My Fault (Culpable, #1)

For the first time, I had my breakfast sitting next to Nick, and all I could think about was that morning when we’d had pancakes and smoothies together. That was a sweet memory, especially the part that had come just before we ate…

My mother didn’t say much to us. She seemed immersed in her thoughts, and I reproached myself for not taking more interest in her marriage and whether she was happy we were living there.

“Are you okay, Mom?” I asked with a worried look. That lost look, that distraction I noticed in her was becoming all too common.

She came back from wherever she had wandered off to in her mind and feigned a smile.

“Yeah, sure… I’m great,” she said, picking her plate up and dropping it into the sink. “Nick told me that he doesn’t mind taking you to school today. I’m sorry, hon, but my head hurts a little… I think I’m going to lie down.” She gave me a kiss on the head and squeezed Nick’s shoulder affectionately.

“She’s being kind of weird, right?” I said as he finished his juice. He pulled my chair over to his.

“A little, but I don’t think it’s a big deal.” He put his hands on my knees and leaned in. “You ready to go?” His voice was seductive. His hands tickled me. I nodded. I guessed my car being in the shop wasn’t as bad as I’d thought at first.

Five minutes later, we were leaving, but he did stop on a corner where no one could see us, cup my face, and kiss me intensely.

“What’s that all about?” I asked as he grinned and put the car back in gear.

“It’s been seven hours and twenty-five minutes since we’ve kissed,” he said calmly.

“You’re counting?” I said, laughing. That put me in a really good mood.

“I get bored when I’m not with you. I need to keep my mind busy.”



* * *



Fifteen minutes later, I was at the door of St. Marie’s. I couldn’t help but feel nervous. Nick was looking serious, too, and clutching the steering wheel tightly.

“You going to pick me up?” I asked.

“Of course. I don’t have a choice—I’m your boyfriend, right?” he said almost presumptuously.

I laughed.

“That’s not necessarily a boyfriend’s duty. You’ve never even had a girlfriend, have you?” It cracked me up to know I was right and that I was his first.

“I was waiting for you,” he said, planting a hot kiss on my lips. I liked those words so much, I held him close. Kissing him reminded me of the two times it had gone further than that. I wanted to do it again.

“You’d better go if you don’t want me to kidnap you for the rest of the day,” he warned me. His hand around my waist told me he wanted to keep me there.

“I’ll see you at four,” I said with a smile and opened the door. This was addictive.

“Love you,” I said.

“Love you, too! See you, Precious.” He shook his head and drove off.

Before I reached the door, many eyes turned to me, but before I could let it get to me, Jenna jumped into my arms and hugged me.

“Noah! I’m so, so sorry.” She squeezed me tightly. “I didn’t know they were going to do that. I should have been there to help you. They’re just a bunch of immature babies. They should be over stupid pranks like that, but you know…”

“It’s fine, Jenna. It wasn’t your fault,” I said.

“Are you sure?” she continued. “You looked like you were freaking out. I didn’t know the darkness affected you like that.”

“It’s a trauma from when I was a kid, but it’s over. It doesn’t matter anymore.” Just then, the bell rang and we walked to our lockers.

It wasn’t over, though. Rumors had spread, and anywhere I turned, people were staring at me. I felt like a Martian or worse, like people were pitying me. I didn’t realize how angry I was until I went to the dining hall and saw Cassie there with the guys who’d stuffed me in the closet. I was so enraged that I didn’t even realize what I was doing until I was right beside her throwing my strawberry shake in her hair.

Everyone around froze, and before I knew what I’d done, I heard the principal’s voice behind me.

“Miss Morgan, my office, please.”

Shit.





42


Nick





I didn’t think all those dark feelings would catch up to me when I left the school, but they did. I couldn’t stop thinking about how that girl I loved so much had been tortured, almost killed. For that reason, I went straight to my father’s office. I wanted to know his thoughts about all this, but especially what could be done after finding out the woman I loved had been beaten and mistreated for years.

I reached Leister Enterprises and headed straight for the top floor. Janine, my father’s secretary, had known me her whole life; it had been her job to buy me birthday presents and take me to my friends’ parties. She’d gone to my soccer games when my father was too busy working. She’d even chewed me out when I’d had bad grades on my report card. Janine was a kind of mother to me, but I’d never opened my heart to her. I’d never opened my heart to any woman until Noah showed up. But still, Janine and I were close.

“Nicholas, what are you doing here?” she asked with a smile. She was a thin woman over sixty. My father held on to her because she was as hardworking and loyal as they came, and it wasn’t easy dealing with my father at work. I knew—I was interning at his practice.

“Hey, Janine, I need to talk to Dad. Is he in a meeting?” I asked, trying to keep myself from bursting in.

“No, you can go ahead. He’s looking over this afternoon’s case.” I headed straight back and opened the door without knocking. My father’s dark-blue eyes looked up from his documents and straight at me.

“What are you doing here?” he asked me sternly. He never said hello; that was a habit of his.

“I’m here to talk to you about Noah. And about Raffaella, to be precise.” I stood there in front of his luxurious desk, hoping he’d be sincere with me for once in his life. “Do you know about what her bastard ex-husband did?”

After staring at me a moment, my father pushed aside his documents, stood, walked to the bar, and poured himself a glass of cognac.

“How’d you find out?” he asked.

So he knew. That didn’t particularly surprise me. That wasn’t the kind of thing you could keep hidden too long.

“Noah freaks out if she’s in a room with the lights off. The other day she almost had a panic attack. When she calmed down, she told me.” The memory of what those fuckers had done to her enraged me, but I kept calm. “Dad, do you know what that son of a bitch did? Noah almost died… A piece of glass stabbed her in the stomach. She might not even be able to have kids.”

“I know,” he said, sitting down with an expression of grief on his face.

“You do?” I started pacing angrily through the room. “Her own mother left her alone with an abuser! Raffaella’s as much to blame as he is,” I shouted in impotent rage.

“Nicholas, I’m not going to let you talk about my wife that way. You have no idea what she’s been through or how much she regrets leaving her daughter there… She didn’t have a life like ours. She didn’t have money or anyone to help her fight for her child. She suffered that man’s abuse for years. Her body is a map of scars… So I won’t let you—”

“Noah was a little girl, Dad!” I interrupted him. “For God’s sake! She had to jump out a window! He should be dead, that son of a bitch!”

“Nicholas, sit down. There’s something you need to know.” He motioned at the chair in front of him.

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