Under the Heiress' Facade

Nicholas stared at Hera's stunning side profile as she treated Geoffrey. He had always had a thing for women like her-cold and distant types that brought out a man's competitive side. He had dated many women who were aloof like Hera, but none of them were as beautiful as her.

Hera was always composed and wore her arrogance like a second skin. Nothing could ruffle her feathers or diminish her confidence. It was as if the sky could be falling, and she would only find it a minor inconvenience.

The more she looked down her nose at Nicholas, the more intrigued he was. He licked his lips and tried to picture her writhing and begging under him in bed.

Sensing his gaze, Hera glared at him as she pulled a needle from Geoffrey's back.

Nicholas felt a chill race down his spine when he caught the icy look in her eyes that matched the gleaming point of the silver needle.

Half an hour later, Hera extracted all the needles from Geoffrey's back. Nicholas was surprised to see Geoffrey flipping onto his side without assistance.

Geoffrey's movements did not stop there.

He was delighted when he eased himself upright in bed and exclaimed, "I can finally move again! Thank you, young lady! How should we address you? Are you and Dr. Miracle related, by any chance?" "I'm Hera. Dr. Miracle is my grandmother," Hera said.

"I see. Thank you so much for doing this. I'll have someone pay my medical bill at the clinic later," Geoffrey said pleasantly, smiling.

"As repayment for saving my life, you can come to me for anything you need help with in the future."

Hera disinfected every silver needle she had used on Geoffrey before storing them in the pouch.

She said flatly, "I didn't save your life. The wrong treatment and medication aggravated the bone spurs along your spine.

"The bone spurs ended up compressing your nerves and hindered your ability to move your limbs.

"My grandmother had already done half the work by performing acupuncture on you. If you had continued going to the clinic and taking your medication as instructed, you wouldn't have ended up like this." The tips of Geoffrey's ears turned red when he heard this.

He had felt better after receiving Catherine's treatment, but in his laziness, he failed to take his medication as prescribed in the following two days. He didn't think the consequences would be this serious. "Yes, I understand. I'll take my medication on time from now on," he conceded, shamefaced as he nodded.

He then snapped at his son, "See? I told you Dr. Miracle is better than Dr. Sha-I mean, Camille! Apologize to Ms. Youngworth right now!"

He was more cautious after Hera had berated them earlier for confusing Camille with Dr. Shadow.

He also knew Hera had specifically mentioned this for a reason. She wanted him to investigate Camille's impersonation of Dr. Shadow.

Nicholas scoffed as he said arrogantly, "I suppose you're worth your salt, but I'm not in the wrong here! This is her job, and curing you is the bare minimum."

"You punk! How dare you speak to her this way after she saved my life?" Geoffrey barked, picking up a pillow and hurling it at Nicholas.

Nicholas dodged the pillow. He hadn't seen his father so lively for a while, and this alone spoke enough about Hera's medical prowess.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry," Nicholas drawled, not at all sincere about it.

He licked his lips and added, "I was planning to fool around with you before, maybe knock you up so that you could be entitled to part of the Sandersons' family fortune.

"But seeing as you saved my dad's life, I could consider making an honest woman out of you. What do you say? Pretty moving proposal, huh?"

Hera was quiet as she kept her pouch.

She shot Nicholas a deadly look and asked dryly, "Do you know what happened to the last man who talked down to me like that?"

"Oh, feisty! I dig that," Nicholas said with a grin.

He had already looked into Hera's background before he caused a scene at Catherine's clinic. While Catherine was not exactly influential, many important guests showed up when her clinic opened for business.

The news reached the front page and circulated through the upper-crust society. Everyone believed Catherine was either very well-connected to have such influential people as her patients or that these people only dropped by her clinic to get on Bernard's good side.

There were also rumors that Bernard often visited Catherine's clinic at late hours. This brought on speculation that he had gone to meet a secret lover instead of getting his health checked out.