I couldn't stand the smug look on Oliver's face any longer. As I clenched my fists tight, I ground my teeth together so hard that my jaw ached.

Stacie noticed my odd demeanor. She moved fast to step in front of Oliver and shield him.

That heroic, decisive act was exactly how she'd looked five years ago when she shoved me out of the way of the car. But now, I wasn't the one she was protecting.

When our eyes met, I saw the wary defense in her gaze and her tightly furrowed brows.

Oliver, on the other hand, looked thrilled. "Actually, all of that was my idea.

"I ran a background check on you early on and found that you were raised in an orphanage, with no known family or parentage. You were just a stray no one wanted to claim.

"So, I told her to claim to be an orphan too. It'd definitely trigger your pity and resonance."

How bored must they be to orchestrate something so purely evil?

"I didn't misjudge you, Callum. Gullible bottom-of-the-barrel losers like you fall for it every time and beg to work for Stacie."

The cold, harsh truth roared in my ears, as if the world around me had just collapsed before my eyes. My sanity snapped.

"You like pretending to be crippled, don't you?"

I grabbed the mop and swung it hard at Stacie's perfectly healthy leg.

"You got tired of being a heiress, so you decided to toy with me, didn't you? Does Mr. Sterling know how you used to serve me in bed? Shall I tell him every single detail?"

The foul words were my last attempt to strike back because I knew how much Stacie loved Oliver. Even if everything she told me was a lie, I'd genuinely felt for her when she cried, talking about the man she loved.

I'd felt her heartbreak when she couldn't have him and her pain when she claimed that her wounded leg made her miss the chance to stop him at the airport.

"Mr. Sterling, you're so generous for taking back an heiress after she slept with a loser like me."

Fueled by rage, I lunged and managed to knock the slightly taller Oliver to the ground. But as I was about to deliver a crushing blow, Stacie threw her "crippled" leg out to block me.

I could pull back in time.

With a crack, the heavy wooden handle of the mop struck her shinbone.

She let out a gut-wrenching scream, and her face paled as cold sweat broke out across her forehead. She'd silently taken on the full force of the blow to protect him.

While I was dazed, Oliver scrambled up and punched me hard to send me to the ground.

"Look at what he did, Stacie! I'm calling the cops to have this lunatic locked away!"

Furious, he gave me several harsh kicks as he pulled out his phone.

At the mention of the word "cops", Stacie lunged forward and wrapped her arms around his leg. "Don't call the police! I was at fault!"

Oliver cursed under his breath, then crouched to check her leg.

Seeing them all affectionate and intimate seemed to drain my reason. I tried to lunge at Oliver again, only for him to kick me straight in the stomach.

I couldn't dodge in time, so the force of the kick sent me flying backward.

"You're just a piece of trash! You'll never be anything but a loser!" he spat.

The back of my head slammed against the hard floor, and immense pain exploded in my skull.

I watched as Oliver pulled Stacie into his arms and held her tight. She leaned in to press a quick kiss to his lips before finally turning to check on me.

When she noticed that I was lying on the ground, groaning and struggling to get back on my feet, that look of familiar guilt returned to her face.

She broke away from Oliver and limped toward me to help me up.

"I'm so sorry, Callum…"