OFFICIANT:
I asked Morgan and Rod,
what does marriage mean
to each of them?
Morgan started with this--
"We will be together forever,
for God has sent Rod to me,
and he is my guardian angel."
And Rod concluded with this.
"My only hope for my life
"is that I can be the man
and husband and father
that Morgan and my future
children deserve."
NICOLE: She really thought
he was the love of her life,
this Prince Charming.
PERSON: It's gonna be
a fun honeymoon.
MORGAN: We were just really
excited to start our life.
But, unfortunately,
at the start of our fairy tale
is when our nightmare began.
NICOLE: Morgan looked at him
to be her protector.
But what you don't know,
you don't know.
- A shocking event happens
that changes everything.
[dramatic music]
[siren wailing]
He was no longer my husband.
He was somebody
completely different--
somebody ugly, somebody
that I didn't know who it was--
a stranger to me.
♪ ♪
ANDREA: I'm Andrea Gunning,
and this is Betrayal,
a show about the people
we trust the most
and the deceptions
that change everything.
Today we meet Morgan,
who thought she had it all--
a loving relationship with
her high-school sweetheart
and the promise
of a bright future.
But after a series
of tragic events,
that promise turned into peril.
Morgan, what are you hoping
people learn from your story?
- My hope is that
women learn to speak up
to see if the things that are
going on in your relationship
is healthy or not.
- Yeah.
- Like, I genuinely started
to believe it was me,
that I was the problem.
So I didn't say anything.
I stopped trying to be heard.
[birds chirping]
My name is Morgan Metzer.
[bright music]
I grew up in Canton, Georgia.
- We have an older brother.
I'm the middle.
And then Morgan's
the baby sister.
We have so many wonderful
memories together.
All girls pretty much dream of
finding their Prince Charming.
So we always, like,
thought about, you know,
who our boyfriend would be
someday or our husband.
And then when, of course,
she met Rod,
she felt like she found
her prince.
[school bell ringing,
indistinct chatter]
- Rod and I met when I was 14,
and he was 17,
and we were
high-school sweethearts.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
My first impression of Rod
that he gave off
was definitely
the big man on campus.
Everywhere he went,
everyone knew who he was.
He was extremely patient,
funny, kind-hearted.
He had ambition.
He was pretty much the whole
package, I guess you could say.
He made me feel
like a princess.
NICOLE: Morgan wanted
to be protected,
and she looked at him
to be her protector.
And so he kind of just took on
that role.
Rodney's family came
from a lot of money.
They were very well-to-do.
MORGAN:
Rod's parents would take a lot
of their kids' friends
on trips.
And on these trips,
we were spoiled,
given a very lavish lifestyle.
I felt like the luckiest girl
in the world.
[soft dramatic music]
ANDREA:
After high school, the couple,
they're stronger than ever.
Morgan follows Rodney
to Wyoming,
where he's training
to be a mechanic,
and she goes
to cosmetology school.
And then they decide to move
back to Georgia
and start their careers.
MORGAN: We grew together
naturally as a couple.
Everything was still innocent
and pure.
LINDSEY: I don't ever
recall them ever arguing.
They always got along.
From the very beginning,
they've always been very happy.
[bright music]
- Rod proposed to me
after about six or seven years
of being together.
He asked me
in front of my family,
with my grandmother's
wedding ring.
I was 100% sure
I wanted to marry Rod.
OFFICIANT: Rod and Morgan,
the importance of marriage
supersedes
our daily activities.
- We got married
April 18, 2009.
- I asked Morgan
and Rod individually,
what does marriage mean
to each of them?
And Rod had this to say.
"Marriage good.
Rod like marriage."
[laughter]
MORGAN:
The wedding was my dream,
everything
I could have ever imagined.
It was a true fairy tale.
- One of the most beautiful
weddings I've ever seen.
- You may kiss
to your hearts' content.
[laughter]
[cheers and applause]
LINDSEY:
The family was so excited.
His brother Kevin's speech
was wonderful.
- One day I hope I can share
the same love they have
with a woman
as great as Morgan.
[crowd awws]
And for the first
official time,
Morgan, welcome to the family.
[cheers, whistling,
and applause]
- I cried.
[laughs]
PERSON:
Bye, Morgan!
- It felt like royalty,
becoming Ms. Metzer.
[cheers and applause]
Before we got married,
we did own a house together.
We resided there
after the wedding.
It was so much fun getting
to call him my husband.
- They were happy.
They were always doing things.
And I felt
like I had a brother there,
so it was nice.
- Rod had no expectations
for me.
[laughs]
He really didn't.
He just wanted me to do
what I wanted to do.
And I wanted to go hang out
with friends that night,
he says, go out.
Go have fun.
I'll see you later.
We were just overall
really excited
to start our life.
But, unfortunately,
at the start of our fairy tale
is when our nightmare began.
[solemn music]
♪ ♪
- Morgan and Rodney's marriage
is almost picture-perfect,
and then a tragic event
changes everything.
- Rod's brother passed away
of leukemia.
♪ ♪
LINDSEY: Kevin's passing was
very difficult for all of us.
I could only imagine
how it made Rod feel.
It was just him
and his brother, you know?
And to see the pain
of losing a sibling,
it was difficult.
♪ ♪
NICOLE:
It affected both of them,
but Rod was just very quiet.
He was not sociable.
He was not fun.
♪ ♪
ANDREA:
This death was a test
of how the couple would weather
dark times together.
♪ ♪
MORGAN:
I was supportive.
I tried to help guide him
in different ways--
therapy, just talking,
listening,
asking him what it is
that he needs.
♪ ♪
But Rodney started to change
into somebody
completely different.
♪ ♪
It was like watching
a slow, painful death.
♪ ♪
After we lost Kevin,
a really good bounce-back,
something exciting
that happened in the family
was, we got pregnant.
[light music]
I felt like I got a glimpse
of that old Rod.
He was elated...
more excited that we were
gonna name him Kevin,
after his brother.
LINDSEY:
It was just exciting
after so much of the heartache
of losing Kevin
that something so wonderful
was about to happen.
♪ ♪
- At 22 weeks, the couple
received devastating news.
[somber music]
The baby has
a congenital heart defect.
MORGAN: They did say he would
need multiple heart surgeries,
eventually possibly
a heart transplant.
There was a lot of unknowns.
LINDSEY:
Nobody wants to hear
that their baby
is going to be sick
or potentially need all
these treatments and surgeries
and be in pain
after they're born.
MORGAN:
Right after I'd had Kevin,
they let me hold him
for a second.
They took him from me
pretty much immediately.
He was a week-old when he had
his first heart surgery.
♪ ♪
I remember dropping
to my knees,
and I said, God...
either take him home with You,
or let me bring him home.
♪ ♪
And the next day
is when God decided
to answer my prayer
but decided to take him home
with Him.
♪ ♪
NICOLE: It wrecked her.
It wrecked her soul.
♪ ♪
Any mother--to lose a child
is just unimaginable.
From what Morgan
had shared with me
and how Rod processed
the loss of baby Kevin,
it was more of,
he just stayed busy.
He kept himself away,
and she grieved by herself.
♪ ♪
- I feel like my sister
handled it well,
but she was devastated, and she
wasn't herself, nor was Rod.
So, yeah, it was awful.
♪ ♪
Ugh.
[sniffles]
♪ ♪
- As Morgan continues to grieve
the loss of her child,
she gets some amazing news.
- I got pregnant
after the loss of Kevin
about three months later.
LINDSEY:
It was just a gift
that was sent
from baby Kevin to them,
to be like, don't be sad.
You know, it's gonna be okay.
We've got a baby on the way,
you know?
- The first ultrasound,
Kevin's doctor was in there,
and she looked at me,
and she goes,
of course you would give me
a high-risk pregnancy
after Kevin.
You're having twins.
I handed Rod
the ultrasound thing.
And he's like, two?
I said, yeah.
And he was so excited.
ANDREA: Almost a year to
the day of losing baby Kevin,
Morgan gives birth to twins--
Mason and Amelia.
♪ ♪
LINDSEY:
So after the twins were born,
Morgan was a stay-at-home mom.
And that's when I could just
tell that Rod wasn't happy,
or he was going
through something.
But it was something
that she kind of kept private.
MORGAN: He struggled
with sharing my time.
Anything that took me away
from taking care of him,
he would get irritated,
but it wasn't where people
would notice it.
- He was just, like, honestly,
just miserable and hating life.
MORGAN:
He was a mechanic.
Rod was making
countless mistakes.
Certain things went wrong.
ANDREA:
Soon, Rodney was unemployed,
but Morgan thought that they
would be okay financially.
MORGAN: We had an amazing home
that was paid for outright.
He did have inheritance
from a great aunt,
but he eventually told me
the money was gone.
I realized that Rod was
waiting for his grandmother
to die.
But when his grandmother
passed away,
he did not receive anything.
[ominous music]
NICOLE:
Then they get the notice
that they're gonna potentially
be losing the house.
MORGAN: It put a strain
on our relationship
because that's when he ran
out of any options
to be able to provide
for the house at all.
NICOLE: She was gonna have
to be the one to step up
because he obviously couldn't.
[pensive music]
MORGAN: So I started my own
interior design business,
Shiplap and Sugar.
It took off.
After the first year,
I was voted the number one
interior designer in Canton.
And I was still able to rock
at being a mom.
- We got to work together
and run this business.
It was so much fun.
They didn't lose their house.
We had more business
than we knew what to do with.
MORGAN: Eventually, Rodney,
he started working
for my company as a handyman.
He would do built-in bunk beds.
He'd make me floating shelves.
He'd hang everything.
But he didn't like being
"the worker."
NICOLE: In my opinion,
I felt like, to me,
Rodney would find ways
to sabotage the projects.
I would see something
like the stupid curtain rods
not having
the right measurements,
even though that was
your one job.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
MORGAN: I would tell him
to do something,
and he would do it
incorrectly.
He would convince me that
I told him to do it that way,
and it would be my fault.
- She had
a hard time deciphering
if what he was saying
was true or not.
- Looking back on it now,
he definitely was
gaslighting me.
Once Rod saw
that I was able to become
successful for our family
and I had the drive,
he still wanted the control.
The way he spoke to me
did change.
He wanted to degrade me.
He wanted to make sure
I knew who was in charge.
♪ ♪
He would antagonize me.
And then as soon
as I would lose my cool
is when he would go quiet.
And he'd start recording me
and say,
look at how crazy you're being.
- Gaslighting was Rodney's MO.
MORGAN:
It can beat you down.
I felt like a horrible mom.
I felt like
a horrible provider.
Overall, I didn't look forward
to getting up every morning.
LINDSEY:
A lot was on her plate,
but she wanted to protect
her kids,
make sure
that they didn't know
that something was going on
with Mom.
[dramatic music]
MORGAN: One day, Rod and I
were having a disagreement.
We were going up the stairs.
The kids were listening.
And all of a sudden,
he's falling down the stairs.
♪ ♪
NICOLE: And as soon as when
he hit the bottom stairs,
the kids were down there,
and he's like,
Mom pushed me down the stairs.
♪ ♪
MORGAN:
I felt as though Rod
faked falling down the stairs
to show the kids
Mommy did hurt Daddy,
to paint me ugly in their eyes.
♪ ♪
- Morgan could endure anything
that Rodney
was throwing at her.
But then he started
manipulating the kids
against her,
and she realized
she had to face the reality
of her relationship.
- I just was like, all right.
That's it. I'm done.
♪ ♪
[solemn music]
- 11 years into their marriage,
Morgan files for divorce.
MORGAN: When he found out
I filed for divorce,
Rod wasn't accepting of it.
He would sit
outside my parents' house,
calling me like crazy.
I mean, he really thought
he was gonna get me back.
But I wasn't going.
I wasn't budging.
♪ ♪
LINDSEY: This is the only man
that she's been with,
and no matter how
the relationship was going,
it was still hard.
But I think she knew
that she deserved
to be treated better,
you know what I mean?
So I was proud of her
for sticking up
for her and her kids.
ANDREA: In December of 2020,
the divorce was finalized.
He moved out, got an apartment,
and they shared custody
of the two kids.
MORGAN: I knew in my heart
I had done the right thing.
[voice breaking]
But I loved...
♪ ♪
My husband.
♪ ♪
He was my best friend.
♪ ♪
That year,
the day after Christmas,
I took the kids
to see my sister in Orlando
for them to stay
for a few weeks.
LINDSEY:
The kids wanted to come see me
and stay at my home
outside of Disney World.
♪ ♪
MORGAN: When I got back,
I was over at Nicole's house,
and Rod had sent me an email,
something along the lines of,
I think you should know this.
And he attached the document
from the doctor's diagnosis.
I think I dropped my phone,
and I was like, oh, my gosh.
The father of my children
has pancreatic cancer.
♪ ♪
I mean, he was telling me
it was stage 4
and he was gonna die.
♪ ♪
NICOLE:
She was distraught.
It was, oh, my God,
my children's father.
MORGAN: My emotions
were all over the place.
And I remember
just dropping everything
and left Nicole's house
and went to his apartment.
He said
he was extremely scared.
He didn't want to tell
his parents.
He wasn't comfortable
being alone.
And I said, okay, you can come
and stay at the house.
♪ ♪
ANDREA: Even though
they were divorced,
Morgan still loved Rodney,
and she wanted
to be supportive,
so she let him stay with her
for a few days.
[ominous music]
MORGAN:
On the day of New Year's Eve,
my parents came over
and approached Rod
and said that we do need
to call your parents
and tell them
about your diagnosis.
He left very angry.
LINDSEY:
New Year's Eve--
I mean, we talked
for a little bit.
I was telling her
about what the kids and I were
gonna be doing.
I just knew that she was going
to Nicole's house.
So it was nothing unusual.
[billiard ba*ls clack,
people cheering]
MORGAN: And I did get
text messages from Rod.
He wanted to hang out,
but I told him,
I'm gonna be staying
at my parents' house tonight.
But that was never
my intention.
I didn't want to see him.
It was my hopes
that he would leave me alone,
knowing that I was
with my parents.
NICOLE: When Morgan
came over to my house,
she was a lot more quiet
than usual.
But then I realized
that at the time,
it was my husband and I,
and then it was
our other friends,
so I understood it.
And then she went home.
[indistinct chatter]
["Auld Lang Syne"]
[fireworks popping]
MORGAN: That night,
all I wanted to do
was just curl up
next to my dog and go to sleep
and wake up the next morning
ready to start
my fresh new year
as a newly single divorcée.
♪ ♪
ANDREA: The next time
Morgan opens her eyes,
she sees an image
no one wants to see.
MORGAN:
I saw a male figure
standing in a lit-up doorway,
dressed in black.
When I went to go, like,
really, like, adjust my eyes
is when he attacked.
[suspenseful music]
I screamed the loudest
I have ever screamed.
♪ ♪
I thought it was over for me.
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
MORGAN: When the attacker
attacked me,
I was hit in the face
countless times
with the butt of a g*n.
I was strangled.
I was sexually assaulted.
I had the g*n pointed
at my forehead.
I was fighting for my life.
He had a voice disguiser.
It sounded like Batman.
I still hear his voice
in my head.
He said, you've messed
with the wrong people.
I couldn't help but think,
okay, this is it.
I'm done.
Still, to this day,
I get disappointed in myself
when I say that
I finally just let go
and I stopped the fight.
♪ ♪
All of a sudden,
I had a sense of peace
that just went all over.
And at that moment,
he stopped strangling me.
♪ ♪
That's when he proceeded
to zip-tie my hands
behind my back.
He put a pillowcase
over my head.
I was bleeding.
I could feel the blood
just going down my face.
He started asking,
where's my phone?
And I said, I don't know.
It's somewhere in the bed.
And he found it, and he's
like, what's the passcode?
And I told him the passcode.
ANDREA:
And then all of a sudden,
Morgan's attacker takes her
to the back porch
and says, don't move
until you hear a car honk
its horn two or three times.
That never happens.
Morgan is struggling
to stay awake.
And, finally,
she hears footsteps.
She doesn't know who it is.
[footsteps approaching,
liquid squelching]
And then she hears
Rodney's voice.
♪ ♪
MORGAN:
And I was like, hello?
And he goes, what happened?
What happened?
What happened?
And I told him what happened.
He took me inside.
He called the cops.
[Morgan wailing]
[Morgan screams indistinctly]
[siren wailing]
MORGAN: When he got
off the phone with them,
he's like,
you know, it's fine.
I, you know, walked the house.
Nobody's here
or anything like that.
But I was still scared.
[siren wailing]
DAKOTA:
I'm Dakota Lyvers.
At the time of this case,
I was a detective
in the Criminal Investigations
Division,
specifically assigned
in the Special Victims Unit.
[suspenseful music]
When I initially arrived,
Rodney Metzer
was in the driveway.
As I walked past him, he said,
are you the guy
that we've been waiting on?
I said, yes, sir, I am.
And he looked me
dead in the eyes,
and he said,
do your [bleep] job.
I was like, okay.
♪ ♪
First investigative step
that I wanted to do
was get a scene size-up.
We were able to find out
that their children
were actually in Florida,
which was a relief.
Morgan was in a shocked state.
She was obviously beaten.
She had bruising
around her eye.
She looked disheveled,
as would somebody
that had just went
through an incident like this.
- There were no signs
of forced entry into the house.
♪ ♪
DAKOTA: When Morgan detailed
how the attacker
had used her phone, we began
looking at the alarm system.
We were able to look
through the records.
It showed Rodney arriving,
which is about the time
the 911 call was made,
when Morgan was found.
But videos prior to that
had been deleted
or weren't there.
The last video
was Morgan going inside.
♪ ♪
Morgan detailed how
the attacker made claims of,
your ex-husband
is gonna miss you,
or, you know, he's next.
The attacker had to know
Morgan had an ex-husband.
♪ ♪
It's leading us to believe,
this is somebody close
to Morgan that did this.
I set up two chairs
on the front porch
for Rodney and I to have
a discussion.
- They asked him how he came
to be at Morgan's house.
And his explanation
was incredible.
DAKOTA:
While brushing his teeth,
some mysterious person tapped
on his window three times.
And all that he could make out
that they said was "Morgan."
♪ ♪
- He believed
that Morgan was in danger.
THOMAS:
He took it upon himself
to drive from his apartment
to her house.
- His story began to unfold
as he was telling it,
because it did not line up
with things
that Morgan
had already told us,
such as, there was no reason
for him to come
to that house
looking for Morgan,
because Morgan told him
she was going to stay the night
at her parents' house,
which is not that house.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
THOMAS: The entire time,
we were all open-minded
that there might be
another potential suspect.
- He said maybe
a new love interest
had done this to Morgan.
However, all the evidence
at this point
was pointing towards
Rodney Metzer.
- Rodney actually ended up
giving us consent
to look through his phone.
During that time, we found
pictures of text messages
on another phone,
and the other phone
happened to be Morgan's phone.
He also had pictures
of her sleeping.
MORGAN: Detective Lyvers
pulled me aside,
and he asked me if I had given
Rodney permission
to take a picture of my phone.
And I told him no.
- He had unlawfully gotten
into Morgan's phone.
That's a crime here in Georgia.
And they were able
to arrest him that night
for that crime.
- We still had
our work ahead of us
to confirm or dispel if Rodney
was our lead suspect
or if there was some rando
that did this.
♪ ♪
DAKOTA:
Arresting Rodney gave us time
to do further investigating
into him,
into his story.
THOMAS:
Starting the next day,
I was tasked
with obtaining search warrants
for Rodney's vehicle--
he had a Volkswagen--
for his cell phone,
and for Rodney's apartment.
In the Volkswagen
was a handwritten letter
without a signature,
but it was outlining
the person having cancer
and begging
the recipient of that letter
to come back to him.
After we finished our search
of Rodney's vehicle,
myself and a number
of other detectives
went to that apartment
and did a very thorough search
and recovered
quite a few things of interest.
We seized his laptop computer.
We seized his wireless router.
And probably
the strongest piece
of evidence that we seized
was a collection
of new and one-cut,
large, industrial-size zip tie.
[tense music]
- There was a stem
from a zip tie
that was missing the head.
So we examined the zip ties
that were used to bind
Morgan's hands together,
and there happened to be
an extra head
on one of the stems.
♪ ♪
THOMAS: One of our
evidence technicians
did what's called
a fracture-match examination.
You look under magnification,
and you're able to see
all the jagged cuts.
And you can actually move
those together,
and you can confirm
or conclude
whether they were once
one piece
or they're not even related.
♪ ♪
- It was a perfect match.
♪ ♪
THOMAS: We scanned the barcode
of those zip ties,
and we were able to see
that this was a brand
sold exclusively
by Lowe's Home Improvement.
♪ ♪
- Sergeant Harris found
surveillance footage
of Rodney...
♪ ♪
Buying just those zip ties...
and walking out of Lowe's.
And this is in the height
of COVID.
He was the only one in there
not wearing a mask,
so you could clearly identify
that it was Rodney.
♪ ♪
- As the evidence
against Rodney is piling up,
detectives uncover
something chilling
inside Rodney's search history.
♪ ♪
THOMAS:
In the search of his laptop,
I found numerous
search phrases
and topics
that he had been looking up
in the days and weeks
before this home invasion.
♪ ♪
Among those search phrases
were things like,
how to disguise your voice,
various entries on cancer,
pancreatic cancer,
treatment for cancer.
♪ ♪
But also,
he was researching letters
that would be mailed out
that have to do
with cancer care.
♪ ♪
DAKOTA:
He had made searches
for how long
to strangle someone
before they go unconscious.
♪ ♪
There was a book
of 7 Ways to be Her Hero
found at his apartment.
That gave us the motive
of why this attack was done
and why Rodney did this.
It was all to win her back,
to show her,
you need me at that house.
We, without a doubt, believed
Rodney was the one
that conducted this attack.
♪ ♪
After we gathered
all this evidence,
we brought Rodney back
to the Criminal Investigations
Division headquarters
to conduct
a follow-up interview.
DAKOTA: Sergeant Harris
actually second-chaired
with me in that interview.
I let Rodney know, hey, listen,
we're still investigating
this incident involving Morgan.
We had yet to tell him anything
about what we have done,
what we've found.
THOMAS: We asked Rodney
about any particular diagnoses
he might have,
specifically cancer.
♪ ♪
His pancreatic cancer
diagnosis,
he ultimately told us,
was fake.
♪ ♪
THOMAS:
That helped him achieve
some sympathy from Morgan.
And in the days following,
he was able to manipulate
his way into her house,
where he eventually
would spend the night
and sleep on the sofa.
I asked Rodney about some
of his internet search history,
specifically about
disguising his voice,
because Morgan described
the attacker
as how Christian Bale sounded
in the movie The Dark Knight.
- [deep voice]
I have one rule.
- It was funny to hear him say
that he feels
like he doesn't have
a masculine enough voice.
I thought that was amazing.
♪ ♪
- By the time we revealed
that we had his zip ties,
his whole demeanor changed,
partially because
he was surprised
that he had forgotten
to get rid of the zip ties
but also because the zip ties
were such a critical piece
of evidence,
and he knew
that he was in trouble.
♪ ♪
By January the 3rd,
we had conducted
enough investigation
that I was able to take
additional charges on Rodney
for, uh,
what happened to Morgan.
And among those charges
were home invasion
in the first degree,
aggravated as*ault
by strangulation,
kidnapping, armed robbery,
and burglary.
♪ ♪
- My name is Rachel Ashe.
I'm the deputy chief assistant
district attorney
for the Blue Ridge
Judicial Circuit.
During our initial
interactions with Morgan,
she was struggling
with the idea that this
could be this person
who she had loved
since they were teenagers.
- He was no longer my husband.
He was somebody
completely different,
somebody ugly,
somebody that I didn't know
who it was,
a stranger to me.
RACHEL: What she had
gone through was so violent.
She was afraid
he was gonna come back
and he was gonna k*ll her.
[somber music]
- When I found out that Rod
was the one that did this,
I was in a state of shock.
All I know is,
I'm looking at her kids,
and I'm like,
oh, my gosh, like...
thank God they were with me.
♪ ♪
- Once I got the kids home,
I sat them down,
and I said, guys,
Daddy did something very bad,
and he's going to be
in trouble
for a large portion
of your life.
[dramatic music]
- Rodney Metzer was indicted
on 14 separate charges.
♪ ♪
The sheriff's office
investigation was so strong
that this was a case
that was leading to a plea.
He would not have had
any chance at trial.
♪ ♪
Ultimately,
Rodney Metzer pled guilty
to all of the counts
in the indictment.
He was sentenced
for a total period of 70 years,
with the first 25 years
of those being in custody.
As part of his sentence,
he's ordered to have
no contact of any kind
with Morgan or his children.
♪ ♪
MORGAN: I don't know if what
he got was fair or not.
Sometimes I think, 25 years?
Okay, that's more
than enough time.
But the day is gonna come
where he's gonna get out.
I feel like that's why
I sometimes wish
the sentencing was longer,
because I don't want to come
to that day,
but I know it's gonna happen.
ANDREA:
At the sentencing hearing,
you were able to give
a victim impact statement.
Can you tell me a little bit
about that experience
and why you decided to do that?
MORGAN: I wanted to have
the last word.
I didn't want him
to think he broke me,
because I hadn't been heard
for so many years,
and, finally, he had to sit
there and listen to me.
So I felt like I finally found
my voice again
by walking up there
and speaking.
"Rod I hope you make your
mental life a priority.
"during this time of isolation.
"Thank you for the gift
of my children,
"and my heart aches
for the fact
"you'll be missing out
on first dates,
"homecomings, proms,
"the hormonal changes
into adults,
"graduations,
Christmas mornings,
"driver's licenses,
college acceptance letters,
"first apartments, first jobs,
proposals, weddings,
"and the potential birth
of our grandkids
"and so many others.
"But what disheartens me more
"is not only you are missing
these milestones,
"but I'll have to look
into Amelia and Mason's eyes
"as each of these milestones
take place
"and see the want
and the desire
for their father
to have been there."
[indistinct chatter, laughter]
"Our kids know what happened
that night you attacked me.
"We didn't ask for this, Rod.
"Why didn't you let me help you
"when I begged and pleaded
to be better for our family?
"It's time to let you go
and lay you down to rest.
Goodbye, Rod."
♪ ♪
Once I stepped off the podium,
I felt empowered.
Some weight was lifted
off my shoulders.
- I get it.
I really do.
[soft music]
MORGAN: All the way up
until a few years
after the incident,
I still believed
some of the things
that Rod had told me
the kind of person I was.
I had to, like,
reprogram my brain.
NICOLE:
She grew up with him.
And I think it's hard,
because what she had known of
was "normal" for 20 years
of her life
was really manipulation
and gaslighting at its finest.
It's a lot of trauma.
MORGAN:
I feel with trauma,
there are stages
you have to go through.
It took me a few years
to get to the point
that I realized I needed
a little bit extra help
to cope with the situation.
[bright music]
♪ ♪
- Morgan went to counseling.
She went to therapy.
She went
to a PTSD rehab facility
for six weeks or so,
and she did everything
and continues to do
everything she can
to be the most healthiest
version of herself.
Morgan has grown and evolved
by being more self-aware
and not having to find
a protector
and realizing that she can be
her own protector
and that
she doesn't need anybody.
[dramatic music]
MORGAN: There's so many
different aspects
of what I hope people
can learn from my story--
mental-health awareness,
narcissistic abuse and signs,
and my biggest one is,
as women, we need to learn
to speak to each other
and not sugarcoat everything,
because had maybe I spoke up
a little bit more,
I may have gotten
the help earlier.
♪ ♪
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