that's on you.

You need to give her
some boundaries.

♪ ♪

- Sydney would say that
she could hear them fighting

behind closed doors.

And it was a lot of
fighting about me,

a lot of calling me names.

It pisses me off.

- I felt like I did
everything in my power

to help create some balance
in this coparenting situation.

And nothing was working.

I just--I couldn't
do it anymore.

And so I just made
the decision, I'm done.

I'm just done.

I felt like maybe if we could
get rid of the toxicness

that was in Seattle,
maybe if he came to Oregon,

we could coparent better
in a long distance,

having some space.

When we moved to Oregon,
Brandon told me

that we were court ordered
to use a parenting app,

and the only way that we
could communicate with Athena

was through that app.

You can communicate.

You can coordinate schedules.

There's calendars,

places you can upload pictures.

So when Sydney's at our house,
we can upload pictures

of what she's doing.

I knew that in
high-conflict relationships,

it was often advised
to use a parenting app.

And according to this
parenting plan that he gave me,

he told me, Amber, you are not
ever, ever to reach out to her

and break this court order.

So I did what the court order
told me to do.

So that was it.

You know, for the most part,
the app was really good.

Get a little bit frustrated
with coparenting, sure.

She would just make
excuses for why

she couldn't drop off or pick
up Sydney on our agreed time.

It was like, you can
work around my schedule,

is kind of the vibe, really.

So we got married
in May of 2017.

It was a very quick
and simple wedding in a park.

This was just kind of
to make it official

because for me,
I wanted to know

how committed he was to me.

- Amber's moving back home
lit a fire under Brandon,

where all of a sudden,
he started coming back

with all the things
that she had wanted

and had been asking for.

Amber wanted to have
a house and have a family,

and he's finally committing.

So I think that
felt good for Amber.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

- It's Halloween,
and my phone dings.

I pick it up,
and it's a woman asking me

if I was married
to Brandon Johnson...

Because he's
been trying to date

her friend for a few months.

And she immediately responded
with a picture of Brandon

and Avery, her friend.

Stunned, I was
absolutely stunned.

It was beyond shocking,
what I was hearing.

I called Brandon,
but I was not ready

for what I was about to hear.

What is going on?

Who is Avery?

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- I immediately
reached out to Brandon.

He was in Seattle,
and I was in Oregon.

So I said, what is this?

What is this? Who is this?

And he said, she's someone
I went to school with.

And I reconnected with her
on our ten-year reunion,

and she's been
stalking me ever since.

He's like, I don't know
what to tell you, Amber.

He's like, I promise.

I promise you that
nothing has ever happened.

I've never cheated on you.

He had a full text string
of their conversations,

of him repeatedly
saying, I'm married.

I can't meet up
with you for lunch.

I'm not interested.

You know, just putting
her off and showing

that she was a stalker.

And I just couldn't believe
this is happening to me,

could not believe it.

We just got married, literally
just got married, and now this.

I asked him like, why?

Why didn't you tell me
that you were having

a stalking problem
with this woman?

I didn't think it was
that big of a deal.

I didn't think that it would
escalate to this level.

And I said,
I wanna talk to her.

Put her on the phone.

And he did.

And she said, I'm so sorry for
my friend reaching out to you.

There's never been anything
between me and Brandon.

I've always had a crush on him.

But I respect your marriage,
and I am so sorry

if there was any
misunderstanding.

I'm feeling
incredibly insecure.

So after this incident,
Brandon went to the court

and said he got
a restraining order on Avery.

♪ ♪

It was at that point
where I thought

I was at the end of my rope
with Athena

and five more crazy things
happening.

And it's just--
it's never ending.

I mean, I thought I only had
one psycho ex to deal with,

and now I have two
psycho women to deal with.

Brandon started
working for Nike,

and he was gone
more than normal.

Then he would send me pictures

flying on the Nike
private jet.

Their airport that
they fly out of

was about a mile from
our new home in Oregon.

So it was very
convenient for him.

But he would show me
these pictures like, wow,

this is the most
incredible private jet.

- I just felt
something was off.

It was just a lot of bragging,
too much this,

too much that,
too many stories.

And I don't know.
It just didn't sit well.

- Here's the Nike offices
in LA.

They have this basketball
court in there.

And he would just
send these pictures.

I thought it was really
cool and exciting.

I should be feeling better.

We're married,
we have a house,

that things are going well.

I was still suspicious.

There's a woman named Avery
that's stalking him.

We have Athena
being problematic.

[phone buzzes]

How much more can I take?

And I was just--

I was at the end
of my rope at that point.

He said, I have something else
to tell you, Amber.

And that's when he said,
I have leukemia.

[somber music]

I was shocked, obviously.

You have a million things
going through your head.

I--when?

When did this happen?

I felt awful.

Of course, I don't
want that to be true.

I don't want him
to leave me or our family.

I don't want anything
to happen to him.

Brandon was very specific
that I was not to tell anyone.

He didn't want his work
to know that he had cancer.

He didn't want his daughter
to know he had cancer.

I had to be very
tight-lipped about it.

- I thought, well,
how--how interesting.

Amber's really fed up.

- I think she was probably
getting to that point of being

ready to try to leave, and then
all of a sudden, he has cancer.

So to me, it seemed like
a convenient time for him

to have cancer.

- Brandon immediately lost
about 40 to 50 pounds.

He said, I was in stage 1, and
it was jumping into stage 2.

When he started doing
these treatments,

he said, well,
this is a special treatment

only available in Seattle.

And he wouldn't lose his hair,
but he was very confident

that in six to eight weeks,

they would get him
in remission.

So it was very imperative
that he stay in Seattle.

- Everything seemed fishy.

Okay, he's just trying
to stay up there more.

- Super odd that
he would never let her

go to a doctor's appointment.
- Never once.

- Who--most people would want
their spouse with them

when they're in the middle
of a cancer situation.

- Yeah.

- And he kept saying, no,
no, no, you can't come.

You can't come
to my treatments.

And he told me that
he had the bloodwork,

the documentation
from the doctor.

One night, I could hear him
throwing up

in the bathroom violently.

And I ran to the door, and
I said, Brandon, are you okay?

Do you need anything?

And he was like,
it's the side effects.

It's the side effects.

I stood by him because
I was his ride-or-die.

It was right around that time,
for whatever reason,

I started thinking about Avery.

Avery lived about
an hour outside of Seattle.

It had been months,
a few months,

and I had talked to her
on the phone.

She said,
I respect your marriage,

and I'm so sorry
there was any confusion.

So I should have
been okay with that.

But for some reason,
I started looking online.

And I found her.

There was a picture
that she had posted

of Brandon and herself.

And I just--what?

Are you kidding me?

What is this?

You know?

And I reached out to her.

So I reached out
to her and asked her,

why are you posting pictures
of my husband and you?

And she basically says,

my boyfriend is not married
to you.

My boyfriend, Brandon Johnson,
is not married to you.

And she proceeds to say he's
always been in love with me,

and I don't believe
anything that you say.

And I call Brandon,
where are you?

I'm--I'm on fire.

I wanna talk this out about
Avery and what happened.

And he's saying, she's crazy,
she's crazy, she's crazy.

And I said, well,
we're gonna get on a FaceTime

with Ms. Avery
because she's been

blowing up my phone all night.

- He said,
you can't contact Avery.

You'll be breaking
the restraining order

if you do that.

Avery was not gonna
go away that easily,

and she continued
to stalk Brandon.

She continued to post pictures.

She continued to violate
the restraining order.

And so eventually,
I said, this is enough.

This is enough.

Like, she needs to be
held accountable

for what she's doing.

So he said,
I'm gonna send her to jail.

She's going to jail, tonight.

Brandon left our home
in Oregon.

And he said, Amber,
they're doing it.

She broke the law
one too many times,

and they're ready
to arrest her at her home.

And I want to see this.

He said, I need to see it
with my own eyes.

She's terrorized me and you
and our whole entire family.

So he drove up to Seattle
to take a picture

of Avery getting arrested.

And I vividly remember
sitting in our living room

with my phone--ding.

And there's Avery
with her arms behind her back,

getting arrested.

The thing with Brandon is,
weird became the normal.

It really makes you wonder,
what is it about this guy

that he has such bad luck
with women?

You have a crazy ex-wife.

You have a stalker
who's just as crazy.

At a certain point, like, why?

[tense music]

2018, his behavior
started to change.

And so while he
was living in Oregon with me,

all of a sudden, the work
travel was picking up.

And you're going to work
with cancer,

and then every single night
you're gone

for two to three hours
for treatment.

There was more going up
to get Sydney.

You know, and I--you know,
I'm just so tired, Amber.

I'm not gonna drive back.

I'm just gonna get
a hotel in Seattle.

It just--no.

I knew something was off.

Brandon's a very messy guy,
and he would always

have mail laying around.

And, you know, I was
picking things up

and saw some bills that were
for a townhouse up in Seattle

that didn't make sense

and some parking tickets
and things of that nature

that was not in line
with what he was telling me.

The light bulbs went off,
and I was on a mission

to figure out what
the truth was, the real truth.

Regardless of the bad blood
between myself and Athena,

she--she knew all about
Brandon, being an ex-wife.

So I knew that she was someone
that I needed to speak with.

I knew that calling
Athena would violate

the no-contact order,
but I didn't care.

I'm done with being
kept away from her.

I need to speak with her.

- Out of the blue, I get
a text message from Amber,

and she's asking
if she could speak with me.

And I'm completely
shocked because

I haven't heard from her
pretty much in a few years.

We speak, and she continues

to tell me information,
what's going on.

- I start discussing
some of the conversations

that we've had
on our FamilyWall app.

- What's a fam wall?

- And I'm like,
you know, the FamilyWall?

What FamilyWall? Athena?

- She keeps referencing FamCal
thing, or whatever it was,

and I had no idea
what that was.

- Athena, the one that we've
been using for the last year.

- I had zero idea
what she was talking about.

- Brandon told me
that according

to this parenting plan
court order,

we are to only use
the family app.

That was the only way
I was communicating with her.

- That's when I had
to put my foot down.

There is no new parenting plan.

There is no court order.

- I really--
it took me a second

to believe that she didn't
know what I was talking about.

- And that's when
she said, um, what?

Okay, hold on one second.

She logs in, takes screenshots
of all of these messages.

It was a full year back
and forth on a regular basis.

And I'm super confused.

And I kept telling her,
no, that wasn't me.

What the fuck is going on?

- It just--I'm like,
what in the hell? Like--

- And that's when we
uncovered that

Brandon was pretending
to be me.

- I was like, you--

are you saying that he's
being you for the last year?

- Holy shit! Holy shit! Okay.

- Oh, my God!

For an entire year, all of
the messages from Athena,

all the canceled trips,
all of it,

every single one of
those problematic things

that happened wasn't Athena.

It was Brandon.

- It was just
so fucking weird.

And I'm just like,
you fucking prick.

- We were just dying,
like, oh, my God!

He went to this length
to keep us apart.

He's not even close to the
person that I thought he was.

But we knew nothing.

That was just
the tip of the iceberg.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- It took a minute
for all to sink in.

I had this feeling
in this pit in my stomach.

He messed with my head
the worst way possible.

- My reaction was shock.

This had gone on
for over a year

that he had that much time,

the back and forth
conversations

that he had created
between us.

Reading the content of what
I was supposedly saying,

that really pissed me off

because he was
portraying me terribly.

- I--I couldn't even fathom
that Brandon would

actually pretend to be Athena.

[sighs]
Shock. I was shocked.

It's so strange
how your brain--

it's almost like it goes blank,
like you're mad,

but you're just--I--I don't
even know what to think.

Like, what else?

♪ ♪

Me and Athena came together
and compared stories

and just start
throwing stuff out.

What about this?
What about that?

What do you know about this?

And we just turned into
these, like, FBI agents.

It was like all the dots
were starting to connect.

Like, if--if this was a lie,
was that a lie?

- I had zero clue that Brandon
and Amber ever got married.

- And I just was like,
ah, yep, we absolutely are.

Let me show you
our marriage license.

- So Brandon also claims
that I ran up a bunch of debt

on his credit card.

And another lie.

To my knowledge,
he never had a credit card

that I was ever aware of.

- I remember telling Athena
about Brandon's job with Nike

and that it was sending him
all over the place

on a private jet.

Well, that was a lie.

And the pictures
that he sent me,

those were pulled
from the internet.

- There was always
more and more

and more information
that we didn't know

that Brandon was doing.

- So I told Athena
that what Brandon told me

was that she cheated on him
right before they got married.

- He cheated on me.

I was the one
that divorced Brandon

and not the other way around.

- And incredibly, it turns out
Avery wasn't a stalker at all.

She was actually
Brandon's girlfriend.

Those messages that
Brandon showed me,

they weren't from her.

That woman I spoke to on the
phone who I thought was Avery,

well, it wasn't her at all.

I have absolutely no idea
who I actually spoke with.

The picture of Avery
getting arrested,

yet another pull
from the internet.

Avery clearly was someone
he was cheating on me with.

I told Athena about Avery,
and Sydney said

that she had
a bedroom at Avery's house,

and she was not allowed
to tell anyone about Avery

or having
any bedroom in her home.

- And I had zero clue.

That once again pissed me off.

Brandon's having an affair
and making her lie.

It was--it was heartbreaking.

Yeah.

I explained to her
that at the beginning

of their relationship, he had
told me he had lung cancer.

He had given me documents.

I cried at this restaurant,
feeling sad for him.

- I absolutely told her
about the leukemia,

and she was dumbfounded.
She--she had no idea.

And it was all kind of coming
together that there was a theme

going on with his stories.

And it made us question
whether these illnesses

were actually even real.

- Brandon was just
a master of tech.

So he could create email
threads, fake message threads.

He would draft up
medical records.

- One of the
craziest parts of

was that she had no idea that
Brandon actually married me

and moved to Oregon.

- I didn't even know
they lived in Oregon.

- Sydney was absolutely
being shipped from Seattle

to Oregon multiple times.

- He was making
my daughter lie.

He was driving up and down
from state to state.

He was waking her up
at the butt crack of dawn,

putting her in the car,
and flying up here with her

and forcing her to lie.

- It was a clear disconnect.

Every single thing we were
saying, we couldn't align with.

I was told this,
but I was told this.

You know, it was just--it was
the most bizarre thing ever.

- From the very beginning,
from the first time

Amber and I meet,
Brandon was already

creating false narratives
to make sure that

we did not like each other.

He had tricked Amber
and made her

believe all of these things.

He said I would call or text
him at all hours of the night.

But really,
the ping on the phone

was him probably messaging
one of his, you know,

mistresses or other
secret girlfriends,

and he just used me to further
enhance the evil witch Athena.

Brandon put me through
15 years of hell.

I met Brandon in 2007.

At the start, he just
ticked a lot of my boxes,

and we had a lot in common.

- The dating period
didn't last very long.

Then shortly after
he moved in, and then

a little bit after that, they
were pregnant with my sister.

- July of 2011,
Brandon and I were married.

On the outside,
Brandon and I appeared

like the all-American
good-looking couple,

married, two children.

But on the inside, it couldn't
be further from the truth.

And it was nothing as people
probably imagined it was.

- After they were married,
it got pretty rocky

pretty quickly.

And we just kind of
tiptoed around it.

From the beginning,
he was always really

weird about our relationship.

He wasn't affectionate at all.

All he ever did was tell me
what I was doing wrong

but never told me
what I was doing right.

- Watching Brandon's
behavior towards Lexus,

it felt malicious.

And I said, like,
knock this shit off.

And the way he acted
towards me, that was horrible.

He was becoming
increasingly controlling,

isolating me, accusing me
of cheating on him.

And that's when I found out
he cheated on me.

I discovered
a phone that Brandon had

to communicate with another
woman, and I read the text.

And he connects
with this woman.

She sleeps in the hotel room.
They have sex.

That was--that was
the final straw.

I was done.

The marriage was awful,
but when it started to end

is when things got
really scary, really bad.

- He refused to move out.

He did anything he could
to try to win my mom back.

There was a time
where I was upstairs.

I looked out my bedroom window,
and he was in the backyard

at my swing set, trying to
tie a noose to hang himself.

- Threats of suicide
and self-harm,

it is something he did
multiple times with me.

And it was definitely
a form of emotional abuse

and another form of control.

Finally, I just kicked
his ass out of my house,

and he flipped from
manipulating me to win me back

to now wanting
to be in control,

of scaring me in a way to
control me in a different way.

There's that quick change
in his demeanor,

this coldness about him,
the darkness

that kind of comes over him
in his face, his eyes.

When he felt backed
into a corner,

he would almost explode
out of his skin.

- I was really worried
for my mom's safety.

- I remember him punching
holes in the walls,

slamming doors,
just explosive behavior--

trapping me, holding me by
my arms, not letting me leave.

I don't feel like
he's in control of himself.

And I didn't know what
he was capable of.

When he finally moved out,

I was always
looking over my shoulder.

He's showing up
everywhere I am.

Any time of day, work week,
weekend, it didn't matter.

He wanted to make sure he knew
what was going on every day.

Brandon went out of his way
to sabotage everything--

I mean, essentially ruining
my life, my reputation.

He creates
the most disgusting,

horrible things about me,
that I'm a whore.

I'm a terrible mom.

And then, um...
[sniffles]

[indistinct]

What hurts the worst is him
telling Sydney, our daughter,

I cheated on him,
and that he divorced me,

and that he struggled
with that big time.

And this change
happened in her.

And she didn't
wanna respect me anymore.

A huge part of me wanted
to go, no, no, no.

Your dad did this.
Your dad did this.

I'm not the one, I swear.

But a good mom
would never do that.

And I knew that.

But he even lied to her.

She was three years old.
Three.

And that just continued.

But he was essentially
brainwashing her.

That is an evil soul.

- By the time I finished
talking with Athena,

I knew that Brandon was
a sick and disturbed person.

I went straight
to my social media,

and I posted something
to the effect of,

be aware of who you
end up marrying

because you may not know
who they are.

And within a day,
I had a woman reach out to me

and said,
I need to talk to you.

Well, women like to talk,

and that's exactly
what was happening.

The word was getting out
in Seattle.

While it's a big city, it's
actually a very small city.

So, you know, we were
hearing from multiple women.

So very, very quickly,
you know,

the floodgates opened,
and more and more women

started coming out because
we were all talking now.

- All these women that are
now coming forward,

they are all women that Brandon

is currently having
affairs with

or was while in a relationship
with Amber.

- What I was hearing
from these women,

some of them were saying
they were stalked.

Some talked about having to
get a restraining order on him.

It was absolutely horrifying.

I decided to do
a deep dive into Brandon.

We initially thought we were
gonna discover a few lies,

but what we uncovered was
so much more than that.

Brandon had multiple
protection orders

filed on him, dating all
the way back to 1997.

- I was stunned.
I had zero clue.

Amber and I
are now questioning,

why the hell
don't we know this?

- In detail was some
pretty horrific facts

from these women.

♪ ♪

What is incredibly
shocking is that

these restraining orders
span decades--

the '90s, the 2000s, 2010s.

He's been doing this since
he was a very young man.

- The first restraining order

was from when he was
19 years old.

- When I discovered
what Brandon had done

and all the lies, I really
just had two concerns--

one, how to help Athena
protect her daughter,

and two,
how to get away from him.

♪

[keys jangle]

You know, it--it did not
sink into my head yet.

I felt, in a way, that he was
never gonna treat me like that,

because he hadn't yet.

And naive as it sounds,
I really didn't think

that he would ever
do something like that to me--

until he did.

- He's going to crack
and explode.

- Why are you
doing this to me?

Please let me go.
Please let me go.

He really is a monster.

- Shut up. God!

- What the fuck?

- He's gonna take her
to punish me.

- Or I fucking shoot
your fucking head off.

- Fuck him.

We're gonna tell
everyone what he did.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪