Sold To Be A Wife: Only a determined foster carer can stop a terrified girl from becoming a child bride

by Maggie Hartley

Overview

Fourteen-year-old Shazia has been taken into care after a conversation at school leads her teacher to suspect that the teenager's family are planning to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage. To her family's fury, Shazia is sent to live with foster carer Maggie Hartley whilst social services investigate. But with Shazia denying everything and social services unable to find any evidence to support the teacher's fears, Shazia is allowed to return home.

But a few weeks later, Maggie is woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call from a terrified Shazia, who has managed to escape the family home through a window. Sobbing, she confesses to Maggie that her parents are planning to send her to Pakistan to be married in a few days, and have threatened to kill her if she speaks out again.

Returned to Maggie's care, Shazia is petrified that her parents will track her down and kill her, and Maggie must be on constant alert. But the worst is yet to come when it emerges that Shazia is the victim of FGM. Can Maggie help this damaged and traumatised young girl understand what has happened to her and to find a way to heal?

A true story of hope from Sunday Times bestselling author Maggie Hartley, a foster carer for over 20 years.

'I've always enjoyed Maggie Hartley's fostering stories, but this is without doubt her best' 5* Amazon reader review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409177067
Publisher:	Orion Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/20/2018
Series:	A Maggie Hartley Foster Carer Story Series
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Maggie Hartley has fostered more than 300 children while being a foster carer for over twenty years. Taking on the children other carers often can't cope with, Maggie helps children that are deemed 'unadoptable' because of their behaviour or the extreme trauma that they've been through. She's looked after refugees, supported children through sexual abuse and violence court cases, cared for teenagers on remand and taught young mums how to parent their newborn babies.

You can find her on Facebook at /MaggieHartleyAuthor, where she would love to hear from you.

Table of Contents

A Message from, Maggie ix

1 Truth and Lies 1

2 Settling in 15

3 Contact and Conflict 27

4 A Niggling Feeling 39

5 Homecoming 53

6 Party then Panic 66

7 A Safe Haven 77

8 Living in Fear 91

9 Questions 105

10 House Arrest 119

11 A Lucky Escape 130

12 Moving On 143

13 Compassion Fatigue 159

14 Tradition, or Torture 171

15 Explanations 184

16 Extreme Measures 197

17 The Call 208

18 Goodbye to the Past 222

Acknowledgements 233

FGM 234