*PART II*
*BACK TO PRESENT DAY*
Oh my Lord. So many emotions are running through me right now as I spill everything out. I haven’t even told you everything and yet, it already seems like there’s so much that Michael and I went through together. I’m beyond emotional right now as tears continuously flow out of my weary eyes.

I now wish that somehow, I could have been more empathetic to him and took the time to understand where HE was coming from. And I wished that I was mature enough to allow him to understand where I was coming from. If we could have talked about it and had been more mature in our actions, then I’m sure everything would have worked out fine between us and time never would have been lost.

But, it didn’t happen that way. It was a long time before I saw Michael again. So much had changed between the two of us. It’s a shame that an event in his life that was so disgusting, so belittling, so outrageous, and so…… distorting was the one thing that reunited us. It definitely was a time where it tested faith, strength and eventually, love…………


Chapter 27: Not so happy facts
*Around Late 2004*

Two years passed between Michael and Jaden. A lot happened in the two star’s separate lives. Some for the better and unfortunately, some for the worst.

Jaden, who was now 26, had time to mature and grow in the right direction. The entire incident that she had with Shawty Q extremely humiliated her and her breakup with Michael emotionally drained her. Thankfully, Shawty Q had kept his mouth shut and no one ever found out about their unfortunate rendezvous. On top of that, Jaden knew that she had to stop avoiding her estranged mother and one day face all of her past demons head on. For that, she asked UMG for some personal time off. The record label couldn’t say no to their top selling, award -winning artist and obliged to her request. The only exception was that she didn’t let the media in on thinking that something was wrong with her life. Jaden agreed; she understood how the media could make a big deal out of the tiniest detail and she didn’t want her fans to think that anything was wrong with her. It was important to keep her image as positive as possible.

With that in mind, Jaden went away on a much needed vacation. She had always wanted to go to Africa, Europe, and Japan to see her roots so it was an opportune time to go and get her mind off of everything. The trip was therapeutic in every way imaginable; she went to every historic site possible and took in the rich details. As much as she loved to perform, it was nice to be able to relax and not be the center of attention. She also got to relax peacefully and most importantly, get her thoughts together. As she lay many nights in different countries alone, she came to the conclusion that she was not as happy as she should have been because things weren’t settled in her life. She had lost the only man she ever loved in Michael Jackson and realized that she indeed had overreacted when she saw him with Lisa Marie that night. She knew Michael was a very sincere person and deep down she knew he would never hurt her in any way.

When Jaden finally came back to California, she became good friends with another musical artist on UMG named Sabrina. She was a very earthy, tall, dark-skinned woman with natural beauty who was popular with the acoustic crowd. One night, the two went for dinner and Jaden spilled out everything that was going on with her. She could no longer keep it all to herself and Sabrina gave off an aurora that she was a trustworthy person. Indeed she was and didn’t have anything ill to say about her dating Michael Jackson. She didn’t judge her; she only listened and gave her sound advice by telling her that although she couldn’t change her past, she could do something about the present. Jaden took that to heart applied it to her life from that day forth. She also began to read the Bible more, attend a church and become more spiritually in touch with God again. Slowly, Jaden began to heal inside and forgive herself for the mistakes in her past. Her career continued to grow, as she wrote more music and came out with more singles and collaborations. However, the best thing for her was realizing that she was being selfish for not sharing her blessings with others. For that, she began to pour her free time into charity work. She worked a lot with helping children and even established a camp for the underprivileged to come to in California and her home state of Missouri. It felt empowering and worthwhile to bring smiles on children’s faces and she now understood why Michael felt it was so important to work with kids. They are the future after all. Slowly, but surely she became a much stronger, positive, radiant woman and musical artist that many had come to respect.

As for Michael, time seemed to be both kind and cruel for him. He was able to experience the joy of being a father again, welcoming to the world another son Prince Michael II, known to everyone as Blanket. There were no ties with the surrogate mother; it was mutually agreed that way. Either way, Michael was extremely proud to be a father. It took quite some time to move past his guilt and hurt over Jaden. He never wanted things to end up the way it did, especially because he loved and missed her very much. However he had to let go of her because he knew that he had a life and a career and most importantly, family to live for. He came to terms that perhaps God didn’t think he needed a companion in his life. Maybe there was a reason why he always felt like he was married to his fans and career. “Maybe” was all he could conclude about everything.

While Michael began to enjoy life with his family and children, he was convinced by a friend to let the world see how he really was as person. Famed British journalist Martin Bashir wanted to do a documentary on him. The way he pitched it to him seemed safe enough; he wanted to hang around him in his daily life and have no questions off the limit. After thinking about it for a few days, Michael agreed. He knew that he didn’t have anything to hide and if it helped his friend, the late Princess Diana’s image, then maybe people could see him for who he really was for once.

Unfortunately, it became a big mistake. Bashir followed him around for eight months, interrogated him, met his children and interacted closer than anyone in media ever had. Michael didn’t see the completed documentary until it actually played on television and was shocked to see all of the negativity poured into it. Bashir had painted the picture that he was a disturbed, strange individual who lived in his own little bubble and who seemed to have an obsession with children. There were plenty of scenes that were left out where Bashir praised him endlessly for being a great, normal caring father and humanitarian. None of this was shown on television. To top things off, the media had a ruckus about how he allegedly “dangled” baby Blanket over the balcony, calling him an unfit father. It was an honest mistake as Michael got excited that he fans wanted to see him and didn’t mean to have the baby so close to the edge. He knew that he had a tight grip over his son, but of course it was hard to believe that in the media’s evil eyes. Because of all these things, Michael and his PR crew had to go into overtime try to correct these images that the media once again planted into people. He also did his own image cleaning by releasing personal home videos and commenting on them for a television special. He could only hope doing these things would change the way people viewed him.

Just as he thought 2003 couldn’t get any worse, the most painful, unthinkable thing happened to him. It was unreal. It was absolutely untrue and it felt like Déjà vu all over again. It was the infamous trial that had him once again on the media pedestal as an alleged child mo!estation. He opened his home to the Arrizo family after meeting him through Chris Tucker. One of the children, Gavin Arrizo had cancer and Michael reached out to he and his family in their time of need by allowing them to stay at the Neverland, allowing them to have privileges, and showering them with love. Soon, Gavin was cancer free and even appeared on the ill- fated documentary with him holding his hand and saying nothing but praises to Bashir. However, things went south very quickly when the family took advantage of Michael’s kindness and innocence and accused him of doing sexual activities to Gavin.
It was quite clear that money was this family’s motivation

Soon after, the police came in and raided his house to find evidence of any suspicious activity of him mo!esting Gavin. Confused, belittled and afraid of what was going on, Michael turned himself in to the authorities. From that point on, he was facing what was turning out to be the most tragic, haunting thing in his life. Michael knew he had made the big mistake of telling Bashir that he let children sleep in his bed (while he slept on the floor) as a gesture of hospitality. He, everyone who knew him, and his fans and supporters all knew that Michael would never have the mind frame the desire or the motive to ever hurt a child. He saw the eyes of God in them, he could sometimes relate to them… but that was the only extent of intimacy he would ever have or think about.

Now he was facing numerous acts of charges for something that he never would have ever thought of doing to a beloved child. Again. He knew that he could not get rid of this nasty accusation by paying them like he had to years ago with another greedy family. He had to do the trial, to prove once and for all that he was and always had been innocent. And maybe, just maybe, somehow people would leave him alone. He just hated the fact that the media would eat him alive once and for all. He hated that he had to go through a wild, crazy trail and spend countless amounts of money to ensure his innocence. And worst of all, he hated that he had to put his family, especially his young children, through the embarrassment of what he was going through.

As the time for the trial became closer, he began to worry himself sick- both physically and emotionally. He couldn’t help but think that he was in danger of being proven guilty somehow- if the jury bought into the lies. He began to lose sleep and started worried about everything- especially what would happen to Paris, Prince, and Blanket if he was incarcerated. Even so, he knew that he also had to put on his brave face for the kids and not let them know that anything was wrong. In the day time, he made sure to go about things normally. The daily schooling and reading went about as usual and the occasional evening treats of going for ice cream, movies, or popcorn were the continued norm. After he tucked them in at night, he would say a prayer, cry a bit from the physical and emotional pain, then straighten himself up and meet up with his legal team. He was thankful for such a good legal team and he appreciated the love, strength, and support that his family and friends gave him on a daily basis. However, he still somehow felt that he was alone in the whole thing. He felt that no one could feel the pain and sorrow that he was feeling; he hated feeling that way because he was at his best when he was happy. Although Elizabeth Taylor, Chris Tucker, and a few others were there with him, he knew someone who was once very important to him was missing. And he knew that he needed her more than ever before.