Andrea Gunning

Before everything happened, everyone thought Saskia needed someone like Mike to save her.

But there's a flip side to all this growth.

It's not just that Saskia is taking time for herself.

Saskia has her kids, but they're older now.

And most of the time, they're out of the house or with their dad.

She works from home and stays there through the evening with her pets to keep her company.

Since finding out about Mike's crimes, her world's gotten a lot smaller.

But by putting up these walls, she's not only protecting herself against bad people, she's isolating herself from friends and family.

Here's Marisa again.

When my reporting team and I went to Maryland to meet Saskia, we noticed those walls too.

We'd spent months talking to her in advance, explaining the production process and what to expect.

She was fully on board.

In all of her interviews, she was open.

But whenever we weren't recording, the walls went back up.

In a way I'd never encountered before with other stories.

For instance, during our reporting trips, we usually take our storytellers out to dinner with our team.

Saskia was the first person I've worked with who didn't really want to go.

That was a real learning moment for me.

The idea that going out to dinner with us could be hard.

On this show, we're asking people who've experienced a traumatic betrayal to trust us with their story.