She was sitting alone at the wedding… until the billionaire leaned in and whispered: “Pretend you’re with me.”

The ballroom of a five-star hotel in Zurich looked like a magazine spread—crystal chandeliers, white roses on every table, perfect linens, servers gliding like dancers. Everyone was laughing, hugging, clinking glasses.

Everyone… except her.

Lucia Fernandez sat alone at a small table near the wall, tracing the rim of her wineglass like it could calm her nerves. Her navy dress fit beautifully, but in a room full of designer gowns and quiet wealth, she felt like she’d accidentally walked onto the wrong set.

Every time she looked up, she caught a glimpse of her best friend—Mariana, the bride—glowing beside her new husband.

Every time she looked down, she heard the same whispers.

“Did she come alone?”
“I heard she works too much. That’s why she’s single.”
“She looks… out of place.”

Lucia forced a smile and took a long sip.

She was a financial journalist. She’d interrogated powerful men for a living. She’d walked into boardrooms full of billionaires and made them sweat with a single question.

But here—surrounded by perfect couples and polished laughter—her loneliness weighed more than any headline she’d ever written.

She checked the time.

8:00 p.m.

Too early to leave without looking rude… too late to pretend it didn’t sting.

She was just about to stand and escape to the restroom when the air shifted.

A man approached her table—confident, precise—and sat beside her like the seat belonged to him.

Tall. Perfectly tailored suit. Sharp features. Steel-gray eyes that looked like they could read the truth off your face.

Heads turned. Murmurs rose.

He didn’t look at anyone.

He leaned closer to Lucia and whispered, no warning, no introduction:

“Pretend you’re with me.”

Lucia’s heart kicked hard in her chest.

“Excuse me?” she managed, pulling back slightly.

His gaze stayed fixed on a nearby table, where a group of guests were openly watching them.

“They’re talking about you… and they’re talking about me,” he murmured. “If you don’t mind, let’s act like we came together. You stop being ‘the girl alone at the wedding’… and I avoid a setup date I don’t want.”

Lucia let out a soft, disbelieving laugh.

“So I’m supposed to play girlfriend to a complete stranger?”

That’s when he finally turned toward her.

Those gray eyes locked onto hers—cool on the surface, but with something underneath she couldn’t name.

“Just pretend,” he said again. “Trust me. We both win.”

She could say no.

She should say no.

But the stares from the other tables—sharp, smug, hungry—pushed her into a decision she didn’t fully understand.

Lucia lifted her chin.

“Fine,” she said. “But how far are you planning to take this little performance?”

His mouth curved—barely.

“Leave it to me.”

He rested his arm along the back of her chair with an easy intimacy that instantly sparked a reaction across the room. A few guests leaned in, suddenly very interested.

Lucia felt a flicker of alarm.

This man didn’t just know what he was doing.

He was dangerously good at it.

“What’s your name?” she asked quietly.

He answered without hesitation.

“Alejandro Morel.”

The name hit Lucia like ice water.

She knew it.

Everyone did.

Alejandro Morel—Switzerland’s most feared CEO in the finance world. The ruthless executive they called “The Wolf of Zurich.” The man who never smiled in photos. The man whose decisions made markets jump.

Lucia swallowed.

Perfect, she thought. I’m fake-dating the most untouchable man in the country.

And somehow… the night started to change.

Alejandro introduced her as “someone very special.” He poured her wine like it was natural. He leaned in with quiet, dry comments whenever someone asked something intrusive, like he was shielding her without making it obvious.

Lucia played along—shocked by how easy it felt beside him.

“You’re a good actor,” she whispered at one point, halfway through dessert.

Alejandro’s eyes flicked to hers.

“And who said I’m acting?” he murmured.

Lucia forgot how to breathe for a second.

By midnight, the lights softened and the couple began saying goodnight to guests. Lucia realized she’d started looking at Alejandro like she’d known him forever…

and at the same time, like she knew absolutely nothing about him.

When she finally got home to her small apartment and slipped off her heels, she told herself it was just a weird story to tell Mariana.

A one-night performance.

Nothing more.

She didn’t know that whisper—“Pretend you’re with me”—had just opened the door to the most dangerous chapter of her life.

Because three days later…

As Lucia left the newsroom exhausted, a black car rolled to a stop at the curb.

The window lowered slowly.

The same face.

The same gray eyes.

And then Alejandro said something that made her blood run cold.

…“I need you to keep pretending,” Alejandro said calmly.
“This time, in public. And for much longer.”

Lucia froze.

“You don’t get to summon me like this,” she snapped, stepping back from the curb. “That night was a favor. It’s over.”

Alejandro studied her the way he studied markets—quietly, precisely.

“I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t necessary,” he said. “Someone is leaking information from inside my company. The board thinks it’s you.”

“Me?” she scoffed. “I’m a journalist, not your employee.”

“Exactly,” he replied. “You’re clean. Untouchable. And if the world thinks you’re with me, no one will dare frame you—or use you.”

Lucia laughed, sharp and disbelieving.

“So what? I become your shield?”

His jaw tightened.

“You become my partner. Officially. Public appearances. Dinners. Interviews.”
A pause.
“And in return, I give you something you’ve been chasing your entire career.”

Her heart thudded.

“The truth,” he finished. “About how power really works. And the story no one else will ever get.”

Lucia hesitated.

She should walk away.
Every instinct screamed danger.

But she saw it then—the fatigue in his eyes. The weight of a man who trusted no one.

“Three months,” she said finally. “Clear boundaries. No lies between us.”

Alejandro nodded. “Agreed.”

The headlines exploded within a week.

ALEJANDRO MOREL STEPS OUT WITH MYSTERY WOMAN
THE WOLF OF ZURICH… IN LOVE?

Lucia became a fixture beside him—calm, sharp, impossible to dismiss. She asked questions no one else dared. She noticed things others missed.

And slowly, quietly, she uncovered the truth.

The leak wasn’t an employee.

It was Alejandro’s own brother.

The night the evidence surfaced, Lucia confronted Alejandro in his penthouse overlooking the city.

“You already knew,” she said softly. “That’s why you needed me. Not just as cover—but as proof you weren’t alone.”

Alejandro didn’t deny it.

“I needed someone who wouldn’t flinch,” he admitted. “Someone who saw me… not the myth.”

Lucia took a breath.

“And the pretending?” she asked. “Is that still part of the deal?”

Alejandro stepped closer—no cameras, no audience.

“That ended a long time ago,” he said.

She realized then what truly terrified her.

Not the danger.
Not the power.

But the fact that somewhere between whispered deals and stolen glances…
she’d fallen for the man behind the wolf.

Months later, when the scandal broke and Alejandro resigned publicly—protecting his company, exposing his brother—Lucia stood beside him again.

This time, no pretending.

At a quiet café weeks later, Mariana squeezed Lucia’s hand.

“So,” the bride smiled, “you came alone to my wedding… and left with a billionaire?”

Lucia laughed.

“No,” she said, glancing at Alejandro through the window, waiting patiently.
“I left with a man who needed someone to stand next to him.”

And as she joined him outside, Alejandro leaned in—just like that first night—and whispered:

“Thank you for not pretending anymore.”

Lucia smiled.

Neither of them ever did again.