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Every great romance story has a

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happily ever after. Two people meet,

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fall in love, and end

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up together for the rest of their days.

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Nancy and Dan Brophy were one of

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those couples. Dan was a

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chef who taught at a Portland

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culinary school. Nancy was a romance

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writer who filled her novels with

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sexy fantasies, betrayals, and murder. When

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Dan ends up dead, details of his

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murder that could have been ripped from

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the pages of Nancy's novels become

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clues, and Nancy becomes a

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main suspect. So this

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isn't a romance story. It starts

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with a happily ever after, but

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it doesn't end with one. I

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was a member of Nancy's writing

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group, and this case had us

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all asking the same question. Was

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Nancy just researching her next novel,

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or was she planning a murder?

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This is a story about what

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happens when the line blurs between

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fiction and reality. I'm about to

0:59

play a clip from Happily Never

1:01

After, Dan and Nancy. Follow Happily

1:03

Never After, Dan and Nancy, on

1:06

the Wondery app or wherever you

1:08

get your podcasts. Wonder.

1:22

Nicole Herman was lounging on a

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beach in Croatia with

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a perfect view of the ocean. It

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looks a lot like Oregon, with the exception

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that the water is like turquoise. It

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was nice and sunny, exactly

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how Nicole pictured her honeymoon.

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Nicole's new husband got up to take a

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swim, but she didn't join

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him. She was in the middle

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of a novel. The man on the

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book cover had a square

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jaw and a come-hither stare. All

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day, Nicole had just been waiting

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to get back to him. Nicole

4:00

and her team had turned to

4:02

an unlikely lead, a

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series of romance novels written by

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the dead man's wife. It

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was a little bit meta in terms

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of what we were dealing with. Her

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books were packed with details borrowed from

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their own lives as a local Portland

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chef and a romance novelist, details

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that the DAs had no other way to

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get their hands on. So

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now Nicole was doing homework on

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her honeymoon. I

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wasn't so sure there would truly be

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anything, but it was sort

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of in the back of my mind, what

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if something similar to this has played out

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in one of her novels, and it's all

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written right there for us to find. More

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shirts were going to be unbuttoned. More

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dresses were going to get unzipped.

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And every new chapter, every

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new scene, could potentially

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be the one to crack the murder

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case that was waiting for her back

4:57

home. Binge

5:03

all episodes of Happily Never

5:05

After, Dan and Nancy, early

5:07

and ad-free on Wondery Plus.

5:10

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5:12

or on Apple Podcasts.