Both Owen and Amelia stayed silent for a couple of seconds, until Amelia suddenly started to hit his chest with the magazine.

"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" She kept screaming and hitting him.

"Amelia, stop! Listen to me!" He grabbed her wrists to make her stop. "I can explain, I swear!"

"Oh my God, the classic phrase! 'I can explain'!" She faked a laugh at his attempt. "Stop it, Owen, there's a fucking picture to prove it!"

"I had no idea there were paparazzi inside the building!" The moment he spoke, Owen instantly regretted saying it.

"Oh, so the problem is that someone was there to take a picture of it?!" Amelia yelled at him, ripping her arms away from him. "You admit it, then? You're cheating on me?"

"No, Amelia! Of course not! You know I would never do that to you!"

She put her hands on her waist and looked down.

"You know what's worse, Owen?" Amelia looked into his eyes, a serious expression on her face. "I had to hear it from the media first. When I arrived to film my music video today, I was surrounded by a bunch of cameras and people asking if I was going to forgive you for what you had done or for how long I knew about you cheating on me or even if I haven't been satisfying you enough so that you could cheat on me! I got attacked with sexism today because of you!"

Owen couldn't say anything. He felt terrible for Amelia being treated that way, he just wanted to punch all of them and protect his girl. But apparently, not even him could avoid hurting her.

"I... I trusted you. I knew I shouldn't get in too deep in this relationship, I knew I would get hurt and I was absolutely right!" She started to kind of ramble to herself with her hands on her head, walking back and forth. Then, she stopped and looked at Owen, hitting him again. "Dammit Owen, I love you! I love you so much!"

He grabbed her by the shoulders and hugged her tight, his face buried in her neck.

"I love you too, Amelia. So, so much." He felt his eyes watering a bit. Amelia was slowly hitting him less and giving into his hug, but without hugging him back. The feeling of Owen's touch was everything she needed in that moment, but the one thing she couldn't let herself succumb to.

"You have to believe me. I didn't cheat on you. I would never hurt you, if you'd just let me explain..."

"Owen, don't." She stepped away from him and dried a few tears, a serious look on her face. "I can't do this anymore. Not today. Just let me rest and... And think. Please, I'm so tired."

"I know, I know. And I'm so sorry that you're feeling this way, but it is not my fault and I'm gonna prove it to you." He said, determined.

"I hope you do." She gave him one last sad look before opening the door and leaving him all alone.

Owen hadn't done this. He knew it. He remembered that night... Didn't he?

Owen sat down on his couch and looked at the magazine Amelia had thrown at him. It was the night of Nate's birthday, two days before, he was sure of that. Owen and some of their friends all went to celebrate it at a club, Amelia couldn't go because she had some early morning photoshoot to do. And all Owen could remember was the start of the night, all that happened afterwards was a complete blank spot in his head.

"Oh my God..." Owen mumbled to himself. Did he cheat on Amelia?! He couldn't. Owen loved her too much, he could never do that to her. But did he? He had no idea and the thought of hurting Amelia... The look of sadness and disappointment in her eyes he had seen just a few minutes before made him mad at himself. He had to know the truth about what had happened that night and, since he couldn't remember it, that's what he was going to find out.


After looking up every article about Owen supposedly cheating on Amelia in search for more information, the man threw himself on the couch, feeling a headache because of the amount of stress. The only thing he could find out was the name of the blonde woman, Aubrey Ray, and more sexism thrown towards Amelia, including comparisons between the two women. He only hoped she hadn't read any of those, she was getting attacked by the media for something that he had done and it pissed him off.

Hearing the doorbell ring incessantly, Owen pushed himself off the couch and opened the door, seeing April with a worried look on her face.

"I came as soon as I heard." She barged into the apartment, passing through him and opening his laptop, without even asking, to start her work. "Sorry that I didn't come earlier, it's the babysitter's day off today and I had to drive the kids to daycare."

"April..." Owen sat on the armchair beside the couch where April was sitting and held his head in his hands. "This is such a mess..."

Before he could say anything, his friend interrupted him and looked up from the laptop.

"Owen, I'm like a lawyer here. Before I start my work I have to know... Did you do it?"

He raised his head to look at her in the eyes, a sad look on his face.

"I... I don't know." Disappointment hit both of them. "That's the worst part of it all! I can't remember anything from that night, only that it was Nate's birthday. I must've been too drunk or something. But how could I forget?!"

He ran his hand through his hair, stressed out. April didn't know what to say to him. She was very catholic and one of the main commandments of the church was 'You shall not commit adultery'. And even if it wasn't, she thought it was such an awful thing that she'd be devastated if Jackson ever did something like that to her. April could only imagine what Amelia must have felt like when she found out. So, looking at her friend in that moment, having the possibility that he actually did cheat on his girlfriend, she couldn't feel sorry for him. But she had to at least do her job as his publicist and that's what she was going to do.

Owen saw his friend calling and sending emails to a bunch of people she knew in the music industry, asking for favours.

"Owen, you can't just stay here looking at me. You have to work too." She said, without even looking at him. "You said you remember it was Nathan's birthday, right? Then, he probably remembers at least something. You have to find out if you did it or not because we soon have to release a statement. And it's either gonna be an apology or a denial one."

The man nodded and grabbed his keys to drive to Nathan's place.

"Nate, open up! It's me!" Owen knocked on his friend's door repeatedly.

"My God, mate. What is it? Are you dying or something?" Nathan opened the door rubbing his eyes and yawning, only in his boxers.

"Were you sleeping? It's almost noon!" Owen entered his friend's apartment.

"Yeah, well..." Nathan was gonna start to explain when Maggie, Amelia's manager and dear friend, appeared in the hallway only wearing one of Nathan's striped shirts.

"Nathan, is it the food we ordered?" She asked and then saw Owen standing in the living room and gasped. "Dear God, I can't be seen like this!"

After Maggie ran back to the bedroom to put on some clothes, Owen looked at Nathan and gave him a smirk.

"I knew there was something going on between you two at that barbecue..."

"Shut up" Nathan giggled a little bit. "So, why did you come here for? You're not one to visit for tea, so it must be important."

"Well, I..."

"You cheated on Amelia?!" Maggie came back running to the living room, with a dress on this time, and her cellphone in her hand.

Before Owen could say anything, she kicked him between his legs, making the man get down on his knees with his hands on his crotch, almost crying with the amount of pain he was feeling.

"Fuck! That hurts so much!"

"Jesus Christ, Maggie, are you insane?! Kicking a man in the balls hurts like hell!" Nathan quickly ran to the kitchen to pick up some ice for his friend.

"Well, it better hurt because he hurt my best friend!" She screamed and then turned to Owen. "I told you I would kick your ass if you ever hurt her! Now she's drinking again and it's all on you!"

"Wait... What? Where is she?" Owen asked, sitting down on the couch and putting the bag full of ice Nathan got him on his crotch.

"There's this bar near her place that she used to go all the time. So, one day I gave my number to the bartender for him to call me whenever he thought she was getting out of line, so I could pick her up." Maggie explained. "He called me right now and said she was already on her second bottle of tequila, rambling about you cheating on her, and I bet soon she'll start going for drugs again."

"Oh God..." Owen mumbled.

"She was so happy with you that she was slowly stopping with her addictions without even realizing. I had never seen her like that and I thought you were being really good for her, but now you do this?! I cannot believe it!"

"Wait, wait, you cheated on her, man? I thought you liked her!" Nathan asked his friend.

"I don't like her, I love her, Nate! And I didn't cheat on her, I'm sure of it!" Owen defended himself.

"You're sure of it?" Maggie crossed her arms on her chest, mad at his doubt on himself.

"I don't know, I would never do that to her, but no matter how hard I try, I can't remember!" Owen said. "That's why I came here, Nate. To ask you about that night."

"Wait, was it on the night of my birthday?"

"Yeah, look. This is the picture that's going around." Owen showed his cellphone screen to both of them.

"Oh, I remember very well! You didn't do it, man." Nate said.

"I didn't?" A huge feeling of relief hit Owen and he leaned back on the couch with a smile on his face.

"No, you didn't." Nathan started to explain. "I remember because I was the only one half sober that night. The rest was all wasted, but you were the drunkest one, I don't know why. You've never been one to drink too much at parties, but this time it was different. Maybe someone encouraged you to drink more or even put something in your drink, I don't know."

"That must've been it." Owen agreed. "But what about the girl? Did you see her? I looked it up, her name is Aubrey Ray, but I've never heard of her. Apparently, she's a singer."

"Yeah, I remember her too." Nathan responded. "She appeared out of nowhere and started to drink with you and she had her hands on you all the time, so I kept my eye on you two for a while, but you never touched her back. You stayed in your lane even drunk, just talking to her. That picture must have been taken in one of those times where she was throwing herself at you. The girl gave up soon and left the club, but I didn't know there were any paparazzi in there."

"Yeah, me either." Owen said.

"Are you sure about this, Nathan?" Maggie asked and he nodded.

"Of course. Owen and I were the last ones to leave the place, I had to get him home since he couldn't even walk straight."

"I'm so relieved that I didn't cheat." Owen commented.

"I'm still mad that you doubted yourself." Maggie looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"I would never do that to her, but I just didn't remember anything!" He defended himself and started to stand up, still feeling a little bit of pain on his crotch. "Now I have to go find her and tell her the truth."

"Of course not!" Maggie stopped him. "I'm going to find her and get her home safely, you and Nathan go find this Aubrey girl and ask about that night because I have a feeling she's behind all this. Once you get the facts straight and explained to the media, you can talk to Amelia."

Owen nodded at Maggie's demands, agreeing that it was the right thing to do.

He and Nathan called some people and soon figured out where to find Aubrey Ray.


Aubrey opened her door and smiled at Owen when she saw him.

"I knew you were gonna come looking for me." She said with a thick southern accent. "Come on in."

"I just came here so that we could straighten some things out." Owen said, but was soon interrupted by Aubrey's phone ringing.

"Sorry, I've been getting a lot of calls all day." She said, looking kind of pleased about it. She looked at Nathan. "And who are you?"

"I'm Owen's friend."

"Right."

"Look, Aubrey..." Owen started, catching a glimpse of a magazine on her coffee table that read 'Meet Aubrey Ray: The woman Owen Hunt ditched Amelia Shepherd for' and it made him sick to the stomach that people were already thinking he would replace Amelia. "Uhm... Clearly nothing happened between us that night."

"Oh, of course not. You were all rejecting me and saying how much you love your girlfriend and blah blah blah" She sat on her couch and gestured for them to sit too, a look of boredom on her face while she chewed some gum.

"Exactly. So, I thought that maybe you could give a statement denying that anything happened between the two of us. I would give one too and everything would be just fine." Owen suggested.

Aubrey looked at him for a second and then started to laugh, making Owen and Nathan look at each other, confused.

"You think I would work hard on getting this out just to deny it later?" She asked, still laughing. "The first thing I did when I woke up was a phone interview about how you were all over me that night."

"W-What? You're responsible for this?" Owen couldn't believe someone would do something like that.

"Of course, hun. And, as you can see, it worked." She motioned to her cell phone ringing again.

"But why?!" Owen was shocked. "Why would you ruin someone's relationship like that?!"

"Honey, in this industry you can't think about other people's lives or feelings, you have to think of yourself." She straightened her body, talking seriously to Owen. "I've been trying to get my huge break for fifteen years now! Singing and acting has always been my dream, but somehow no producer ever liked me. I went to audition after audition, I worked my ass off at a diner to pay for the studio so I could make my first album and none of that worked! I'm too talented to be working as a waitress, and then people like you and your stupid little girlfriend get lucky and get the fame and success I deserved?! I don't think so!"

"That's not true. I've worked my ass off too, for ten years. Nothing has ever been easy for me. I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, but that's not a reason to go and mess up other people's lives!" Owen was starting to raise his voice, pissed at the woman sitting in front him. Nathan was still so shocked, he could only listen to their discussion.

"Yes, it is." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Sorry, I don't have any problems with you or that junkie girlfriend of yours, but..."

"You shut your mouth about her." He felt his rage increasing at every word that woman said. Nathan put his hand on his friend's back, trying to calm him down.

"I'm sorry, but as hard as she tries to hide it, we all know she's a drug addict. Actually, that's pretty common in the rock and roll world, so she's just one more of them." Aubrey stated, not even scared about Owen's obvious anger. "But that's not what I was saying. My point is that I have nothing against you two, it's just that you were my perfect opportunity. I could never get between a power couple like Brad and Angelina, for example. You two are not that famous and have not been together for long, but you're the cute couple of the moment, so a publicity like that would finally throw my name out there and my talent would finally get recognized."

"Your talent for screwing people's lives, you mean?" Nathan said, tired of that woman's bullshit.

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Every publicity is good publicity, hun. At least now they know who I am and there's already people calling, interested in me and my work."

"This ends today." Owen stood up, not taking it anymore. "My friend here was with me that day and he saw that nothing happened, we're gonna give an interview and call you out on your lies."

"And do you think people are just gonna believe everything you say? The cheater?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "A picture is worth a thousand words, hun. Thankfully, I managed to take disguised paparazzi with me that night."

"We're not even kissing in that picture!"

"And do you think they care about that? They see me touching you and they see the sexual tension, that's all that matters for them to imagine what happened next."

Owen couldn't look at her face anymore, so he just turned around and left that place before he could do something he would regret.

"So? Did it work?" Nathan eagerly asked Owen when they got in the elevator of the building.

Owen got his phone out of his pocket and stopped the recorder. He had all of their conversation in audio and he was for sure going to use it against Aubrey. If she thought she could easily abuse of other people's lives like that just to get what she wanted, she was very wrong.

"Wow mate, I feel like I'm on CSI or something." Nathan commented, a smile on his face. "So, what now?"

"Now let's get this to April so I can get my girlfriend back."


Any thoughts?