Dust

Chapter 14

Faith POV: My eyes burn as slivers of sunlight begin to hit my dry eyes. I rub them, and try to regain focus after a few seconds. The house looks different, as if somebody had redecorated it. The fixtures are a lot more feminine then I remembered...

I stagger upstairs, and go to check on the girls. My heart pounds as I see their empty beds.

"Mark!" I scream, running into the master. The comforters are different, along with the majority of the decor in the room. Not to mention the different man in my bed...

"Hey honey, come back to bed." The man says. He appears clean cut, with a thin beard. He has brown hair and stunning blue eyes, which distract me for a moment.

"My kids..." I say quickly, feeling it become harder to breathe.

"Were you drinking?" He asks, sitting up in bed. He rubs his eyebrows with his thumb.

"What? Of course not." I answer.

"You don't have visitation this week." He says, sounding irritated.

"Excuse me?" I say, moving toward him slowly.

"Next weekend is visitation. He has them this week." He gets up and puts on his pants, sporting a set of chiseled abs. My brain doesn't even process it in my state of confusion.

"Who has them?" I practically shout. The man heads downstairs, with me trailing hot on his heels.

"Tim does." He says, causing me to freeze. The man hits the bottom of the stairs, and heads straight to the family room. "I fucking knew it..." He shouts, throwing down a bottle from the table. It crashes, and makes a huge mess. Bottles are everywhere around the room, and an empty bottle of wine sits on the kitchen counter. "Faith, we talked about this..." He says, sitting down and rubbing his forehead.

"Talked about what?" I ask. He begins to laugh out of frustration.

"Your drinking. I don't want to have to put you back in rehab again." He says, grabbing my hand. The feeling causes me to walk off in search of a phone. Even the phone looks different.

I find Tim's number on the caller ID, and dial him quickly.

"Hello?" His voice answers, causing me to pause for a moment.

"Oh my god..." I start to cry out. "Oh my god, you're okay..."

"Faith, what do you want?" He says, sounding more than frustrated. A woman's voice echoes in the background.

"Are the kids with you?" I ask. He sighs.

"Yeah. Faith, are you drunk?" He asks. "It's ten in the goddamn morning, so if you're drunk, I swear..."

"I'm not drunk... Why aren't you home?" I ask. He begins to laugh.

"Are you with Adam?" He asks slowly, seeming to exhale deeply.

"Who?"

"Adam."

"Who's Adam?"

"Hold on a second..." His side of the conversation falls silent, as I hear the man's phone ring from the family room.

"Jesus christ, I'm so sorry. I... Tim... I know.... I don't know where she got it... Yes it's bad... No... No, stay with the girls. I can handle her." I hear the man say. Tim gets back on the line.

"Go to bed, Faith." Tim says. "And you know you shouldn't be calling unless it's about the girls." He says, before hanging up.

I stand for a moment, staring at the phone. How the hell could this be happening? I look over to the man.