This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

My dad was like, I want to talk to you about something.

Let's go talk for a second outside.

He started this whole preamble, like,

you have taught me the importance of honesty.

You have been such a positive influence on my life.

Like, you are an inspiration.

And he was looking me in the eye and being really emotional about it.

And he said, because of that, I want to be honest with you.

They're going to have a little bit of trouble coming up.

Yeah. I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most,

and the deceptions that change everything.

At betrayal, we hear lots of stories about romantic betrayals,

marriages and relationships blown apart by deception.

But sometimes we encounter another kind of betrayal,

one that's not a violation of vows,

but instead the violation of a more inherent trust, the trust a child puts in their parents.

That's how we found Heather Summerlad.

As a really young child, I had no idea that there was anything bizarre about my family.

Heather grew up in El Paso, Texas in the 80s and 90s.

She was the youngest child in a blended family.

...