Free The Boy Next Door by Staci Parker

tales of the land she called America. Nairobi had met a few people from this country, those who had brought food and medical supplies, mostly nurses or missionaries. They were very sweet and loving people and Nairobi dreamed of the world that they came from.
    At the age of eighteen, Nairobi’s mother had taken her to become a mail order bride. It was the only way that she could think of to get Nairobi out of South Africa and into the United States. The men who owned the mail order bride company told Nairobi and her mother that they would have no problem finding her a husband and they were correct.
    Within a month of Nairobi turning eighteen the men came to her mother’s house to pick Nairobi up and send her to her future husband. The men gave her mother more money than Nairobi had ever seen and she wondered how much the man had actually paid for her. She cried as she hugged her mother and told her goodbye and then she was loaded into a truck. They drove for what seemed like hours before they reached a small airport. Nairobi was shuffled onto a tiny plane and accompanied by one man.
    The small plane took them to a much larger airport where Nairobi was escorted to a jet and told to board it. She was told that she would be met when she landed and then taken to her future husband. Nairobi shook with fear the entire flight. She did not know how she was supposed to act when she saw this man for the first time. She was afraid that he would be mean to her or that he could possibly kill her. After all he had paid for her. She was his property.
    She imagined the pain it would cause her mother if something happened to her. Nairobi closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. She tried to focus on the stories that her mother had told her as a child. Stories of houses with real floors that were not made out of dirt, houses that were made out of wood and that were heated and cooled. She had told Nairobi how the houses have windows that did not allow the bugs in and that she would not have to sleep under a mosquito net any more.
    Then there were the stories of the stores. Nairobi’s mother had told her that there were stores that were taller than trees and that were filled with beautiful things. Nairobi had no idea what her future would hold, but as she thought of her mother’s stories she began to relax.
    The man that she was going to marry was named Mitch. He was a wealthy man that owned a chain of hotels in the wild western area of the United States. Mitch had been married before to his college sweetheart, but it turned out she wasn’t in love with him. She was also in love with the pool boy, the gardener and a few other men around town. 
    His ex-wife loved his money more than she loved him and that became very clear to Mitch in the later years of their marriage. Mitch was forty-seven and had been married for five years before he ever questioned his wife. The divorce had almost taken everything from him. His businesses did not matter, his money was just money to him, but it was the sadness that took over his life that almost destroyed him. Mitch had done everything that he could to take care of his wife. He had loved her with everything he had and treated her like his queen.
    When he realized that she had never really loved him, he wanted to give up on life and came close to it. After a few years of therapy Mitch had begun dating again, but found that it was awkward and that he did not enjoy it at all. That was when he decided to look into getting a mail order bride. He wanted someone who would adore him, someone who would treat him just as well as he treated them, not someone that he could boss around our mistreat, but someone that would respect him and respect the things he gave to them.
    More than anything, Mitch just did not want to be alone any more. He had decided that his best option was a mail order bride because it would be a win-win situation. He wanted to have someone to come home to. He didn’t care who it was as long as