Under the Heiress' Facade

Hera was still typing when she felt, rather than saw, Bernard approaching her and surreptitiously hid her phone. "You look so serious. What's on your mind?"

Bernard stopped next to her and kissed her on the forehead.

"Nothing," she lied.

"I'm reading."

"You're holding the book upside down," he pointed out with faint amusement.

She glanced at the book and realized he was right. Sheer pride kept her lying through her teeth.

"I was practicing reading upside down!"

Bernard raised a brow.

He took the book from her and asked, "So, did anything interesting happen today that I should know about?"

Hera was suddenly reminded of what Tyler had told her earlier that day.

Indeed, how would she know if Bernard wasn't lying to her? Even without Tyler's prompting, she had already sensed that Bernard was keeping secrets from her. Then again, she kept secrets from him, too, so they were even.

However, she had no idea what secrets Bernard kept from her. Because of that, she agreed to exchange numbers with Tyler but archived his contact information. From there, she would let nature take its course.

"Nothing I couldn't handle," Hera answered breezily.

A sudden thought crossed her mind.

She flashed Bernard a bemused smile as she asked, "I did come across an interesting piece of information, though. Word on the street is that your engagement with Ms. Chime has become viral news in the upper-crust society.

"How would you feel if I revealed Ms. Chime's true colors to the public? Would you feel sad or guilty?"

The Chime family started the rumor of Bernard's alleged engagement to Camille. They did not put it in the papers, but the ladies of leisure had taken it upon themselves to spread the word. There was nothing Bernard could do to suppress the rumor.

He held Hera's hand and squeezed it comfortingly.

"How are you planning to reveal her true colors? I could do it for you so you won't have to get your hands dirty."

Hera laughed.

"Nah, I'd like to be hands-on with something like this."

The next day, Bernard woke Hera and made her read for a whole hour. After he left for work, she burrowed back under the covers to catch up on sleep, only to be woken up by the commotion in the clinic.

She put on a change of clothes and checked out the commotion.

The patients stood in scattered huddles in the yard, and the south wing was in a mess. Leon was pinning a maniacal patient on the ground at the moment. One of the nurses sported a bump on the forehead, and Everly held a pack of ice to soothe it while another nurse hid in the corner.

The patient's family was a burly young man who was currently pointing a finger at Catherine and snapping, "You call yourself a miracle doctor when you can't even cure her?"

Catherine argued patiently, "There's nothing I can do about her condition. She needs to go to a rehabilitation facility."

The young man snarled, "She's not on drugs! She's just sick! If you call her a drug addict one more time, I'll punch your teeth out!"NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.

As he said this, he wielded his fist and made to punch Catherine's face. He was stopped by a slender hand that wrapped around his wrist.

His gaze trailed from the hand to the person's face, only to see a pretty young lady standing before him.

"Who are you? Let go of me!" he barked, raising his other fist.

Seeing this, Hera quickly jabbed the pressure point on his wrist. His arm went numb at once, and he could not summon any strength to it. Hera dropped his arm and glanced at the woman Leon had pinned on the ground. She was pale, and there were dark shadows under her eyes. Her gaze was hollow as she mumbled, "Give me pills... Pills..."

She indeed looked like a drug addict.

Hera asked Isla, "Does she have an appointment?"

"No," Isla replied with a shake of her head.

Hera nodded and cast a frigid gaze at the young man.

He shifted his feet but feigned bravado as he said, "What's wrong with not having an appointment? Can't I just take a number?"

"You can either leave now or be escorted off the premises by the cops," Hera said.

The young man swallowed at the

mention of the cops. He was paid to

cause a ruckus here, and things

would get messy for him if he were

detained by the cops. As such, he scurried off with the woman who was still moaning about pills.

After the commotion died down, the nurses comforted the other patients. Catherine returned to consulting her patients as usual, and the janitors straightened out the trashed lobby.

"What's going on today? We've already gotten a few patients who didn't have an appointment," Everly said.

Hera yawned and perched on the armchair.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I have a feeling we'll have more of them."