Under the Heiress' Facade



Linda never thought that Roman would make such a blunder. He brought the matter up without much thought, yet Hera managed to link it with this incident where he and Xavier fell into the water.

Roman was usually smart and quick-witted. Linda couldn't understand why he was so easily frightened today. Hera had only said a few words, yet he was already scared of her, causing him to expose himself.

He was useless! If Linda tried to help him now, wouldn't it mean that she'd bear the brunt of the blame too?

"I believe you," Linda told Roman. "But the drugs were found in your backyard. I, too, have no idea what happened. I can't testify for you."

She took a step back from him as if she were trying to stay away from the plague.

Roman's eyes widened at her words. "You..." he muttered in disbelief.

Ever since Aurora dug up the drugs from his backyard, Roman became unsettled. He couldn't stop wondering just who put the drugs in his backyard. All of a sudden, the answer emerged in his mind.

It was Linda! It must've been her!

She talked him into replacing the drugs, then had someone bury them in his backyard. The day the discovery was made would be the day he got kicked out of the Killian residence for good.

By then, no one would fight with her son, Frederick, for the family's inheritance. She was killing two birds with one stone!

Roman believed Linda, which almost resulted in Aurora's miscarriage.

"It was you!" he yelled, jabbing a finger at Linda. "You had someone bury the drugs in my backyard!"

Linda's expression darkened at once. "Don't spout nonsense, Roman! You can't accuse me of doing it just because I couldn't testify for you. That's nonsense!"

"It's true! Mom, she framed me! She was the one who buried the drugs there! She framed me!" Roman cried, turning around to hold Aurora's hands with tears in his eyes.NôvelDrama.Org holds text © rights.

Seeing this, Karen feared that Roman would accidentally bump into Aurora and hurt the child in her belly.

Karen went over to them, pulled them apart, and shielded Aurora.

All this while, Hera's gaze shifted between Linda and Roman. After contemplating their words, Hera was sure that there was something off with them. Roman's reaction was especially odd. He accused Linda right away, so he must've known something about it.

If the perpetrator were either one of them, it wasn't strange why Aurora failed to find out who swapped the drugs before this because the person knew what kind of evidence she had and could tweak the evidence.

Eventually, Hera's gaze settled on Linda. Under the scorching sun, her hair and her clothes were almost dry. She also wore a yellow scarf.

If they were indoors, it would explain why Linda wore a scarf since there was air-conditioning inside. But they were outdoors now, and it was sweltering hot.

It was so hot Linda was standing under the shade of a tree and fanning herself with a hand. Even with the heat, she didn't remove her scarf. It seemed weird somehow.

All of a sudden, Hera remembered

the voice in the recording that was fixed before this. It was different than how Linda sounded now. At that time, Bernard's instincts told him that the voice in the recording belonged to Linda.

The information Hera procured said nothing about Linda undergoing surgery before this. The information that was known by the public could be amended, but the traces left after undergoing surgery could not be wiped out.

But how should Hera check if there was a post-surgical scar on Linda's neck?

Hera averted her gaze from Linda. Roman was still bawling his eyes out and tugging on Linda's hand pitifully. It was so hot, and he was making so much noise that it was causing the other a headache.

Things would be much easier if only Xavier would step forth and tell everyone the truth. As of now, he was sitting on the ground quietly while a maid helped him dry his hair and the family doctors patched him up.

Xavier had his head lowered as if he still hadn't snapped out of his daze. In actuality, he was keeping his head lowered so that no one could see the look in his eyes. His gaze was clear, and he perked his ears to listen to the conversation around him.

All of a sudden, Xavier felt someone's sharp gaze on him. He raised his eyes just in time to see Hera staring at him, her gaze cold and calm. She started walking toward him when his eyes became unfocused, and he shoved away the people around him. He then pushed himself off the ground, turned, and ran off.

"A ghost! There's a ghost in the water! Where are you, Marriot? The ghost is after me! I'm scared!"

His actions rendered Hera speechless.

Was he trying to flee again?

"Mr. Xavier!" the maids and family doctors shouted after him, shocked to see him spring to his feet and run away.

Before they could react, Xavier had already run a hundred feet away from them.

"Xavi!" Gemma called out, worried. She ran after him together with the maids.