Former partner having crept awkwardly from passage (7)
I believe the answer is:
excerpt
'passage' is the definition.
(excerpt is a kind of passage)
'former partner having crept awkwardly' is the wordplay.
'former partner' becomes 'ex' (an ex-partner).
'having' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'awkwardly' indicates an anagram.
'crept' with letters rearranged gives 'cerpt'.
'ex'+'cerpt'='EXCERPT'
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for excerpt that I've seen before include "newspaper clipping" , "Sample of work" , "A selection or passage from" , "Short passage" , "Just a few words" .)