Broken Obsession - Part Two

by Trisha Fuentes

  Eduardo reached Amber’s bedside at two o’clock in the morning and slowly sat down next to her lying there. He was in awe—he was in disbelief, and lowered his head. What an awful sight, Amber numb in a hospital bed. How many months had he held vigil at her bedside when she tried to commit suicide once before? Sixteen painstaking months? Why did she do this again? Why did she feel that taking her life was always the answer?

  He grabbed her hand, but didn’t cry on her lap like the last time. He did however, smoothed his fingers over hers and thought about Mrs. Lopez. It was she who had notified him about Amber’s latest attempt. He had no idea that when he let go of his nanny that she would run to Amber to see if she could help her and Amber hired her mostly for companionship and not to clean up her apartment. He guessed they had struck up a bond after all and that caused a weak smile to his lips.

  Mrs. Lopez called an ambulance immediately when she found Amber out cold on her bed. Patience was right by her side once again and kept her body warm.

  Amber had a gastric lavage or her stomach pumped within reaching the emergency room. Activated charcoal was then given to Amber to help absorb any drugs or poisons that were left in the stomach.

  Eduardo was startled by Sheila and Molly walking in through the door at that moment, he didn’t expect to see them there, especially so late at night. Standing up, he first straightened out his apparel.

  Sheila and Molly were in shock. Of all people, they certainly didn’t expect to see Eduardo, Victor maybe, but definitely not Eduardo.

  “What are you doing here?” Sheila asked, speaking up first.

  Eduardo looked over at Amber, she still wasn’t awake. “Mrs. Lopez called me. She thought I’d want to know.”

  “And do you? Want to know I mean?” Sheila asked hopeful.

  “Of course...always, excuse me,” Eduardo expressed walking around the two gawking women and out the door.

  “I can’t believe he came, mom,” Molly relayed, gazing over at Amber’s body, “Do you think he still loves her?”

  Sheila looked over at Amber herself. Amber was beginning to show signs of waking up. “We’ll never know…will we?” Sheila then leaned down and grabbed at Amber’s hand.

  “I’m gonna find out,” Molly slowly said, smiling at Amber as she stirred in the bed.

  “But Amber will never know how he truly feels, not unless she stays alive.”

  Amber opened her eyes to find Sheila and her sister Molly at her side. They smile down at her as Amber painstakingly brought her hand up to her forehead.

  “I’m mad at you,” Sheila sternly pronounced holding back her tears.

  Amber couldn’t move her mouth; she couldn’t believe she was still here! Good Lord, why didn’t she die? “Who found me?”

  “Mrs. Lopez. She wouldn’t have been there, but she went back to your apartment to collect something she forgot. Patience was howling beside you on the bed.”

  “Oh mom...why didn’t you just let me die?”

  Sheila now let go of her anger and especially her emotion, “Because you’re my daughter dammit! And I’m sick and tired of watching you destroy yourself! You’ve single handedly ruined your life Amber; a death of a child doesn’t always equal a death of a marriage. You two should have held it together, not break it apart—it was just a test, couldn’t you see that? You pushed away a man who adored you Amber and you threw away a marriage that even I wished I had. You’re going back to Palm Desert Treatment Center whether you like it or not!”

  “Eduardo!”

  He turned around, shocked at the sight of his former sister-in-law running down the hallway toward him. “Molly? What happened…Is she OK?”

  “Do you still love my sister?”

  Eduardo turned to look down the hallway and the doorway he just came from, “I told you already, I’ll always care for her, is she OK?”

  Molly laughed, and then dug her hands in her back pockets. “Yes, she just woke up and looks as if she’ll be fine.”

  Eduardo closed his eyes and then dug his own hands down his coat pockets. “Thank God.”

  Molly looked into his eyes as he raised them to look into hers. “Do you remember when Amber tried to get us together all those years ago?”

  Eduardo remembered the day of Amber’s wedding; it was the day Amber married his brother. Boy was that a tumultuous time. He didn’t know if he was coming or going. He knew he was in love with her but never wanted to actually admit it. Just watching her intermingle within his family, kiss and hold his brother was pure torture.

  At the wedding, Amber tried to set him up with her sister. They danced the remainder of the wedding reception, even went out for coffee later, Molly was very nice girl, but he simply wasn’t interested. “Why?”

  “Oh Eduardo, I knew back then that you cared for my sister. The way you used to look at her, I tried to deny it because I thought Amber was in love with Victor.”

  “Me too,” he said, looking down at the ground.

  “I don’t understand it...God, I’ve been so jealous of what you two had! Look at me, I’ll be forty this year and I haven’t even gotten married yet. I date producers, actors, directors, cameramen, average Joe’s off the street, but I can never seem to find not even a smidgen of what you two shared.”

  Eduardo stared at Molly. She was the same height as her sister, almost the same color hair, but her eyes were brown. He stared at her brown eyes for a second and then looked back at the ground. “Your sister is poison to me right now. I just need time away to sort things through. I, myself haven’t even had a chance to grieve for my son,” he said, his voice cracking. “It’s been all about your sister—”

  “Rather than all about you, right? Good heavens, if you’re not the center of the universe, then no one else deserves to grab some attention?”

  Eduardo swallowed his pride. Contempt, he hated condescension. “Your sister hates me Molly. Hates me.”

  Molly started to howl, “My sister worshipped you! What a crazy proud fool you are...if you can’t wait to get back what you had together then you don’t deserve her.”

  *****

  Amber went back to Palm Desert Treatment Center and underwent her detox from drugs and alcohol. She met up with Dr. Hayward again and he was saddened by her return.

  During the next couple of months, her one and one sessions consisted of Amber telling him about Eduardo and what happened to them. Confessions that included the reasons why she started to drink heavily and the excuses as to why; having an affair, coping with the ridicule. She told Dr. Hayward that she thought Eduardo was cheating on her and that he continued to deny it. She believed he was lying and that forced her to start to drink because the intuition was making her crazy.

  And then there was Peyton. Her little boy often haunted her, waking up in the middle of the night, imagining him standing there at the edge of her bed, watching her sleep. She truly believed they lost Peyton because they were being punished for committing adultery. Dr. Hayward explained to her that it was simply not the case, that Peyton was a God send, not a sacrifice. They chose to destroy it, not some profound upper being choosing reckoning. Amber realized she continued to be numb from Eduardo abandoning her and she would never forgive him for that.

  It was there that Amber learned to forgive, but Eduardo would never know that.

  Chapter TWENTY-TWO

  Another Year Goes By

  What the heck does painting have to do with recovering from acute depression? Nothing, Amber realized as she plopped a dab of bluish paint onto a blank canvas. Two other patients were spread out amongst her and outside trying to paint the indigo sky.

  Amber began to swish the paint around, making a mess rather than creating something artistic. She went to scratch her forehead and tried to figure out how to paint the ocean when a blob of blue paint fell onto her cheek. She grabbed a nearby cloth she had resting over the back of her chair and wiped the paint away from her face but didn’t realize she had just made a noticeable blue streak across her
skin. She continued on with her painting, dabbing the blue every which way but right.

  “I’d buy that.”

  Amber turned around and was astonished by what she saw. She scanned over his legs first and brought her eyes gradually up to his face. He was tall, taller than Amber, she assumed. Her heart began to beat faster when her eyes reached his face. He was also very good-looking and...Latin, like her ex, Amber immediately turned back to her canvas with her face hot from an evident blush. “Thanks,” she let go, “But it’s not for sale, I’m thinking of giving it to Dr. Hayward as a wedding present.”

  “Trying to piss him off?”

  Amber started to giggle, “That was my intention.”

  Anthony Rivera walked into her full view. She hadn’t fully looked at him, but he noticed her. Her hair was quite striking; he always loved ebony hair on a woman. Her face, he didn’t quite count on. She was unique in her genuineness. No makeup, she was a natural beauty with a matchless pair of eyes that seized the deal and that’s when he realized he’d seen her somewhere before.

  Amber’s breath was taken away momentarily once he came into full light. No one had affected her heart that way since her ex husband, meeting this man was electric. The man was not only good-looking, but gorgeous on top; tall and distinctive looking with classic features, a goatee around his mouth, long thin nose and aquiline brown eyes. His hair was dark, black, almost like hers. He made her heart flutter.

  “Tony Rivera, recovering alcoholic,” he presented her, extending out his hand for hers to shake. When she went to shake his hand, he grabbed the cloth off her lap, and then wiped the remaining blue paint off her cheek that was blemishing her appeal.

  He wasn’t shy, she realized, rather bold of him to do that too. “Amber Sanchez, recovering from depression and fear of abandonment,” she happily expressed, realizing how truly attractive he was.

  Tony started to howl. “Dr. Hayward feed you that line?”

  Amber smiled in return, blushed at his smile and the way he made her feel when it hit her. They had met before? “Do we know each other?”

  Tony gazed around him and drew up a nearby chair and positioned it next to hers. He turned the chair around and leaned his broad arms and shoulders on the rim. “A long time ago,” he softly said, his voice trailing, “And no longer matters.”

  Amber looked shyly away again. He really shouldn’t be affecting her heart the way that it was but he did, “You were a business partner of ours, weren’t you?” She asked, nodding her head, the images of that magical night all coming back to her. “We met at the bar?”

  Tony was elated that she had remembered. “I told you were beautiful,” he smiled, exposing his nice white grin. “You still are.”

  Amber let the compliment sink in. It sure felt good. “You new here?”

  “No,” Tony voiced, looking down at the grass, “I’ve been a patient on and off for the past several years. This has been the longest I’ve been sober though. I’m going on three years.”

  Amber soaked in his sadness, “That’s wonderful, I’m happy for you.”

  Tony smiled; he really didn’t expect to fully be engrossed by her, but she was wonderful. She was also easy to talk to and he wasn’t the least bit nervous like he usually was around women he was physically attracted to and who the hell cared where they first met and who they were both linked to. “Thanks, I’ve come a long way.”

  “I’ve been here almost a year now,” Amber confessed looking into his brown sincere eyes. “It’s been rather difficult.”

  “I know.”

  Amber stared at him for a moment. Why was she so comfortable with him? “Of course you do.”

  “Have you eaten lunch yet?”

  His words stumped her heart. Those words, that phrase, Victor had asked her that very same thing when she first met him! Was Tony brought back to her for companionship or something else entirely? Her heart began to beat a little bit faster because of that something else. A deep sense of comfort entered her heart, she couldn’t help but beam. Was Tony her guardian angel? “No, I’m starving.”

  They sat across from each other for hours upon hours and spilled their guts about other tidbits and about each other’s pasts. Tony wasn’t surprised about Amber’s description of her outward appearance while she drank, Tony had been the same way, only he was an ugly drunk; mean, evil, menacing, and nasty. Anyone who got in his way would either be threatened with physical harm, or lashed out by his scorpion tongue.

  Tony was now a successful engineer; several downtown Los Angeles projects in the works, as well as across the country and a few even in Europe. He was a self-made millionaire at forty-two, divorced and downright enchanted by Amber.

  Amber was...cautious. Here was a man similar to her ex. Tony spoke to her with authority, with intelligence, with pride. There wasn’t one attribute she didn’t find different about Tony other than his eyes and face. Eduardo’s were green and Tony’s were brown, other than that, he was nearly the same person! Physically, but by no means compelling, Eduardo owned his sexual magnetism, whereas Tony was shy and reserved about his attractiveness.

  Could Tony be the next man for her? Amber was determined to find out. He was at the center for his yearly follow-up with Dr. Hayward and was only going to be staying at the Palm Desert Treatment Center for just a week, but decided to stay longer.

  And during this time, Amber and Tony were inseparable. Talking about where they grew up, whom they married, if they had any children. And that’s when it got painful. Tony had a daughter once. She died of leukemia. She was only seven, and it drove him to drink. Amber was instantly pulled in by their sudden comparatives. She told him about Peyton, how she felt it was her fault and how she thought she was being punished. They cried in each other’s arms for hours, realizing how much they had in common and made love for the very first time.

  They were walking hand-in-hand in through the palm tree gardens when Tony suddenly whipped her body around and embraced Amber passionately; kissing her with tender ardor. Amber was taken-back; it was the first time she had felt loved in over a year. She instantly felt Tony’s passion, but she still couldn’t find hers. What the hell was wrong with her? Was she still dead inside? She was a healthy woman, able to give and receive love and she still couldn’t find that emotion?

  “I’m in love with you Amber,” Tony whispered in her ear as his hands freely roamed her backside.

  Amber closed her eyes. Good Lord, she wanted to say it back, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t!

  “You don’t have to say anything just yet,” he let go picking up on her hesitation, “you don’t even have to return my love. I just wanted you to know how much I care and what my intentions were. I want to marry you Amber Sanchez, will you marry me?”

  Amber pulled apart from him. “Absolutely,” she said, grabbing his face with both of her hands. “I could fall in love you Tony, I know I could. Will you accept my agreement knowing that I still need some time?”

  Tony grabbed her body back to his. He loved the way her breasts melted into his chest. “I understand,” he gave to her, kissing her soft pink lips once more. “You’ll be leaving here next month, and I’ll be right by your side,” he softly expressed, giving her a peck on her forehead and looking deep into her eyes. “You make me very happy, Amber and I’m going to do everything within my power to make sure you feel the same.”

  Amber closed her eyes and felt very special. Good Lord, Tony could very well be the man of her dreams!

  Chapter TWENTY-THREE

  Tony Rivera was now the new man in her life. By default or by magic, Amber was feeling more energized than ever with a future to suddenly look forward to. She was making plans and setting up trips for them take, something she hadn’t done or felt like doing in such a long time. He brought back hope into her life and she loved him more and more each day for that. She actually felt like she had discovered another soul mate. Time spent with Tony had been too easy and she felt like she had known him her whole
life. He introduced a spiritual connection to her rather than a emotional one.