lifted off my chest. A weight I’d borne for almost a decade. “It’s all over,” Nick said, getting up from the chair by my bed and bringing his face close to mine. “No one can hurt you anymore. I’m going to take care of you, Noah.” I felt my eyes watering. “I never thought things would turn out like this. I never thought I’d be thanking the stars for bringing our parents together. Two months ago, everything you represented was hell for me. And now…” I got up on my knees in bed and touched his face, and he wrapped his hands carefully around my waist. “I love you, Nick. I love you like crazy.” His lips kissed mine, gently but with the full force of the love that had grown between us. The kind of love that happened only once in a lifetime, the kind of love that touched your heart and never left you, the kind of love nothing else compared to, a love we sought, a love we may even have hated, but that made us alive, that made us need each other, that turned us into something the other person couldn’t live without…the love that I had just found.
EPILOGUE Nick A MONTH LATER “Don’t you dare open your eyes,” I warned her as I brought her to the middle of the room. Having her there gave me a joy I couldn’t express in words. The change she’d made in my life was a new beginning in our relationship, but that was something I needed, and it would wind up being a good thing, enabling us to spend all the time we needed together. “You know I hate surprises,” she reminded me, wriggling around. I smiled to myself. “You’ll like this one,” I said, posting myself behind her. “Okay…now!” I took off her blindfold. She looked astonished as she saw what lay before her. We were in the entryway of the penthouse condo I’d just bought, and she could see the doorways to the bedroom, the kitchen, and the living room. It wasn’t big, just enough for one person to live comfortably, but it was a nice apartment. A family friend had decorated it to my taste, and it looked amazing. The brown and white tones gave it a homey, modern feel. I’d had a fireplace built in the center of the living room in front of the chocolate-colored sofa where Noah and I could watch movies and relax by ourselves. The kitchen was compact, but it had everything we needed, including an island perfect for two people to have breakfast together. There were thick rugs on the hardwood floors and a
huge window with amazing views of the city. At that moment, the dark night meant the lights were glowing like a carpet of stars. Noah’s mouth was open slightly as she looked around in amazement. “So…what do you think?” She shook her head. She needed a moment to find the words. “Is it yours?” she asked, walking to the sofa and resting a hand on the back of it. When she turned around, she had an expression I would struggle to describe: confused, worried maybe. “I mean, I’m going to live here, but you’re going to spend most of your time here with me. That’s why I bought it, so we could be together without anyone coming between us,” I said, walking over. I liked seeing her there. Her presence made it feel like a real home. A second later, a smile crossed her face. “It’s amazing!” she shouted. But I could see in her eyes that she was hiding something. I stroked her hair, tucked it behind her ears, and took her face in my hands. “What is it?” I asked. Her expression worried me. She shook her head and exhaled. “It’s just that I’m going to miss seeing you every day,” she said, leaning her head against my chest. I was going to miss her, too: I loved getting up and having breakfast with her, I adored seeing her before she’d fixed her hair, always ready with a smile, and, of course, I loved knowing she was safe and sound behind our locked door. All that would change now that I was moving, but it had to be that way, I knew that. Living with my father and being in love with his stepdaughter was madness. We almost never felt fully comfortable, we were almost never alone with each other, and now that I had my own place, I could see Noah all the time without parental supervision. “I will, too,” I said, “but it’s something we need to do. I can’t stand seeing you every day and not being able to do this when I feel like it,” I said, kissing those perfect lips. “Or this.” I kissed her deeper, my tongue wrapping around
hers with all the passion she awakened in me. She responded right away, and in a split second, desire had taken over my body. That was the effect she had on me. “Or this.” I picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around me, giggling. “Or this,” I said, tugging off my T-shirt with one hand. I groaned as I felt her hands on my shoulders and neck. I walked to what was now my new bedroom, with its huge bed and incredible views, dropping her on the soft pillows and unbuttoning her white shirt. “I think you’ve convinced me. I like your new place.” She sighed, letting me kiss every centimeter of her skin. “I knew you would,” I said, reaching her lips. At that moment, I realized that this woman would be beside me forever. I loved her above all else, and she had rescued me from the black hole my life had been before I’d met her. It had taken us time to understand, but now we were together and would work to make our relationship grow. Our lives hadn’t been easy, and that was why we understood each other so well. At a critical moment, in the eye of the storm, we had each been the other’s lifesaver, and that was not something easy to find. A few hours later, when I had her sleeping in my arms, I realized something very important. The lights were out, the shades drawn…and Noah was sleeping with a look of utter relaxation on her face, without a trace of fear. I realized then that I had helped her, too, that I also had caused a radical change in her life. That had been my fault. Discover more from Mercedes Ron
Acknowledgments If someone had told me a year ago that today I’d be writing the acknowledgments for my own book, I’d have told them they were crazy. Since I was fifteen, I’ve dreamed of this moment, the moment when I could say I did it. First of all, I want to thank Penguin Random House for trusting me. My editor Rosa Samper, who almost gave me a heart attack the day she emailed me. You spoke to me like a friend and gave me the best gift anyone’s ever given me. I’ll never forget that offer reaching my inbox. Thanks to you and everyone else who made My Fault something spectacular. To my agent Nuria, the first person to tell me the book had potential, thank you for guiding me and helping me with everything I need. To my mother, for praising absolutely everything I write. I always tell you that you aren’t impartial, but I guess you’re here to make me feel like I am the best. Thanks for being the very definition of a perfect mother. To my father, for swelling with pride and telling absolutely everyone his daughter is a writer. Thank you for being my rock and never giving up in the face of any adversity. You taught me that no goal is impossible if you work hard enough. To my sisters, Flor, Belu, and Ro. We want to kill each other, but we love each other like crazy. To my cousin Bar, my very first reader. I couldn’t have finished this story without your help and enthusiasm.
To my grandparents. Pitu, thanks for helping me whenever I asked you for advice; Abu, thanks for always being there. To my friends, Ana, Alba, that group that begins with Z. Thanks for making me laugh out loud, for staying together even though you’ve all taken different paths. I grew up with you and I’ll always carry you in my heart. Eva, Mir. What can I tell you that you don’t already know? I never thought I’d find two kindred spirits in the department. Thanks for being by my side since the beginning of this adventure. To my Yellow Crocodile. Belén, thank you for sharing your passion for reading with me. From the beginning, you believed in this story and supported me unconditionally. Anita, you taught me that dreaming is an important word. You taught me that believing in dreams makes us who we are. You’ll always be my partner on the journey that began with that trip to Los Angeles. To everyone who was there with me on Wattpad in the beginning. None of this would have happened without you. I’ve stayed up until the wee hours of the morning reading your comments. I never thought I’d get so much love from you. We’re united by what we’ve achieved together. I wish I could meet all of you and give you a hug. And last but not least, thank you, the readers of my first novel, my dream in letters, paper, and ink. Enjoy!
About the Author Mercedes Ron always dreamed of writing. She began by publishing her first stories on Wattpad, where more than 50 million readers were hooked on her books, and made the leap to bookstores in 2017 with Montena’s imprint, launching the Culpables saga, a publishing phenomenon that has been translated into more than ten languages and will have its own movie adaptation by Amazon Prime. Her success was followed by the sagas Enfrentados (Ivory and Ebony) and Dímelo (Tell Me Softly, Tell Me Secretly, Tell Me with Kisses), which consolidated the author as a benchmark in youth romantic literature with more than a million copies sold.