Marrying the 'Crippled' Billionaire

Georgia’s POV Excitement raced through my veins as I walked out of the elevator, heading to my fiancé’s apartment. Initially, I thought of calling him before I arrived, but on second thought, I decided to usher in a proper surprise, since we hadn’t seen each other for a while. I held with me an expensive bottle of red wine, which was Henry’s favorite, giggling to myself as I couldn’t wait to share it with him. I walked up to the door, hand on the knob, twisting it as I quietly pushed it open and stepped in. My eyes immediately caught a gleaming pair of red bottom heels, left carelessly, without the bother of being hidden. A strange feeling overtook me at that moment, stiffening my movements and filling my lungs with dread. I quickly placed the wine bottle on the sofa, staring ahead as I walked toward his bedroom with tears brimming in my eyes. I let out a shaky breath, still journeying ahead. I still held hope—hope that the love I believed in wouldn’t fail me. I walked numbly to Henry’s bedroom, and as I neared his room, a noise filled my eardrums—a noise that irritated my hearing like overly loud music. I recognized both voices all too well, to the point where I thought I was hallucinating. The door was closed, although not fully, and their merry voices were loud enough for me to decipher what was being said. “When are you finally calling off your engagement with her?” the familiar voice questioned, and my heart dropped further down my stomach. The sultry, mature voice was something I could never mistake; after all, we shared the same blood. The voice belonged to Fiona, my half-sister. She was the woman who was most definitely the one in my fiancé’s arms, asking him about when he was going to call off his engagement to me. My heart skipped a beat upon hearing Henry’s laugh. “Now that you mention it, I guess there’s no use keeping up with it anymore. Now that she has failed to prove useful to me, there’s no point in stringing her along anymore. I mean, she’s no longer the sole inheritor of her grandfather’s assets, which was the only reason why I even found her worthy enough to deserve that second-hand ring I bought off some poor bastard.” I clutched my chest, taking a staggering step backward. My eyes trailed to the suddenly dull diamond ring on my finger. My eyebrows knitted in confusion because I didn’t realize it had been this severely dull from the onset. Had I been that blinded by euphoric happiness and by the dream of spending a lifetime with the man I truly loved? Was I really that foolish? She laughed heartily. “Oh, Henry, you never fail to remind me why you’re the absolute worst.” “That hurts my feelings, my love. But it’s the truth; she is useless to me, so there’s no need to keep up the ruse.” “Then do it already, or you might find yourself in a situation where you’d actually have to marry her,” Fiona mocked. “Don’t scare me, please. The reason I haven’t done away with her is because of how much of a clingy b***h she is,” he retorted. “She’s so clueless and slow, it’s almost pitiful.” She laughed out, her laugh echoing throughout the entire room, so much that it kept echoing in my head. My body was still frozen in place, struggling to accept what was happening. To protect my heart, I wanted to pretend it was all a very frightening nightmare. But that would be me deluding myself. The obvious truth was that I had been deceived, used, and ultimately about to be discarded, since I was no longer needed. This was the reality of what Henry thought about our relationship. He had never seen me as a real person like I thought he did. All the effort he put in place was just to gain something from me, but now there was nothing to gain; he and Fiona no longer felt the need to keep pretending. For some reason, the tears in my eyes refused to fall, and I just stood there, listening to them mock me, unable to move. I’m such a joke, aren’t I? It wasn’t until I heard what Fiona had to say next that I finally managed to snap out of my pitiful trance. “You have to get rid of her as soon as possible, Henry, so you can finally be free and we can finally announce our relationship to the public,” she blurted out like it was the most casual thing in the world. I became overcome with an uncontrollable sense of rage and stormed into the once-familiar bedroom, which now seemed as if I had never been there. Both of them were naked as they lay on the bed, Henry with his arms encircling Fiona, who was resting on his chest. Even though I was glad that I did not walk in on them having s*x, it still hurt to see how genuine and intimate they were. It hurt more for some reason, mostly because I could tell that he looked different with her than he looked with me. I had always found it weird how stiff he was sometimes with me, but because I was so blinded by love, I fooled myself into thinking that his respect for me was the reason why he was always so ‘delicate’ with me. Something was always missing between us, something I did not have, even though he had held me in the same way as he was holding her. There was a strong connection between them that was evident from their put-together appearance. They gazed at me, startled by my unexpected appearance, but the shock in their eyes vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. "W—Why? Why did you choose to do this to me?" I stammered as I spoke. Henry’s face held visible guilt, though not enough for him to say anything to me. He looked away, as though ignoring my presence was better. But Fiona just did not give a damn. She rolled her eyes as she looked at me impassively and angrily. “Oh, just shut up and deal with it. Don’t try to act pitiful.” “What?” I asked, unsure of what I had just heard. “Deal with it?” I thundered. "Can you even hear yourself at this moment? Are you being serious?" "Yes, Georgia, I am, and I’ll tell you again. Shut up, and deal with it.” I couldn’t believe how much audacity she had. So much cruelty, and such a lack of concern. How dare she? "I’m expected to deal with the fact that you’re sleeping with my fiancé?" I asked, unable to hide my disbelief. As if she were watching a clown show, she laughed and looked at me as if I was being ridiculous. "How could you possibly fool yourself into thinking Henry would fall in love with a slow, weakling whose body is incapable of even carrying out the most basic tasks? Not only are you always sick and in need of care like a child, but you’re also terrible at pleasing a man. Did you really think you were lovable?" I choked out, tears suddenly welling up in my eyes. The lack of remorse I was faced with shrank me. Why had those who I used to believe reassured me that life could be worthwhile failed me so miserably? My body trembled, and my jaw stiffened as I tried not to admit that I was tired and wanted to just cry. If I had, I would be letting them win and admitting to them how much they had hurt me. “I hope you both rot in hell!” I gritted my teeth and quickly left, the tears finally falling from my eyes. *** George and Henrietta, my father and stepmother, were sitting on the leather couch in the living room by the time I got home. With no reaction, they looked up at me, almost as though they were waiting for me to speak up first. They did not trouble me, not that it concerned me in the slightest, so I turned in the direction of my room, heading upstairs, when I heard Henrietta's firm voice. "Georgia, where are you going?" I froze in place and mumbled, "My room," in response. "You seem upset, Georgia. Care to share why you are?" That was my father’s voice. With tears filling my eyes once more and anger obscuring my features, I turned to face them, seeing no reason why I could not tell them the truth. “Fiona and Henry have been sleeping with each other, Dad,” I informed him. “Can you believe that?” To my surprise, Henrietta said, "Yes, we can." "What?" I scoffed, utterly bewildered. My eyes grew wide as I observed their expressions and the lack of surprise on their faces. I stumbled backward in a state of extreme shock, gripping the stair railing more tightly to keep myself from falling. "It looks like you have finally figured it out." Henrietta said, “It was about time.” “H—How did you find out? What’s going on?” "You are actually the last one to find out, Georgia," she said, and before I could respond, she went on. "Do not feel too bad, dear; Henry and Fiona are a better match for each other, so you should be relieved. I assume you saw it yourself, which is why you’re hurting more than you should." The way I was feeling right now and the total disregard I was receiving from my family was beyond unbelievable. The way they treated me, how they addressed me, and how they treated my feelings made it seem like I was not even considered human to them—rather, I was something they couldn't care less about. "On the plus side, it is great that you found out now," my father, engrossed in whatever he was looking at on his phone, told me. "Especially because you need to start making plans for your upcoming wedding." Was what I just heard right? A wedding? “What... are you talking about, father? Whose wedding is coming up? Did you not hear me say that Henry cheated on me?" "I heard you loud and clear, Georgia, and your wedding is not with Henry," he said as his casual gaze met mine. "We took the liberty of setting up a wedding between you and the Romero family's oldest son because we knew this would happen sooner or later. So I suggest you forget Henry and prepare yourself.” A brief and clear flashback occurred to me, reminding me of when I had seen the news of the Romero family's eldest son being in an accident and being now wheelchair-bound. "The oldest son..." I silently let out a gasp. "Are you referring to the person I think you’re talking about?" "Yes, Georgia,” he replied simply without looking away from his phone. "You are going to wed Micheal Romero, the Romero family's crippled son."