Page 26 of The Prince's Green Card Scheme

“Let me get this straight,” I say, starting to feel the anger seep into my tone again. “You’ve ignored me for almost two months, and now you want me to go and play happy families with your parents just make yourself feel better?”

“It’s not like that,” he insists. “They really will kick me out if they think I’m lying about you.”

“They sound pretty intense.”

He never said that much about his parents, but the little he had said didn’t sound too good at all.

“They are. So… will you come?”

“Will I come to Bellamare and have dinner with your parents? Will I lie to everyone and pretend to be your doting wife? No.”

“I’ll give you another hundred thousand,” Paul says, desperate. “I’ll book first-class plane tickets. I’ll give you more money — whatever you want. Just say you’ll come.”

“This really means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”

“You have no idea.”

He lets out a shaky sigh, and that’s when I realize exactly how much he means this. When I first picked up, I easily could have believed that he was playing games with me. But that little sigh he just did…

Either he’s an incredible actor or he really is completely out of options.

I only wish those options didn’t involve using me.

“All right,” I snap. “I will come — on one condition.”

“Anything,” he says too quickly.

“I want answers for everything.”

“Answers,” he says, like he doesn’t know what I’m talking about. And I can’t tell if he’s being deliberately ignorant or genuinely stupid.

“Yeah, answers. Why did you leave me in your apartment that morning? Why have you had to lie to your parents about me? Did you even need a green card at all?”

Do you love me?

“Yes, yes, I did. I promise.” He sighs again, and I imagine him pinching the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut as he tries to make everything make sense.

“Okay, fine. Deal,” he says, relenting. “If you promise to come and have dinner with my parents, I’ll tell you absolutely everything. The unfiltered truth. I can’t promise you’re going to like it, and I’ll get it if you never want to speak to me again. But please, please, please can we just pretend for my parents for one night?”

Maybe the secrets he’s been keeping were deeper than I expected. Damn. Now the mystery of it is intriguing me more than it’s irritating me.

“Okay,” I say finally. “I can probably take a Monday off work and early shift on Friday. Maybe half a week if you give me some time to arrange my schedule.”

“You’re still working?” he says, dumbfounded.

“Yes,” I say like he’s stupid. “One hundred thousand dollars is nice, but it’s not enough to live off for the rest of my life.”

“Oh,” he says, his voice small.

And that’s the point when I start doubting that he’s even a businessman at all.

It’s the kind of job I could believe he would have. But the way he acts around money makes me think that he’s never had a life where he’s had to think about how much anything costs. Ever. It sounds nice.

“Thank you,” he breathes. “Text me your email. I’ll send you all the flight information straightaway. Just let me know which weekend, which days you can do. Please make it soon, though.”

When I head out for dinner, I decide not to tell Mom about the call. Not yet, anyway. No doubt she’ll tell me this is a terrible idea, and it probably is. I almost definitely shouldn’t go to a foreign country for a stranger.

But the second I heard his voice, he enchanted me again. I don’t know what power he has over me, but it looks like I can’t escape it.

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