Malik and Jade

Author's Note: The Real Story Behind Malik and Jade

***TW for infant/child loss***

Throughout Malik and Jade's story unfolding, there were a number of comments about this story hitting differently and that the emotions in it felt more real.

There was a reason for that.

This story was based on a real-life story from someone on my FB page. She made a story idea suggestion and I talked with her about it, let it bubble for a while and then decided how I wanted to write this story and let it unfold.

The real story is much more complex and heartbreaking than my story. (There are some significant differences, such as Jade in my story knew her marriage had been arranged; "Jade" did not know hers had been arranged.) But I promised "Jade" an HEA, and I wrote this story solely for her. It's why this story is dedicated to "Jade."

Following is "Jade's" real story in her own words:

Sometimes in life you meet someone quite unexpectedly or through an unexpected channel and you never know that that person is going to have a profound effect on you and help you in ways you didn't even know you needed. GroveltoHEA to me is that person. When I first read one of her stories (it was Merrick my first ever cheating story) I never even imagined that one day I would tell her my life and she would put it into words so beautiful and touching as she always does and that those words would heal a lot of my hurts but also touch something in loads of other people who were living their lives as best as they could but not in the best way they could.

I am Jade and please let me clarify a couple of things first. I never went into my marriage thinking it was an arranged marriage. I had been very against the idea and quite honestly it is not practiced that much in my country anymore specially in our community. I met Malik at what I thought was a friend's dinner party and the rest as they say was history. I fell in love hard very quickly and I can't say with any honesty that I ever fell out of it even with all that happened. The second point I would like to say is that divorce is not impossible I have two brothers and several nieces that are divorced and life continued for them. It was very much a choice we made to stay married because of our vows and mainly for our children.

As I said before my real story is much more tragic. I did give birth by C-section at 32 weeks but I gave birth to triplets. They were very premature very tiny and I almost died during the surgery because of complications a collapsed lung and haemorrhaging so it was a few days before I could go and see my babies. It wasn't then that I overheard a certain conversation that came later.

The third baby also a boy was too small and too weak and we lost him a week after the birth. I could not even attend his funeral because at that point I was still confined in hospital. And then the hits kept coming.

We had a little girl, our first born she was 19 months old when her brothers were born. Everyone fell in love with her on sight she was a beautiful sweet baby. She had been born with a heart problem but all doctors had assured us that her condition was very operable and that she would lead a normal healthy life after surgery. Three weeks after I gave birth to the boys she had to have the surgery which was successful but she developed complications and three days after she passed away. My little Angel girl was called Marijoe. It was on the day we lost Marijoe and while my twins were fighting for their lives in the NICU that I overheard a conversation between my husband and a nurse about a relationship that had been and a marriage that should not have happened.

As most of you can imagine the shock of hearing that was overshadowed by my grief. I couldn't care less about anything other than the fact I had lost my daughter the love of my heart my whole world. On the day that we lost Marijoe I demanded that my sons were moved from that hospital. I would never set foot in that place again and to this day I have never done so.

I went through a deep depression. The scene described in the hospital where the parents go in the transition room before they take their baby home was one of my biggest nightmares. I lasted a few minutes before I broke down completely and had to be taken home.

To this day my biggest regret is that for their first few weeks after they came home I couldn't bond with the twins. To make matters even worse my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and my father was devastated but GTH even gave me back the support that had my mother been healthy I'm sure she would have given me I took me almost a year before slowly coming back from my depression. Nassim (not his real name but we did call him Nino) was my rock and my biggest support and help. He helped me in my grief in coming back to my boys and in eventually talking to Malik and trying to get over what had happened. Sadly we lost him suddenly a few years ago to a heart attack and his absence left a big hole in all our lives.

Malik is a really good person and he did completely cut ties with that nurse and that hospital even though she started calling me and trying to cause problems saying things like Malik certainly didn't marry me for my looks and that I couldn't even give him kids properly.He is an exceptional father and eventually we got back to our marriage but it was the kind of marriage that Malik wanted at the beginning built on faith and respect but not really passionate love. I have learnt to accept that I will never get that but then so many people have it much worse.

But I never let my sons see that to this day they think that we are madly in love with each other because that's how I want them to be in their own relationships I always wanted to have another girl but that was not meant for us. Ten years later after several failed IVF treatments and two miscarriages we had a third boy he and his older brothers are our biggest joy and our whole life.There are no words that can express my thanks to GTH. Thank you so much for writing this story in such a beautiful way. Thank you for the touching HEA and the superb epilogue. Most of all thank you for honouring my little Angel and giving me a glimpse into a future that I wish had happened but that in my heart will always be so. You are an exceptional author and even a more exceptional human being and I'm sure your words everywhere are helping people in ways that we may never know.