The Principessa Bought a Genius Boyfriend Chapter 06

Marcus’ tone was full of contempt.

“That was your broke college boyfriend, right?

“Come on, he’s just back to humiliate you. He couldn’t fight back when you were on top back then, now you’re down on your luck.

“Who knows how hard he’s laughing at you in his head?”

I was getting impatient. “None of this is any of your business!”

“Of course it’s my business! He stole my girl back then, now I get to take a little of his pride…”

“Marcus, I’m not your property! I turned you down before, and I’ll turn you down later too!”

I got out of the car, and Marcus didn’t stop me.

“Is it really up to you whether you say yes or no? Isabella, think about your family.”

His sneering face, for some reason, reminded me of the past.

This was exactly how people acted back when they spread rumors and made fun of Vincent, wasn’t it?

Did Vincent think of me the same way, too?

News of my return spread among my college classmates. I’d been one of the most popular people on campus back in the day.

Spread right along with it was what happened to my family—truth be told, that was what people actually cared about. They loved watching people fall from the top.

Of course, there were people who genuinely cared about me.

My roommate Rosa got back in touch with me.

She was getting married, and she asked if I’d still be her maid of honor.

That was our old promise.

Whoever married second would be the other’s maid of honor.

On the wedding day, a lot of old classmates came. I reconnected with everyone one by one, adding them back on my socials.

Rosa stood there in her wedding dress, tears in her eyes.

“Isabella, I always thought you’d be the first one of the four of us to get married.”

I laughed. “If I’d gotten married first, how would I be your maid of honor?”

“Don’t even get me started! Four years, radio silence. I was so mad at you!”

“My bad! I’m not leaving anymore, I’ll stay and make it up to you.”

Rosa laughed through her tears. “Why did you completely disappear back then? If you were in trouble you could have told us, we all would have helped you.”

I looked down at my toes.

After thinking for a minute, I told her everything I’d been holding in all these years.

“I’d never had that big a failure in my life, Rosa.

“You know what it felt like? My entire life just collapsed.

“I didn’t know what to do, and I couldn’t face everyone staring at me. Even pity stung like hell.

“I guess I just acted on impulse, I deleted every way people had to contact me.”

Rosa sighed. “Vincent looked for you like crazy.”

“What?” I froze.

“You didn’t know that? He tried literally everything.

“Asked professors, went to the school administration. He was this close to filing a missing person report.”

“He was just a broke student back then, he didn’t have any connections. When he couldn’t find you, he went to your house.”

Rosa paused when she saw my face, then kept going.

“You know he was terrified of your parents… but he worked up the courage and went anyway. Who would’ve guessed your entire family had left, even your parents were gone?

“That was the first time I ever saw Vincent break down. He sat right outside your gate and cried his eyes out.

“Later, he heard you might be in the south, so he went looking for you there, but he still couldn’t find you. Where the hell were you all this time?”

I said slowly, “A lot of places. We were constantly being chased for debt, so our family changed our names. We moved almost every two weeks.”

“No wonder. It’d be weird if he found you.” Rosa clicked her tongue. “Anyway, he eventually came back to New York all defeated, and that’s when he started working on that missing person database system of his.”

I didn’t understand.

I’d always thought Vincent didn’t care at all whether I stayed or left.

Before senior year graduation, I’d overheard him talking to his best friend.

His friend asked him, “What’re your plans after graduation? Gonna marry Isabella?”

Vincent said coldly, “Nah.”

That hit me really hard that day.

Not long after that, my family lost everything.

I broke up with him right then, and he didn’t even try to stop me.

So what did it mean that he looked everywhere for me? Regretting it only after he lost me?