FLAWED

Chapter One

* * * *  5 YEARS AGO  * * * *

I walked into my apartment rubbing my eyes in pain.

The sun was barely up and I was hungover, feeling like shit. All I could think about was taking a long, hot shower and curling up in bed for at least a couple of days. 

After tossing my keys on the nearby table, I paused at the two packed suitcases sitting next to the front door. I became confused when I saw my girlfriend of five years, Faith, walking down the hall with yet another packed bag hanging from her shoulder. She stopped in her tracks once she noticed me, clearly not excpecting to see me.

"Going somewhere angel?" I asked. Angel had always been my nickname for her for as long as I could remember.

She rolled her hazel eyes at me and continued walking towards her luggage. "Yeah..." Dropping the bag next to the others, she turned to walk back down the hall.

I followed after her, puzzled. "Where are you going with all this stuff?"

"I'm leaving Owen." She replied simply and I snickered. 

"Yeah, I figured that much, but where are you going?" We walked into the bedroom we'd been sharing together for the past 8 months and I watched her go into the adjoining bathroom, coming back moments later with her hands full of toiletries in silence. I began to feel a nervousness drifting through my body. "Faith, where the hell are you going?" I repeated before she threw the items on the bed and turned to me. Cocking her hip to the side and crossing her arms across her chest, I could see her eyes were blazing with anger.

"Why are you just now coming home Owen? It's 6am and I haven't seen or heard from you since 11am yesterday morning. Where have you been?" Faith asked, her voice shaking while she tried to hold back her hostility.

I shrugged as I tried to divert her heated gaze. "I went to work then a bunch of us went out after our shift. I was too buzzed to drive, so I just passed out in the parking lot of the bar." I technically wasn't lying. That is exactly what happened, minus a few details that I preferred to forget even happened.

Faith laughed and shook her head in disbelief. "It's terrifying how you can stand here and lie to my face." She picked up her cell phone off of the nightstand, toying with it for a few seconds before handing it over to me. "There's a message waiting for you."

Without saying another word, she walked out of the room. I was tempted to follow her but was also curious as to what message she was speaking of. Looking down at the phone and seeing that it was already in her voicemailbox with the speaker on, I pressed play.

I could feel my body slowly going numb as moans and blissful sighs came through the speaker. I recognized the grunts and groans right away; they were fresh in my memory from the night before. Even if I hadn't been sure, the woman's voice sighing my name in pleasure confirmed it. I pressed stop and erase, as if to stop and erase the damage it had already caused.

"What's wrong Owen? You don't want to hear all 4 minutes and 17 seconds?" I turned around to find Faith standing less than 10 feet away, no set expression on her face and a duffel bag in hand. "I assume that it lasted longer than that, but there just wasn't enough space on my voicemail for the whole performance. Though from what I did hear, it's clear you put on quite a show." 

I could feel my breathing become erratic as she stepped away and went back over to the bed while she continued. 

"I told you about locking that phone of yours. You never do and you always end up butt dialing me..." She said starting to throw everything that was laid out on the bed into the empty bag forcefully. "It used to bug the hell out of me, but I got used to it because no matter how many times I told you, you never listened. You're so stubborn..." She chuckled humorlessly. " You'll probably listen now though."