The Principessa Bought a Genius Boyfriend Chapter 12

Vincent’s POV

I first met Isabella at the freshman orientation.

She wore a white dress, and walked through the sun-drenched hallway.

After that moment, all my daydreams and fantasies finally had a face to attach to.

I loved her, but I knew she was different from me.

We came from two completely different worlds.

She was the princess on top of the ivory tower, blunt and pure.

Her feet had never stepped into the mundane world. She was spotless.

She was moonlight—something I could look at but never reach.

She was the source of all my insecurity.

How could I dare to hope for her?

Even just hoping felt like a sin I didn’t deserve.

My parents died when I was young, and only my grandpa raised me.

Last winter before college, Grandpa’s legs got frostbitten and disabled, and he could never work to support us again.

The whole weight of everything fell on my shoulders.

I needed tuition money, and his medical bills.

After I lost my need-based scholarship, I felt like someone had stomped me into the abyss.

I started questioning the whole idea of fairness.

I never expected that moonlight would find me right then.

The second she said she liked me, every drop of blood in my body boiled.

But when she said kissing her meant I’d get paid, I froze solid.

I fell straight into an ice cave.

What did she take me for?

Someone she could buy and keep just by paying?

But Isabella’s eyes were so pure, there wasn’t a trace of playing games in them.

I didn’t say yes right away.

Not until Grandpa got critically ill and needed the ICU. The staggering medical bill broke me completely.

Isabella showed up, paid the bill without even blinking.

She smiled and asked me again. “Be with me, okay?”

This time, I said yes.

It wasn’t because of the medical bill.

It was because she was pouting and pleading with me, and I couldn’t say no to her.

I only realized later that Isabella’s life had always been so smooth, she didn’t even think having money was some kind of advantage.

When she helped me out, she wasn’t doing it to show off how good she was.

To her, money wasn’t a perk or a flex — it was just money.

That was why she was more pure than anyone I’d ever met.

Isabella loved me so much. She held my hand everywhere we went.

Her hands were small, soft, and totally smooth, no calluses at all.

I was always scared the calluses on my hands would rub her wrong, but Isabella loved it.

She’d hold my hand and rub it against her face over and over.

Sometimes I felt like a knight.

I only dared to do what the princess told me to.

If the princess didn’t say the word, I didn’t dare move any closer.

But slowly, rumors started spreading around campus.

Even the professor who’d always liked me started hinting that I should watch my morals and my behavior.

I loved Isabella, but I didn’t want to be the kind of person they talked about.

I thought about breaking up a few times, but I couldn’t do it.

Who could ever let go of Isabella? No one. She was the best thing that ever happened to me—she was a gift from God.

The rumors got nastier and nastier.

I drowned myself in textbooks and part-time jobs, tried my best to tune them out.

But one day, Isabella’s dad found me.

He met me behind Isabella’s back, told me to leave her.

He said I wasn’t good enough for their family.

Of course I didn’t agree, even though he threatened me over and over after that.

As long as Isabella didn’t give up on me, I’d never let go of her hand.

I was gonna fight like hell to prove it.

I could love Isabella, I could give her a good future.

Whatever other guys got their girlfriends, she’d get it too.

My roommate bought his girlfriend a bracelet, so Isabella had to have one too.

I worked my ass off delivering food and tutoring, finally saved up enough, and bought one for her.

But I was sorry, honey. I couldn’t come to your birthday party.

If me being there got you laughed at and talked about, I’d rather not show up at all.

We stumbled through the years until senior year.

On a whim, I went to go look at engagement rings.

They were so expensive, I couldn’t even afford the smallest stone.

I just had to ask Isabella to wait a little longer.

So many big companies sent me high-paying job offers.

If I could get an investor, I even wanted to start my own business.

Slowly, eventually, I’d be able to afford the ring.

Then I’d buy a house, a wedding dress, everything she ever liked.

My idea got approved by the company execs. I might even get a raise early.

When I was about to go tell Isabella the good news, she broke up with me.

She said she got bored.