Under the Heiress' Facade
Chapter 500

"No," Bernard immediately denied. "Look, you were able to spot these small issues, which shows how skilled you are. Even your mentor might not have noticed them."

When hackers competed, they wouldn't notice if their opponent was going easy on them. Everyone was just focused on replaceing loopholes and invading.

"Stop with your sweet talk. You're just looking down on me and going easy on me." Hera read his code.

But Bernard's code was better than hers. It was undeniable that she wouldn't have won if he hadn't gone easy on her.

The more he acted this way, the more her anger burned. She even suspected...

"Did you intentionally lose for the Eclipse Stone?" Hera stood up and shoved the laptop back to Bernard, glaring at him.

Bernard's heart sank. He had hoped that letting Hera win would be enough to quell her frustration. He didn't expect her to connect this with the Eclipse Stone.

"Yes, we entered the same price back then," he admitted.

Just as she had suspected! Anger flared within Hera. Bernard had been toying with her from the beginning.

Seeing this, Bernard explained, "I'm sorry, sweetie. I did recognize you back, and I took advantage of my identity to deceive you into doing things for me... But it's because you said our relationship would be over once I cured your illness. I didn't want you to leave, so I used a bit of trickery."

A bit of trickery? He was basically deceiving her for money and sex!

Hera tried to control her anger and nodded. "Is there anything else you're hiding from me? Confess now." Bernard felt guilty and uncomfortable seeing her like this. He didn't want to deceit her further.

Noticing his silence, she thought he was unwilling to speak and said, "If you don't want to tell me, then..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Bernard confessed abruptly, "XS Corporation actually belongs to me."

She was shocked. Didn't the XS Corporation have a strong rivalryz with Killian Corporation? She knew Bernard didn't like the Killians, but she didn't expect he was secretly working against them.

If Chad found out, Bernard would be chased out by the Killians! Bernard was going too far...

No wonder they flew to Lumiville with XS Corporation's plane. How had she not thought of this...

"Remember when you went to work

with me at Shuttle Ventures? I don't usually work there. Instead, I would

either be at Astral Nova or here,"

Bernard continued. "Also, the Everetts' investment was a trap I set.

Hera's heart sank. "What else?"

swn y

"I was trying to make you jealous when I had dinner with Camille. And I had them send me back when I injured my leg because I wanted to see you. And I didn't lose the flower accidentally. My hand wasn't really injured. I just wanted you to feed me," Bernard listed off.

Hera felt they were straying off-topic.

"Oh, and that photo wasn't a mistake. I pretended to send it by accident because I noticed you seemed to like my body, so I..." he added.

Hera's face heated up when she recalled the photo. "Don't bring that up!"

"Isn't this relevant?" Bernard asked.

Hera was afraid he might go off track further and said, "It's not."