Under the Heiress' Facade novel 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 finding 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.