Billionaire Said,I Need A Boyfriend To Meet My Parent This Week.Single Dad Said,Not Sleeping On Sofa

I never expected that answering a random Craigslist ad would change my entire life in just three days.

But that’s exactly what happened.

As I stood in Emma Sinclair’s penthouse watching her pace nervously across the floor in designer heels that probably cost more than my monthly rent, I realized I was about to make either the biggest mistake of my life—or the best decision I’d ever made.

The craziest part was that Emma had no idea I already knew who she was before I walked through her door.

“So let me get this straight,” I said, folding my arms. “You want me to pretend to be your boyfriend for the weekend while your parents are in town. And you’re willing to pay me ten thousand dollars to do it?”

Emma stopped pacing and looked at me.

Her piercing blue eyes studied me carefully.

At thirty-two, she was the youngest female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. But she’d introduced herself simply as Emma, who worked “in tech.”

Her dark hair was tied back in a sleek ponytail, and her tailored blazer radiated quiet wealth.

“Yes,” she said calmly. “That’s the deal.”

“My parents have been pressuring me to settle down for years. I told them I was bringing someone special home this weekend just to get them off my back.”

She rubbed her temples.

“I didn’t expect them to fly across the country to meet him.”

She looked straight at me.

“All you have to do is be charming, pretend we’re in love, and then on Monday we go our separate ways.”

Simple.

At least that’s how she described it.

But nothing about the situation was simple for me.

At home I had a six-year-old daughter named Lily waiting with a babysitter. I had a pile of unpaid medical bills sitting on my kitchen counter.

And I had a heart that had been locked away ever since my wife Sarah died three years earlier.

“Not sleeping on the sofa, right?” I asked.

Emma blinked in surprise.

“Excuse me?”

“If I’m playing boyfriend, I’m not getting stuck on the couch. I’ve got a bad back.”

That was a lie.

The truth was I wanted to know exactly what I was walking into.

A small smile appeared at the corner of her lips.

“You’ll have your own guest room, Mr. Carter,” she said. “I’m paying for your acting services, not anything else.”

I should have walked away right then.

But ten thousand dollars would cover Lily’s medical bills and chip away at the debt crushing me since Sarah’s death.

So instead, I extended my hand.

“Call me Jake,” I said.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Miss Sinclair.”

The surprise on her face when I used her last name—one she had never given me—was just the beginning of the most unexpected weekend of my life.

What I didn’t know was that Emma had a secret that would turn our fake relationship into something very real.

And before the weekend ended, one of us would be fighting for our life in a hospital.

The first sign that the weekend would not go as planned came the next morning.

Emma showed up at my apartment.

I had given her my address so we could rehearse our story before meeting her parents.

I expected her to send a car.

Instead she knocked on my door herself.

She stood in my cluttered living room wearing simple jeans and a sweater that probably cost more than everything I owned.

Her eyes moved around the room until they landed on the photos of Lily.

“You have a child?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I replied carefully. “Is that a problem?”….