Chapter 3 — No Coincidences 59:10

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Amanda Riley was flourishing after everything she'd fought through. She was pregnant with her second child, her miracle baby, and looking forward to a life free of cancer. The baby is healthy, growing and thriving despite my own challenges. I also have an amazing circle of family and friends to support us, a wonderful toddler that always raises my spirits.

a healthy miracle baby on the way that keeps me strong in my faith, and the husband of all husbands that I truly could not get through this without. His strength and empathy keep me going. We have learned we truly can't get through anything. She was like worried it's a high-risk pregnancy, they need to keep tracking her and tracking the baby. This really was a miracle child. But having already beaten cancer twice, Amanda knew that another potential relapse could be on the cards.

Most relapses of Hodgkin's lymphoma are typically within the first three years following diagnosis. Those of you who have been following us through this roller coaster know that this year was going to be a crazy year of babies and transplants. Well, as if we didn't have enough on our plate, I have relapsed, and relapsed a little sooner and a lot stronger than predicted.

I am also nearly 38 weeks pregnant with Mr. Connor Lee Riley, our second miracle baby. Pregnancy has posed its own complications recently. Let me clarify, the baby is happy, healthy, and growing right on track. Then the baby's born, he's a miracle baby, that none of the chemo affected him. I want to say her baby shower was after he was born. I remember holding him at the baby shower.

I don't know, everything just seemed like this huge miracle. It's like the miracle baby, the miracle baby. And it's just like, okay, yeah, it is a miracle. Went through all this chemo and we're told you probably wouldn't be able to have kids and it would damage your eggs and you have an IUD and then you get pregnant and then you sacrifice yourself going off of chemo hoping that it's not going to get worse while you go through this pregnancy. Amanda might have been blessed with miracle after miracle, but even miracles don't last forever.

Well, unfortunately, this post isn't full of rainbows and butterflies. I went in for labs and scans to see the progression of the first treatment, only to find out that the cancer has metastasized to my right lung. With the cancer being present in an organ, I have now been reclassified as stage four. I'm Charlie Webster. You're listening to Scamander. Scamander.

The rollercoaster was relentless. It was the third time in 18 months that Amanda heard the news, you have cancer. According to her babysitter, Mahasti, it was devastating to the whole family. I met them at my daycare. A month or two months later, again, cancer came back. That's what they told me. Corey told me that she's really sick. I don't know if she's going to survive. He was crying.

I told him, "Corey, you have to think about yourself and the baby now. Amanda is in care of doctors, and hopefully she goes on remission again." Oh, no, it's stage four. She was so sick that she couldn't take care of the baby. And baby would stay at my house longer than any other kids, till Corey comes from getting her from hospital, getting her from the doctor, or taking care of her at home.

Mahasti loved the children at her daycare so much that even off the clock, she would do everything she could for them. Once I was in Sacramento, I get a call from Corey that Amanda's really sick. We have nobody here to watch the baby if he can come. And he didn't know where I was. I said, sure, but I'm in Sacramento. I'll make it over there. I rushed back to watch the baby.

There's over 100 miles between San Jose and Sacramento. It's at least a two-hour drive, even when the traffic's good. It's like two hours, two and a half hours. It is a long way. I remember one time I went and picked Amanda from emergency in a hospital room. I was asleep. It was 12 o'clock at night. I was asleep. I get a call. I answered the call. It was Corey.

And Corey says, "Mahasi, Amanda is in a hospital. Baby's asleep. I can't leave the house. Can you go pick up Amanda and bring her home?" Of course I said, "Sure." I got up with my clothes on, drove from my house to the hospital she was in. It was about 25 minutes. I went to her hospital, and they said, "When you go in there, say you're Amanda's aunt." So they let you into the emergency area.

I said, okay. So I went to the hospital and the nurse came and she says, yes. I said, I'm here to pick up Amanda Riley. And they say, who are you? I said, I'm the aunt. And they said, okay. So they let me in and she showed me where the room is. I went to the room and she's sleeping in a dark, dark room on a bed. And she looked like she just woke up.

Not only did Mahasti love the children, she also became friends with the parents.

I went to church with Amanda and Corey. They would go to church a lot. Corey and Amanda were regulars at the family community church in San Jose, known as FCC. It might sound like a small church in the suburbs, but it's actually a mega church. Its average weekly attendance is in the thousands. As many families do, the Riley's would often head down for the Sunday service.

But it wasn't just Sundays that Amanda would attend. She was also heavily involved in the young adults group called Encounter. Every Tuesday night, I go to Encounter, which is our amazing young adults church service. This week, I wasn't feeling too well, but I went. During worship, my legs began hurting so bad with shooting, burning nerve pains that I had to sit down. I've never sat down during worship ever. I love worship.

My name is Lindsay Wilder. When I first met Amanda, I was an atheist walking into a Christian church for one of the first times. Honestly, in a weird way, I was kind of starstruck. When Amanda would speak to the congregation, people would gravitate toward her. She had a presence, something about her. This is actual audio of Amanda speaking to the congregation, and Lindsay was in the audience. Yeah! AC run! Woohoo!

Ezekiel 34:26 says, "I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will cause showers to come down in their season. There shall be showers of blessing." Now, I don't know about you guys, but it's sure raining in my life, but I don't know that I'd call it showers of blessing. I'd call it the storm that I can't see the other end. I had known this person through my friend at the time, and all I had known of her is that she had been battling cancer for many years. Two little boys.

bubbly, beautiful young woman, an active, beloved church member. We met at our young adults group called Encounter. Encounter was for people between the ages of 18 and 37 from all walks of life. It was led by Pastor Chase Wiggins. I was struggling at this time very badly, not knowing who or where to turn to. And my manager at the time, Amber,

suggested I go to church with her multiple weeks in a row. And so I finally did. I went to church with her. I was blown away by the huge production value, the flashy lights, the jumping up on the stage, like all these like fancy little things you wouldn't expect to see in a church. You don't think of a disco ball. And in that, I saw Amanda respected and loved

and being treated like the anointed person they said she was. And I was in awe. It's like an overwhelming love bomb. Like, they want you to come back. You're a body. You're spreading the word. So they just run up with this big hug and just, "Welcome here. You're welcome."

I felt like I had instant friends. I think most confusingly as I walked in there proudly an atheist, I said, "Hey, I'm here to check it out, but I don't believe in God. I never have and I don't think I ever will." And I was still receiving love as if I was a Christian just like them. And so in that moment, I sort of thought, "Well, there's nothing I can really do wrong and they'll love me."

What did Amber tell you about Amanda? I had already known all about Amanda. I had already known that there was a member of this church named Amanda C. Riley who had cancer, was fighting Hodgkin lymphoma, and it was terminal. It had spread and metastasized in her entire body. She had very little time to live. Two beautiful young boys, just making it seem very undeserving, very tragic for this to happen to such a young woman.

young woman with so many opportunities. I have a visual. She was wearing a beanie because her hair was just starting to grow back. I also remember overhearing her saying that somebody was trying to talk to her about cancer. Somebody was saying it kind of hushed behind her back and her response was, "If you have questions about my cancer, please just come to me. Who better to let you know what I'm experiencing than myself?"

I respected that. I really did. I thought, you know, maybe I would be intimidated to approach someone with cancer, but Amanda I could talk to. She's open about her experience. She's here, alive, bubbly, happy, praising the Lord, yet she's dealing with something so horrendous. After I relapsed the first time, I found out that my medical insurance

Wasn't going to cover all of my bills anymore, basically because I was moving into specialty treatments. It starts getting a little bit funny and insurance doesn't touch it quite so much.

That was real audio of Amanda sharing her testimony at church again.

She blogged about it a few days later, posting pictures of her speaking on stage and the many gift cards she was donated afterwards. Then this past week, I spoke at Encounter about victories. It's truly a privilege and an honor to serve. I'm so thankful for Pastor Chase and the leadership team. They're not friends, they're family. Pastor Chase pushes us to stretch, even when we don't want to. Even if I'm not so comfortable.

I feel like I am getting a wee bit better at the public speaking thing though. The outward generosity was tangible. The gifts she would receive, people would slip her boxes with self-care items, gift cards, "Oh, go buy your children this." "Oh, you want to go to that concert but you can't afford it? Please let me pay."

Sometimes the offering in the church services would have a segment for Amanda. You're going to bring your money to the Lord, and then you're going to bring your money to Amanda, who is directly serving the Lord. Amber and I, after every church service, would go out to one of our cars and pray for Amanda. And the phrase was always for her to see her children graduate from high school.

which was just, it was not going to happen. She was terminal. I had seen a picture of cancer having riddled her entire body, little specks through her entire body. Amber showed you the picture? Amber showed me the picture. She said, "Amanda told me not to show this to anybody."

But since we're here in this car praying together for her, I want to show you this picture. And we cried. We cried. The cancer was everywhere. Her arms, her legs, her chest. I really thought she was going to die. I really thought maybe one day I would wake up and she had, you know, died. I feel like she caught the attention of my heart immediately. I wanted to help like other people were helping. I don't have money to give.

But I knew that one of the ways I could contribute was to donate platelets in her honor, knowing they weren't going to her, but they were going to someone struggling with maybe Hodgkin lymphoma that needed these platelets to survive. And in that, we built a connection. She never looked sick to me. Never. She always had good skin, good makeup. She always looked good. I said, "Wow."

The only thing was different, she shaved all of that beautiful hair. She shaved it all the way down. But the point is she had her eyebrows, she had her eyelashes. She says she shaved it because she didn't want her hair get to the point that looked like a bird nest. So Corey shaved her hair. And Corey once shaved his head to support Amanda. Yeah, I remember that too.

My hair has been progressively coming out for the past week. Finally, today, it just became too much mess to clean up. So we buzzed what was left of my hair. My godsend of a husband let me shave his head in solidarity, rocking his stupid cancer shirt. There was a time when she had shaved her head because of what she was going through. So obviously at that point, there's more of a physical sign that, you know, she's going through something if, you know, you don't have your hair, but...

In terms of her showing up and seeming sick, she usually had a pretty good energy level. Amanda was a bit of a rock star at church. Everyone knew who she was and what she was going through. Her strength through everything was inspiring, especially for a young woman called Charisse Valdez. We were part of the same college group, essentially, at church. So once a week, we would show up on, I think it was Tuesday nights at the time.

We're in that same community, same friend group, and we just got to know each other there. Amanda was always incredibly sweet. She had a presence about her that was very likable. She was there for me when I needed to chat, very supportive and friendly. I never really had anything negative to say about her. Some of our conversations would be as simple as, you know, talking about my boy drama and her giving advice because she was married and, you know, stuff like that. I have a history with childcare and early childhood education.

I would help out with babysitting, play with her kids. I even did some house sitting for her to care for her pets, her kids. You know, we, that was one of my things, you know, she has two young boys and for her to be sick, you know, that, that must be so hard on them as they grow up. And if they were to lose her, what would that look like? I think I just felt such a purpose in being able to do that, to feel like I was making a difference and being able to support her.

Kind of made me feel special that I could do that for her and that I had the skill set to show up and be able to do that in the time and that she would allow me into that area of her life and trust me with that. It was very special. I felt trusted and loved. It was beautiful and lovely. Being around Amanda, it was like light. You know, she had that personality that you were drawn to.

So being able to be in that inner circle, of course, was such a joy for me to be close to someone who makes you feel that way. We did have many conversations over the years of just, you know, that mental struggle of trying to balance everything and being away from her family when she would need to get treatment, the financial burden. We talked about faith a lot in terms of the cancer and, you know, trying to stay strong and pray and have that support.

In fact, I even visited her in the hospital a few times. That was hard, seeing her in a hospital room and at the time suffering. And it was definitely hard. But she had such a group around her that it was... I didn't feel like she was alone in it. And it kind of gave me the sense of comfort that, you know, she would get through it and it would work out for the best one way or the other. It wasn't a sit there and kind of scoot around the issue of, you know, you're sitting in a bed, there's wires plugged in. It was...

hey, let's talk about life. How's Corey? How are the boys? I preferred to go one-to-one to have that time with her. It just reminded me of how freaking strong she was to be going through something and still be thinking of other people. She was an inspiration to me. Chemo and the cancer treatment she had gone through were having other side effects and they couldn't pinpoint what was going on, but that she was in extreme pain.

It was something related to her back or bones. I don't remember the specifics. I just remember her being concerned that they couldn't figure it out. And so she was kind of in her own isolated room. There was talks about her transferring to special units because they couldn't pinpoint what was causing her the pain. And so she explained, I'm hooked up to this and it's doing this. And I just remember her being floored that they weren't sure what was going on at that point in time.

And so that was very concerning to me. You've been through cancer a few times and now they can't figure out how to help you at this point. Oh, that was heart-wrenching, devastating. It was so much back and forth at this point. You're healed and then you're back and then you're healed and then you're back. And now what is the path forward? Her boys are getting older and she's having to be away from them in the hospital again. And it just...

It broke my heart to see them have to go through this and to think of what that financial burden must look like to have to be in the hospitals again. I couldn't even imagine putting myself in her shoes and what that was like for her. Moral support wasn't the only way the church community helped Amanda. My incredible pastor notified me in our weekly inner core leadership meeting that he was setting up a prayer fast day for our family.

I confided in him that we needed specific prayer. Donations have drastically dwindled. If I don't get the treatment, I won't see New Year's. I wouldn't say it was obvious that she was sick at church. One of the things we would say about Amanda was how strong she was because she would share about her suffering, but she would show up and she would have a smile for you and she would still be there for you. They had already built up that community around her where the pastor had

hey, you know, Amanda's struggling. If anyone wants to support her, like, let us know. At one point, they did wristbands. A lot of people at our church donated. You know, we had many fundraisers. We had a large church, and people were very supportive. We would do...

little events here and there. There was Christmas caroling and we would drop off gifts for her kids and I think there were occasional, you know those restaurant things where if you come in on this night some of the portions go to this and things of that nature. There were t-shirts at one point. She would get on the stage at sermons and talk about her miracle, talk about how

It hurts so much to get up in the morning. Her body is burning, her joints are stiff, but the Lord is there to carry her through. We try to hide from God. We're angry with God. We try to hide from God.

Don't stop talking to him. If you're angry, tell him. If you're happy, praise him. You know, if you're going through something, share it with him. Give it to him. Whatever it is, whether it's happy or mad or angry or sad, don't ignore Jesus because he is always there. And it would be unfortunate if he brought you your miracle and you weren't watching.

I can tell you almost everybody in that building was on the edge of their seat. We wanted to know what Amanda had to say. We wanted to know where her strength was coming from, how she could continue to be so persevering in such a horrible situation, and how leaning on God and having God in her life was performing so many otherwise unexplainable miracles. It was profound. It was absolutely profound. I remember one of the last things Amanda said in her sermon was,

You need to watch closely to Jesus because your miracle could happen and you could not even know it. And that made the entire congregation go wild. It was the most poignant thing ever. It became trademarked as hers. And I was just, I was eating it up. I was a believer. I was baptized in, I believe, 2016. Amanda's best friend, Amber, was right by my side. Supporting Amanda got me more involved in the community.

which, you know, by default grew my faith. Seeing all these miracles on her life made me feel like maybe mine was around the corner. Did I, you know, just give my life to God? I went to a church service. I was sitting next to Amber, and Amber was sitting next to Amanda. During the service, I remember looking over and hearing Amanda say, "I don't feel well. I'm getting really hot. I need to go grab water." Last night, I was at the incredible Tuesday night encounter at FCC Church.

I got a bit dizzy, but Pastor Chase was on a roll, and I didn't want to interrupt the incredible moment he was forming. She passed by us. She started to walk down the aisle. She walked all the way to the back of the church. Finally, it got to the point I didn't have a choice, and I knew I needed some water ASAP. And as she was turning the corner to go towards the door, she passed out. Just flat, passed out.

I remember exactly what happened then. The pastor jumped off the stage and he ran over to her. Everybody got up. They made almost a huddle where they put all of their hands in. The idea was that everybody holding their hands over Amanda was putting some sort of intention on her, that the Lord would heal her, that she would raise up from the ground and be okay, that she would survive. The next thing I remember, I hear people yelling, "Amanda, Amanda, call 911."

They were praying for her, praying over her. And that's when I, for the first time in my life, got down on my knees and I prayed for Amanda. Prayed that she would see her children graduate high school. And she left in an ambulance.

Go to your happy place for a happy price. Go to your happy price, Priceline.

The ambulance came and picked her up that night. And the next day on Facebook, she like posted something like, ha ha ha, yeah, that was me. I was the girl that passed out. And I thought that was a little bit like odd, you know, like, hmm. This is another of Amanda's friends from the youth group Encounter at Church, Vanna Ruiz. I had a near-death experience and I prayed in my hospital bed and he gave me another chance of life. And that's how I decided to give my life to God. And I found the young adults group.

and decided to walk my relationship out with him. So that's how I met Amanda, because I shared my testimony on stage and she came and just was like, "Oh gosh, I love you. You're great." I'm like, "You're great."

Pastor Chase asked all of us in the group to donate because she reached out to him personally saying, "Hey, like, I can't afford this, this and this, and I hate to ask, but can you just pray for us?" And that's Chase's heart. Chase's heart was very like, "I'm going to reach out to leaders." Like, he didn't like go on stage and make a big old announcement, but he was like, "I'm gonna reach out to leaders who would do something about this." So a lot of us did donate money. We all gave it to him and he gave it to her.

A huge thank you to Pastor Chase and all of Encounter Leadership, who raised all the money for my tests and my treatments so I could start the medicine. I don't know what I would do without your prayers and love. Pastor Chase called us personally and left us a voicemail. And I just heard his heart, you know, that we're brothers and sisters of Christ to be there for one another, to help her out. Like, she's kind of embarrassed to ask. She needed it ASAP, but I gave 100%.

So I gave it to Chase at the church. I said, "Here, here's my envelope. You can give it to Amanda." And he was like, "Okay, thank you so much." She was a big member of the church. She really was. Even before I got there, there were pictures of her on Instagram that she had on stage and her husband and people would come up and give them money. Amanda was on stage at church again, speaking again, this time with her husband, Corey, joining her.

Her local celebrity status was growing. Churchgoers flocked to the stage and put money at her feet. The pastor, he approached me the first time I had kind of talked about my story a little bit and said, "Hey, you know, we want to do a dollar offering for you on main stage." I said, "You want to do a what?" And he said that they were talking about giving and teaching people how to give and that he wanted us to be the recipient for that. And in front of our entire main stage church, people came up and put dollars on the stage.

thousands of dollars on the stage and completely wiped our medical bills. I was there. The family stood on stage. I remember all the different lights. The spotlights were on them, but there were also, like, the twinkling, like, green, blue, red. It was just really sensationalized. Who was on the stage? I believe it was the whole family. I believe it was Amanda and Corey and the kids. I mean, just by being on a stage, she was on a pedestal.

I remember the music playing softly. People were slowly walking up with their money. They weren't running towards her. They were paying their dues. They were throwing it at her feet. They were throwing money, dollar bills, whatever, to be collected and go directly into her pocket. These people needed money. We needed to make sure this mom could see her kids graduate. Whatever we had to do. So her medications were $4,000 a month. Okay.

So let's support her. Let's throw money at her feet. This $20 in my pocket is worth so little in comparison to the life of this woman. I was an observer from, like, the first few rows. When I physically gave her money is when they were passing around, like, a tithing tray, an offering tray, and I would put money in there. I would hand her money as they were coming around collecting for that day's Amanda Fund. Amanda was literally having money thrown at her feet.

And as she continued to preach to her congregation in person and to her followers online, Nancy, the investigative producer, was going deeper down the rabbit hole of Amanda's blogs. Every day I'd come into work, I had it saved on my computer, you know, bookmarked. I would check her blog. I would check her Facebook. I would check her Instagram just to see, OK, where are we at today? What's new? Each week there was two or three more posts. And I just found myself enthralled.

She posted probably at least once a week, if not twice. And if she wasn't posting on there, there was an Instagram or a Facebook to look for, or even Twitter. Every, it seemed to be Sunday night, Wednesday, and Fridays, you know, or thereabouts, she would post. Would you say that you became almost kind of addicted to... You're nodding your head as I ask you that. No.

It's going to sound strange, but it was really exciting. I would say yes, yeah. I think part of it's because it's in my job, like it's exciting to latch onto a story and work the story. And part of that is going down those tangents and those rabbit holes, as I always say, and getting sucked in. Because you do your best work when you're in the middle of it. It's hard to do it from just looking from the outside. ♪

I knew something wasn't right, right? So of course, the reason I'm reading them is because if I believe my source, this woman is lying and doesn't have cancer. But in the same breath, I'm reading these to look for the details and the stuff that I can pull out from it. So I was hanging on every word and wanting to... The excitement, if she would post something that I thought I could fact check, was like, ooh, I could check that out. Or, oh, wait, she said this? Did she say this last time? So yeah, it becomes very like a puzzle and very...

all-consuming. I asked Nancy to read the email she got from her source to get a better understanding of what was pushing her to really go after this story. This is the email I got. "Hi, Nancy. I'm contacting you because I believe that I have a story that you might be interested in checking out. There is a 30-year-old woman in my Silicon Valley city who is claiming to have stage four blood cancer. She's moved herself into a volunteer leadership position in one of the largest churches in our area.

She has been using the deeply religious and affluent congregation to get nonstop donations and benefits for the past three years. She was new to the church when her cancer began. She's charming everyone with her sweetness and flattery and getting everything she asks for. She has celebrities tweeting to her, donating signed guitars for raffles, radio stations tweeting to her,

She has been interviewed by online lifestyle sites, is a VIP at hockey games, baseball games, and football games. She gets to meet the players, gets free meals, and free stays at hotels in the San Francisco, New York, and Monterey area. The list goes on and on. Her position at the church allows her to meet lots of young professionals with connections in our affluent city.

She has had people paying for her multiple trips to New York for treatment, including Broadway shows where she gets backstage passes and meets the stars. And she does this all after a long day of treatment in a hospital. She's constantly asking for more money and thanking her donors by name. The support has been encouraging, overwhelming, and wonderful. We were invited to be VIP guests at Sunday's crucial... Thank you to everyone who has donated. Thank you to everyone for all...

For all the lovers. To all of Encounter. The Fishers. Kirstead. Everyone involved with Sharice. To the Lairdens. How do I even begin to do that? Coots family. Christy Harrington. I feel so honored, blessed, and supported. From planning full church activities of support. Pastor Chase. We thank you from every fiber. A huge thank you to the San Jose Sharks. Also my parents and brother who paid my hair care. Huge thank you to two amazing church families. Carter's happy little face with all the

Thank you, AVAC, for Christmas. For diapers and formula. Swim lessons, airline tickets. Thank you to every person who donated to keep us young. Thank you ever so much for the undies. Food. A lot. Help. Preschool costs. Get medical bills paid. Thank you, cancer. I appreciate you. Watch the kids. And just for giving your attention. Thank you for making our family feel so loved. Blessed. No matter what the outcome, I already won.

Amanda's many thank yous to the hundreds of donors. The anonymous email that Nancy got continues with...

Nancy's source insisted on anonymity. Despite pages and pages of public, heartfelt blog posts that inspired and moved thousands of followers, one anonymous email was enough to get Nancy questioning the whole thing. Amanda was even catching the attention of celebrities who were throwing their support behind the #TeamAmanda cause, facilitated by new friend and celebrity hookup Stephanie Finn, who was in the Nashville music scene.

I knew her mom, Peggy, and her dad, Tom. We were kind of in the same circle of friends. We all did like fantasy football. We hung out together on weekends. I do remember Peggy talking to all of us and they're like, hey, have you heard about, you know, Amanda? And it's like, no, here's her daughter. She has been diagnosed. I'm like, man, that's awful. Peggy, she was posting, here's her Kaiser bill and parts of it's covered up. This is how much it is.

That was her insurance and they were saying they weren't going to pay for certain things. And there were certain treatments that she supposedly needed that wasn't covered under Kaiser Network. I've just always been one, if I can help out, I'll help out. So I had reached out at one point and was like, hey, you know, look, here's some ideas of some ways we can raise money. Why don't we do auction items? And I can try to get my hands on some items.

She just wanted anything she could do to, you know, raise awareness. Awesome. Let me help you out. What can we do to drive up the bids? What can we do to just get awareness out? Stephanie, the most kindhearted person ever, has started up an awesome support system called Amanda Brave, hashtag Team Amanda, using her amazing connections to get performers from all over to sign guitars for auction to help support Team Amanda.

Just started reaching out to people that I knew or within country music and their connections within country music and going and getting stuff signed. One of them was to go see Tower of Power and Journey and they were able to get a guitar signed for Amanda. I was like, okay, I need to have something I can give them. So her mom created a flyer that I could actually give to artists to tell them why we're trying to raise money. So that way, if it was like a friend of a friend, you know, they would have something to hand off and say, here you go.

Amanda, she would ask to have her flyer signed and I would mail them to her, give them to her mom or send her a picture of it. Stephanie was extremely well connected in the country music business. She actually knew LeAnne Rimes' steel player, who she contacted about getting Amanda backstage to meet LeAnne. I had offered once, "Hey, if you go, I go to concerts, you can go with me." I told her LeAnne Rimes was my favorite. I had plans to go, so she wanted to go, her husband wanted to go.

The steel player that I knew, it was LeAnne's steel player at the time. He's like, "I can make sure you guys get a chance to meet her." We went backstage for meet and greets. So of course all these things are on social media. Now LeAnne Rimes has joined Team Amanda. Stephanie surprised me by taking both Corey and I to the concert. We got to meet her. I was pretty starstruck, but tried to keep my cool. She was so nice and down to earth.

Afterwards, we got to watch her perform with the symphony. It was beautiful and pure magic. I think my jaw was on the floor most of the night. After the concert, her wonderful steel player escorted us to her dressing room where she so kindly signed guitars. What was Leon's reaction? Of course, very sympathetic. I mean, you have someone coming in saying, you know, they have cancer and they're so excited to meet them. And I mean, she was very, very sweet, very polite.

All I ever heard is how the ex-wife was crazy. The ex-wife is crazy. She's a terrible mom. We've got to get her away from there. We're going to get full custody. Yep, the custody battle was still happening. And it wasn't particularly pretty. And whether it was through Facebook, on the phone or in person, Amanda wasn't shy about sharing. She was painting a picture to all of her friends of what Alita, the ex-wife, was like and exactly why she needed to get Jessa out of Alita's house.

When we sat down with Jessa and her mom Alita, I wanted to know what Amanda was saying. In court, they would say things that weren't true. According to them, I was a druggie, I was abusive to my daughter. Alita, Jessa's mom again. They were just trying to get custody. They kept trying to get custody of her. I'm Jenny Winter.

And I was Alita's attorney in her family law matter. Jenny, how long have you been practicing family law? Over 20 years. I can imagine you've seen so many different types of cases. Yeah, nothing like this one, though. Really? What made it so different? I've never dealt with opposing parties that would go to the length of...

that Mr. Riley and his wife Amanda went to. I mean, I was blown away. What were some of the things that Amanda and Corey were accusing Alita of? Oh. Well, they did try to accuse her of being crazy.

and would claim that she did certain things that if she had done them would make her seem crazy. I remember one in particular, which was not necessarily the worst, but accusing her of coming over to Corey's house and doing wheelies in her car in front of his house and just really kind of crazy stuff, which she didn't do.

You go into court and you're trying to claim that this other person is, you know, not stable. And you say, well, you know, here's this 30-something mother of three in your neighborhood driving in wild wheelie circles and screaming and yelling and doing, you know, it makes them seem unstable, even if she did do that.

What's that got to do with her parenting her daughter, other than that you would hope she would not teach her daughter to do those kinds of things. But they were trying to make her seem unstable. There was so much. There was so much. And of course, they always accused her of trying to turn their daughter against her father. They just wanted to get, if they could get the child away from her,

They could eliminate the child support and in fact go after her for child support. I think money was a lot at the bottom of this. They just really tried to tear me apart. And at one point they did. It was just awful. And I had no control. It was heartbreaking. Why do you think they wanted your daughter?

I was in the way of their perfect little family. When you go to court, the judge, she doesn't know the people. You know, so she may know these parents because they have made frequent appearances, but she doesn't really know them. And so she can't really determine what is actually going on. And in this case...

I think that Corey, he's pretty good at putting a good front on. He can seem really normal. And Alida was having great difficulty with the entire thing. And at a time when, as her attorney, I needed her to be a rock.

You know, some clients just can't do it because it gets too emotional. And then the judge starts hearing the other side saying how unstable she is. And the next thing you know, you're fighting an uphill battle. And so even if the judge considered everything that we said, along with everything the other side said, it looks as though there's a little more truth to everything

the other side story because Alita is being really emotional in court or whatever. So Alita lost custody. And I want you to know I cried in court that day and I had never allowed my emotion to show when representing someone in court before that or since that. I couldn't help myself.

Because I knew that going to live with her father was not what was best for Jessa. I knew it. Jessa is living with us full time now. And it has been such a blessing. She's doing so great. It makes my heart happy. The judge at the time, she was just, oh gosh, she was awful. She was just awful. But anyways, they told me I had to turn Jessa in. Like a dog, I had to turn her in. Are you serious? Yes.

So I had to go to the courts that day and I went with my parents. I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm going to leave her. Alita understandably found this very distressing. I myself come from a split family and I know how hard it was for me as a child. We paused the tape to let Alita have some space and I started recording again with Jessa. Why do you think Amanda wanted you as her daughter?

I think Amanda has always wanted that image of a perfect family and would do anything to get it. I think that she wanted me to play a part in that and just kind of forget where I came from and just focus on her and my dad. It makes me feel really sad because I almost just want to kind of forget everything happened, but then I see the pictures of my little brothers. It makes me kind of miss what I had with them. When I lived with my dad, I just kind of had to

follow everything they did and I had to be perfect or else I wouldn't be able to have my phone, I'd be grounded, I wouldn't be able to have my door on my bedroom. Like, it would be a lot if I got in trouble. Shortly after Jessa got taken away, I was watching TV and I saw Jessa on TV with her dad because somebody stole Girl Scout cookies and they were on the news.

And I could see Jessa, it was the first day of her school since she got taken away in a new school. And she was on the news station and she just looked like she had been crying all night long. That was torture all in itself. I just wanted to just go hug her and I couldn't even do that.

Could you contact her at that time? I think we had a phone conversation like a couple times a week. It was ridiculous. I don't remember exactly how many times. And of course, they would sit there and they would be there at every conversation. So I couldn't really even talk to her. She couldn't really talk to me. What was Jessa like when you spoke to her? It was very superficial because, you know, she didn't want to get in trouble for saying something that she shouldn't. And

I knew they were listening, so I couldn't ask her anything without worrying about getting hung up on. It was very rare that I was able to talk to my mom, like at all. And I remember going most of the time without being able to talk to her, like period. And when I did talk to her, I couldn't speak to her alone. My dad and Amanda would mention things that I wasn't allowed to say. They would monitor the phone call very closely.

As time went on, they would allow me to take a phone call in my room, but I couldn't have the door closed. They'd be close by and they were just very overbearing. What things were you not allowed to say? Just anything about what was happening with Amanda and her sickness or any plans that we had. I wasn't really allowed to speak about that. What did you think of Amanda at that time?

I knew I didn't really like her that much because she had kind of taken me away from my mom. I remember one time she dropped off Jessa and she had this pink beanie on. I felt bad for her, you know. But she was all bubbly. Jessa was explaining how she shaved her head and tried to show her her hair missing. Jessa said it was like nonchalant, like, oh, you want to see? Yeah. Amanda picked me up from school one day.

And she had just a beanie on. Like, usually your hair would be, like, going through her beanie or showing through the back. But she told me, she was like, my hair started falling out, and so I shaved it. You want to see? And I'm like, what? I didn't think she would be so, like, open with it. I thought it would be, like, a sore subject. I thought it'd be hard for her. But so she ripped off her beanie, and she showed me her bald head, and... What was your reaction? I remember just kind of being in shock.

Were you there when she passed out at the church? No. But I remember when my dad got the call. What happened? I just remember someone from the church called my dad and he's like, "Amanda just passed out at church and I have to go get her and she's got to go to the hospital." I'm like, "Okay, okay." He's like, "I'm going to call you guys a babysitter." Didn't she pee on the floor? Mm-hmm. She did. With Jess and her living with them full time, Amanda's perfect family was finally complete. But it wasn't a happily ever after.

She took to her blog, posting photos of the daily injections she needed and the oxygen tubes that were slowly becoming a permanent fixture. Her cancer was getting worse. Well, long story short, I'm not converting enough oxygen out of my body at an efficient rate. I'm working with a pulmonary specialist team, and they're doing everything they can to better the situation. Until then, I'm the living version of Fault in Our Stars.

Can I just say, anyone who is on oxygen, I feel you. Hauling tanks everywhere, dealing with insurance, delivery, the tubes, extra weight. It's a pain in the ass. Currently fighting insurance. They claim oxygen necessity isn't covered. I call BS. There was always photos. There was always more details. She had pictures of hospital equipment. You know, her standing in front of it or laying in a bed with equipment.

I just kept building and building upon the original research with every post because it just kept going. It was this back and forth constantly because the way she writes and the journey she takes you on lulls you into this, oh, this is horrible. And I had gone through this with my sister, was diagnosed and passed away from lung cancer. And she was a little bit older than what Amanda was.

She had two small kids. It was very, very similar. And I know what that was like. And I know what that looked like. And this resembled it to a point and then didn't and then did and then didn't. Amanda was getting worse but looking healthier. And that stuck with me a lot. I kept going, well, she looks like she's hooked up to machines and she's in a doctor's office that says oncology. But doesn't she look weird?

Like she gained weight, you know? And there's so much that you think of with people that are fighting for their life with cancer that just weren't adding up. When I was watching my little brothers, they told me to clean their playroom. So I cleaned up their playroom. And as I was cleaning, I found an IV wrapped in saran wrap. I remember just being confused. It was just like the plastic part and then like a little bit of a tube.

that goes into your hand. How did you know what it was? I've had IVs myself, so I knew what they look like, what they are. So after I found the IV, I brought it to Amanda and I told her, I'm like, "What is this? Why is it in my little brother's room?" And she just kind of grabbed it from me and told me that, "Oh, Carter, my little brother,

He was just going through my drawers and he found that. So just keep him out of my drawers. I'm like, okay, all right, fine. So I found that a little bit odd. As soon as I was able to have visitation with my mom, I kind of mentioned, I'm like, things are just seeming really weird. Jessa was starting to feel uncomfortable and confused. She had a lot of responsibilities for a 13-year-old.

Hopefully, though, things were about to change for Jessa and the entire Riley family. Having beaten cancer twice already, Amanda was nothing if not a fighter. Despite relapsing once more and then being diagnosed as stage four, she's done it again. She updated her blog with pictures of her family, including Jessa, and the news that she had achieved complete remission.

This was the best week ever. I went in to check my cancer prognosis to get scheduled for my harvest, only to find out that I have achieved complete remission. #TeamAmanda. Scamanda is hosted and produced by me, Charley Webster, and produced by Jackson McLennan. Amanda's blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horne, edit and theme music by Nico Pallela,

Assistant Producer Casey Hertz. Assistant Editor Seema Grewal. Additional production support from Stephen Sletten, Will Hagel and Nicole Urban. Executive produced by me, Charlie Webster and Nancy Moscatello. Scamander is a Lionsgate Sound production engineered by Pilgrim Media Group.