0:02

Every great romance story has a

0:04

happily ever after. Two. People

0:06

meet, they fall in love, and end

0:08

up together for the rest of their

0:10

days. Nancy. And down

0:13

Brophy were one of those couples

0:15

dame and was a chef who

0:17

taught at a Portland Commentary school.

0:19

Nancy was a romance writer who

0:22

filled her novels with sexy fantasies,

0:24

betrayals and murder. When. Down

0:26

ends up dead details of his murder

0:28

that could have been ripped from the

0:30

pages of Nancy's novels become clues. And.

0:33

Nancy becomes a suspect. So

0:36

this isn't a romance story. It.

0:38

Starts with the happily ever after, but

0:40

it doesn't end with one. Was

0:42

Nancy just researching her next novel?

0:45

Or. Was she planning a murder? This

0:49

is a story about what happens

0:51

when the lines blur between fiction

0:53

and reality. I'm. About to

0:55

play a clip from Happily Never

0:57

After, Dan and Nancy. You can

0:59

follow Happily Ever After Down and

1:01

Nancy on the Wonder He Up

1:03

or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:17

Nicole. Herman was lounging on

1:19

a beach in Croatia with a

1:21

perfect view of the ocean. It

1:24

looks a lot like or again

1:26

with the exception that the water

1:28

like turquoise. It was nice and

1:31

sunny. exactly how Nicole picture of

1:33

her honeymoon. Nicole's new husband got

1:35

up to take a swim which

1:38

she didn't join him. She was

1:40

in the middle of a novel.

1:42

The man on the book cover

1:44

had a square jaw and a

1:47

come. Hither stare all day.

1:49

Nicole had just been waiting

1:51

to get back to him.

1:57

he sat on the floor and gestured for

1:59

her He stood between his legs. He

2:02

showed her how everything worked. And

2:05

loaded and unloaded each of

2:07

them. Are you showing me this so

2:09

I can kill my husband? Travis

2:12

spoke slowly, choosing each word with

2:14

care. Maybe in the beginning you

2:16

met something to him. But

2:19

now you're just another loose end. He

2:21

will know a hundred ways to kill you. And

2:24

make it look like an accident. She

2:26

crossed the forehead against his and closed

2:28

her eyes. Don't make me like

2:31

you. I'd rather you

2:33

were a knuckle dragging me under the hall.

2:36

Unless I'm dead. And

2:39

this is over. Maybe.

2:43

But... I

2:45

do plan to use your body until I

2:47

leave. Scandalous.

2:53

I was probably reading anywhere from 150 to 300 pages a

2:55

day. Nicole

2:59

had been laid out on the beach

3:01

for hours reading. She

3:03

was already on book number two in the Wrong

3:06

Never Felt So Right series.

3:09

And she was determined to get through all

3:11

five books by the end of her trip.

3:14

Every book was more or less the same. Burley,

3:17

former Navy SEAL, comes to

3:19

the rescue of beautiful young women on

3:22

the run from her dangerous husband. It

3:25

was an odd choice of reading for a honeymoon.

3:28

But away from the beaches of Croatia,

3:30

back home in Portland, Oregon, Nicole

3:33

was a deputy district attorney. Those

3:36

are things as a prosecutor that you

3:38

sometimes want to get ahead of and in front

3:40

of. And for months,

3:42

she and her team had been trying to

3:44

solve a murder. But

3:47

progress had been slow. Direct

3:50

evidence kept eluding them. As

3:53

the pressure mounted, Nicole and her

3:55

team had turned to an unlikely

3:58

lead. romance

4:00

novels written by the dead

4:02

man's wife. It was a little

4:04

bit meta in terms of what we were dealing

4:06

with. Her books were packed with

4:08

details borrowed from their own lives

4:11

as a local Portland chef and

4:13

a romance novelist. Details

4:15

that the D.A.'s had no other way to

4:18

get their hands on. So

4:20

now Nicole was doing homework on

4:22

her honeymoon. I

4:25

wasn't so sure there would truly be

4:27

anything, but it was sort

4:29

of in the back of my mind, what if

4:31

something similar to this has played out in one

4:33

of her novels and it's all written right there for

4:35

us to find. More shirts were

4:38

going to be unbuttoned. More

4:40

dresses were going to get unzipped.

4:43

And every new chapter, every

4:45

new scene could potentially

4:47

be the one to crack the murder

4:50

case that was waiting for her back

4:52

home. Binge

4:58

all episodes of Happily Never After,

5:00

Dan and Nancy early and ad-free

5:03

on Wondery Plus. Join

5:05

Wondery Plus in the Wondery app

5:07

or on Apple Podcasts.