The Billionaire Groom Replaced Me With His Tomboy After I Was Paralyzed Chapter 09
The next thirty days were a slow, agonizing crawl through absolute hell for Garrett.
The debt collection calls ramped up exponentially, transforming from a manageable three times a day to a relentless blitz of fifteen calls every twenty-four hours. The collectors’ language shifted from a polite “please resolve this matter” to raw, explicit threats: “Are you tired of living, trash?”
Once his personal contact file was bundled and sold to aggressive third-party agencies, the harassment bled outward. His parents, his corporate coworkers, and his old college friends were
flooded with collections calls.
“Hi, do you know Garrett Miller? He currently owes an outstanding balance of twelve thousand
dollars and is actively evading payment. Please advise him to contact our legal department
immediately…”
The sheer humiliation drove Garrett’s father into a severe medical relapse, his old condition flaring
up as he stood in the living room, pointing a trembling finger right at Garrett’s nose.
“You dragged this family into payday debt just to buy a piece of jewelry for a mistress?! Have you completely lost your goddamn mind?! How the hell did I raise an idiot like you?!”
Garrett’s mother didn’t even have the energy to curse my name anymore. The united front between
mother and mistress disintegrated instantly, and she turned her entire arsenal directly on Roxy.
“You need to take that Cartier bracelet back to the boutique right now! That’s over sixty grand! Flipping it back will cover the worst of these immediate defaults!”
Roxy, who had been brought back to Garrett’s place to convalesce after being discharged from the
hospital, clutched her wrist defensively, refusing to let go.
“This is the commitment piece Garrett gave me! Why the hell should I return it?!”
“Commitment piece?! My son pulled a predatory payday loan to buy you that shiny piece of metal! You seriously have the nerve to wear that on your wrist?!”
Roxy cradled her face, her stitches still raw and tight, tears pouring down her skin.
“Mrs. Miller, I took a professional-grade uppercut straight to the jaw for Garrett! I have a titanium plate screwed into my face! I’m disfigured because of him! After everything I sacrificed, I don’t even deserve to keep a single bracelet?!”
The old woman’s chest heaved with a violent, choking rage.
“Sacrificed?! What did you sacrifice?! Did you lose a three-point-eight million dollar apartment?! Did you watch three million dollars of liquid savings walk out the door?! You lost a jaw, you little
leech! Is a fractured jaw worth three-point-eight million dollars?!”
Sobbing hysterically, Roxy looked over at Garrett, waiting for him to step in and defend her.
But Garrett just sat motionless on the leather sofa, his vacant eyes staring blankly at the glass
coffee table.
Spread out across the surface were four formal collection notices and a certified civil summons The wedding planners were officially suing him for the twenty-eight thousand dollar balance, and the hotel was pursuing legal action for thirty-six thousand in outstanding ballroom fees.
Combined with the eighty-three thousand from the payday loans and forty grand in credit debt, his
liabilities totaled exactly one hundred and eighty-seven thousand dollars.
His salary as a mid-level corporate stiff was exactly six thousand a month. Even if he didn’t eat or pay rent for the next two and a half years, he couldn’t clear the balance.
Slowly, he raised his eyes to look at Roxy. The pure, icy detachment in his gaze made a violent shiver run straight down her spine.
“Give me the bracelet,” he said flatly.
Roxy instinctively tucked her wrist behind her back, her voice shaking. “Garrett, please…”
“Hand it over.”
Garrett rose from the couch, advancing on her step by slow step. His towering frame cast a massive shadow, completely swallowing her frail, shivering body against the wall.
Roxy’s lips trembled violently. For the first time in her life, she recognized the exact look in his eyes–the cold, calculating calculation he used to reserve entirely for Sienna.
Total abandonment.
“Garrett, you can’t do this to me! I only stepped into that cage because of you! I took that hit for
you!”
Garrett reached down, his fingers clamping around her wrist like steel handcuffs, and violently ripped the Cartier bracelet straight off her wrist bone.
Roxy let out a piercing shriek of pain, collapsing into a ball in the corner of the room.
“You’re blaming that hit on me?!” Garrett snarled, turning the gold bracelet over in his bloodied palm as he looked down at her crumpled form.
“Who was the one whispering in my ear that ‘her apartment and money would belong to us’? Who was the one boasting about how she was going to permanently cripple her inside that ring?”
“And look at the reality! The woman leveraged the property, wired the cash, and cleared out, leaving me buried under a mountain of debt!”
“Now look at you. Tell me, Roxy-what the fuck are you actually worth to me right now?”
Roxy shook uncontrollably, burying her face in her hands as she wept until she ran entirely out of breath.
Garrett pocketed the gold and marched straight for the front door without a single glance backward His mother scurried right behind him.
“Son, where are we taking it? Can we get a full refund at the boutique?”
“Refund? The papers are tracking the debt. We’ll be lucky to get twenty grand from a pawn shop liquidation.”
The heavy thud of their footsteps faded down the stairwell.
Roxy was left entirely alone, huddled in the dusty corner of the living room, clutching her aching jaw as her voice went completely hoarse from crying. She ran a finger over her bare wrist, feeling the deep red imprints Garrett’s nails had dug into her skin.
In that exact moment, the full weight of Sienna’s past life finally hit her.
The absolute horror of being used until there was nothing left, only to be tossed out like a piece of
filthy rags.
Except for her, there would be no sympathy from the world.