After a lifetime in rags, Emerson had no idea that riches came with so many strings.

As a foster kid in the system, Emerson Duplessis never had two nickels to rub together. He worked harder than anyone else he knew and graduated with a degree in accounting—the safest career he could imagine. But when a round of unexpected layoffs leaves him unable to pay his rent, he resorts to taking temp jobs found for him by friends.

At one odd job, serving hors d’oeuvres at a funeral, his friend points out that the dead man in the massive portrait looks exactly like Emerson. The bereaved mother of the deceased turns out to be the grandmother who tried to prevent him from ever being born. Now that her only child has passed, she makes Emerson an offer.

She’ll leave her massive estate to him, but only if he shows he can properly run it, marries a high society woman, and has an heir. At one of his grandmother’s horrible parties, Emerson meets the well-educated, pampered daughter of one of his late father’s friends, Elizabeth Moorland.

She mocks him to the entire room, and Emerson hates her from the start, but he also discovers that she needs money, badly. He agrees to get her the money she needs if she pretends to be his girlfriend to keep his grandmother happy. But Elizabeth Moorland has a secret, and if it comes out, it will ruin both their plans.

Can Emerson manage to satisfy the woman who never wanted him in order to secure the life he’s always wanted? Or will he discover that sometimes even gold that glitters isn’t worth the price?