and signed a lease on a cool, new apartment. leon moved in. that to me was really scary. i m very independent. and he s like, i opened a bank account and i put your name on it. reporter: that s quick? but i was like, oh, he really cares. like okay. reporter: leon s family welcomed meghan like one of their own. did you start to envision the possibility of marriage with leon? yeah. at 30 years old, you don t spend time with somebody that you don t want to be serious with. that s not who i am. reporter: meghan settled in. she got a dog and made a new friend through work, aerial washington. we really clicked over just being from out of town. both transitioning into houston, and we re both steelers fans. reporter: leon s selfies showed a loving couple. but there was one trouble spot in meghan s new life. leon didn t have a texas medical license yet. why don t you go work as a surgical assistant? he was like, you don t understand what it s like to be a doctor.
apartment. leon moved in. that to me was really scary. i m very independent. and he s like, i opened a bank account and i put your name on it. reporter: that s quick? but i was like, oh, he really cares. like okay. reporter: leon s family welcomed meghan like one of their own. did you start to envision the possibility of marriage with leon? yeah. at 30 years old, you don t spend time with somebody that you don t wanna be serious with. that s not who i am. reporter: meghan settled in. she got a dog and made a new friend through work, arial washington. we really clicked over just being from out of town. both transitioning into houston, and we re both steelers fans. reporter: leon s selfies showed a loving couple. but there was one trouble spot in meghan s new life. leon didn t have a texas medical license yet. why don t you go work as a surgical assistant? he was like, you don t understand what it s like to be a doctor.
fight like hell. reporter: what did she say? she did not understand what was happening. she just seemed off. terribly, terribly sad. reporter: at home alone, valerie recorded an audio diary on her ipad. hey, it s valerie. reporter: she recounted how, back when her marriage to mack was crumbling, she ran into her neighbor s son, leon. i was completely turned off immediately by his attitude, because you could tell he knew how beautiful he was. reporter: but over time, valerie, like meghan before her, thought she saw something in him. and as with meghan, leon captured their budding romance in selfies. i got through that exterior and realized he was a a nice person. and i was lonely. and uh, he kept me company. i fell deeply in love with leon. reporter: but valerie said she never intended to have her
being from out of town. both transitioning into houston, and we re both steelers fans. reporter: leon s selfies showed a loving couple. but there was one trouble spot in meghan s new life. leon didn t have a texas medical license yet. why don t you go work as a surgical assistant? he was like, you don t understand what it s like to be a doctor. you can t just take any job. reporter: meghan had to support both herself and leon. it really just seemed like frustrations within a normal relationship. reporter: but one night, everything changed. meghan expressed her frustration in front of leon s high-achieving family. like, i don t understand why he s not working. and he was like, we re gonna talk about this when we get home. and he just tore up my entire closet and just threw all of my stuff on the balcony. reporter: what did you say back to him? i was, like, shocked. and i didn t know what to say. and i didn t know what to do. like, here i am, i live with this person.
deserved something else. reporter: something better? yeah. reporter: houston was good for meghan. she found a job in hotel sales and signed a lease on cool, new apartment. leon moved in. that to me was really scary. i m very independent. and he s like, i opened a bank account and i put your name on it. reporter: that s quick? but i was like, oh, he really cares. like okay. reporter: leon s family welcomed meghan like one of their own. did you start to envision the possibility of marriage with leon? yeah. at 30 years old, you don t spend time with somebody that you don t wanna be serious with. that s not who i am. reporter: meghan settled in. she got a dog and made a new friend through work, aerial washington. we really clicked over just being from out of town. both transitioning into houston, and we re both steelers fans. reporter: leon s selfies showed a loving couple. but there was one trouble spot in meghan s new life. leon didn t have a texas medical