Broken Obsession - Part Two (6 page)

Eduardo smiled inwardly. He had awakened up to go to
the bathroom and noticed his wife went missing. He stumbled over to
the balcony but she wasn’t there. He roamed the downstairs, she
wasn’t there either. He never thought she would go into Peyton’s
room to wake him up, but when he entered the doorway, he stood back
in the shadows while he watched Peyton cling to his mother for
reassurance.

There was the woman he would die for; holding the son
he always wanted and he recalled the day Leticia (his ex-wife) told
him that she was pregnant for the second time. He didn’t believe
her…he hadn’t been sleeping with her, unless she had been cheating
on him, how else could she have gotten pregnant? It turned out that
she wasn’t with child, it was a false alarm, but Amber was.

Eduardo remembered when he found out from the nurse
at the county hospital, where Amber was taken to that she had been
expectant. He was in disbelief and so uncertain, but elated at the
same time. He was happy for her and hoped that her pregnancy would
go well and went to see Victor (his brother) to give him the good
news. Eduardo would be the one to tell him that they were expecting
another child, when Victor laid down the ugly truth …it couldn’t
have been his baby, Victor confessed. He wasn’t sleeping with her
as well; in fact, Amber and he hadn’t made love for nearly a year.
So, that meant…it was Eduardo’s?! Eduardo was the father?

Eduardo was over the moon and immediately ran to
Sheila, hoping that he could make amends with her as well and it
worked. Sheila immediately responded to Eduardo and with this new
baby on the way, connected them all in more ways than one. He was
no longer the
‘bad guy’
in the relationship, he was the
‘soon to be father’
and positive attention was given to him
straight away. And oh how he loved the thought of having a child
with Amber!
If she only woke up
, he often thought. They
could be a blissful, happy family, those were his aspirations now.
His once incessant need of being the best, the smartest, the
sharpest attorney known to mankind unraveled to becoming the best
dad ever.

Silent days and nights with Amber now at the Palm
Desert Treatment Center turned in to nail-biting months of waiting
and wondering if Amber’s womb would either accept or deny their
unborn child. She was in a comatose state, unresponsive and unaware
of the marvel growing inside her. She was one of just a handful of
women who have been recorded pregnant while being comatose and the
doctors all told Eduardo to expect a negative outcome, that Amber
would not survive the trauma on her body if she ever did give
birth. Oh, how that tore him to pieces! There was now a terrible
decision he had to make. The doctors gave him a choice to either
terminate the pregnancy and give Amber a chance or let the
gestation developed naturally, but not to term. Terminate the
pregnancy? Eduardo thought about it all of five seconds and the
answer was no. In his heart, he knew, somehow he knew that Amber
would awake and her love for him still intact. But with that
decision, the doctors all told Eduardo to expect the worse, bear
down and accept the obvious, that Amber’s past medical history was
unfavorable and therefore, the pregnancy would never bear a healthy
child. If it would even make it to a full nine months…and Peyton
made it to seven and a half. He was tiny, premature and needed
medical care instantaneously. He was in an incubator for the first
three months of his life until he gained enough weight to be on his
own. And the doctors all told Eduardo, to expect the worse, bear
down and expect the obvious, that Peyton would probably suffer
mental incapacities, birth defects or poorer from here on in, but
here he was…normal, growing by leaps and bounds and ever so smart!
He was a bright child and loving, astute and Eduardo could have
never imagined that this would be the happy outcome for all three
of them; his wife, waking up nine months later and his little boy,
healthy and thriving, learning other languages, curious about
medicine and now knowing his mother.

How lucky could one man be?

Persistence breeds determination, and determination
creates boldness. So when a man owns his assertiveness, perceived
as being accomplished with his intellect, then its deliberate
self-assurance, arrogance and occasionally, conceit…

And what does this all mean, everything once—and not
so important anymore.

College, graduate school and becoming an associate in
a prestigious Westside law firm have all been predestined and under
my control….women at all times were my weakness.

Handsome, gorgeous, beautiful, charming, attractive,
good-looking, seductive, interesting and tempting, these were the
labels that I’ve had to grow up with. School was easy; college was
a breeze even graduating from Harvard was uncomplicated. Girls,
dating and maintaining a relationship had always been a difficult
mission.

The day I met Amber, I was supposed to meet another
girl after checking in at my parents’ home. They were throwing a
party for me, a barbeque with all my relatives to help celebrate my
coming home and graduating Harvard. I had a one-track mind back
then; family to me was not all that essential, only girls and my
aspirations to get to the top. So meeting my little brother’s new
girlfriend was just another fleeting duty until her eyes crashed
into mine. To this day I cannot explain it. What happened to me in
that moment, I felt like another world had been exposed, a
mysterious one, full of new challenges and innovative
possibilities. I said hello to her, but Amber didn’t return my
greeting, she just kept staring, which I was used to, but I kept my
sole focus on her; that I was not familiar with. I watched them
walk away, my brother and his new girlfriend and I not only
observed them walking away, I envied my brother’s arms around her
waist. Damn, that blew my mind. I had never been covetous of
anyone, especially my own brother and I had never been that drawn
to a woman in all my life and I’ve dated a lot of fascinating
stunning females. Gorgeous, Top Ten’s, Playboy worthy and elite
model’s; only the prettiest girl would do and I was always very
selective and never alone. So meeting Amber that day was probably
the worst thing that could have happened to me.

And the best.

I was in love with her.

I guess you could say (and I hate to admit it even to
this very day) thirteen years later that I fell in love at first
sight. I trusted my own feelings in that I would never allow myself
to fully fall for any female. Eduardo Sanchez doesn’t fall in love
with anyone. I hated to feel chaotic and confused and females play
with a male’s heart and I was never fully prepared for that. I
always held the upper hand; if the female got too close to me then
I always found a way to let them down gently. Always the winner;
never the loser but on that day of the barbecue, I had lost my
fuckin mind.

I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat—I could barely
concentrate at work! Good God, I had never been that sporadic. All
I wanted to do was touch her, just once, hold her in my arms and
test the theory that it was only my curiosity and that I really
didn’t need her or require to be by her side; but even that failed
and once my investigation was met, my lust took over. Amber was my
target, she was my food and I couldn’t exist if I wasn’t able to be
near her day or night.

Good God, I hated those days. Hated knowing I was one
of those fools you read about who had been besotted by another
human being. One of those stupid idiots I used to make fun of at
night clubs or on TV, even at work; watch them crawling on their
knees, getting their hearts broken in two. I wasn’t
him
, I
couldn’t be him, but the more I thought about her, the more I was
evolving into that moron and there was nothing I could do about it.
Amber was always on my mind until I finally couldn’t take it
anymore and I had to taste her, had to feel her body next to mine,
had to be inside her and I wasn’t going to settle for just one
time. Once our affair began, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to
stop it. Amber was all I ever wanted and I didn’t want the feeling
of euphoria to end. Whenever we were together it was like magic; I
had never felt so finished, she was like my drug of choice and I
was so obsessed.

I’m in love with her;
still
in love with
Amber.

And when she gave me that choice on that horrible
day, I wished to God I would have told her that I would have left
Leticia. Always wished I could go back in time and relive those
moments when we were in heat and she was in anguish over my lack of
common sense. I would have left Leticia in a heartbeat; I just
didn’t want to hurt my family. It was reasonable, even to this day,
it is still understandable. Amber said she would have done anything
for me and I was such an amateur at love, the one test where I was
supposed to come out the winner, I lost again; and nearly lost the
love of my life.

Sixteen months of living hell was my punishment for
not yielding, sixteen months of anguish and torture of not knowing
if she was going to succumb to her comatose state or wake up and
forgive me.

I literally fell to my knees at work when Dr. Hayward
called and told me that Amber had finally woken up. Closed my eyes
and vowed that I would never be that dumb. Lesson learned, it would
never happen to me again.

“Oh, I hate going to these things,” Amber grumbled,
straightening out her evening gown.

They were at one of the several investor slash
shareholder fund raising events that they had been given an
invitation to. Eduardo had gotten real good at investing his
well-earned money and built his name and holding company up by
tenfold and the parties were just fancy excuses to help celebrate
everyone having made good ventures.

“Stop whining,” Eduardo hissed at her, gazing around
the room for a familiar face; when he spotted one of his investing
partners across the span, he quickly added, “You look great, by the
way.” He leaned into her and gave her a soft kiss on her forehead,
“Now there’s Anthony Rivera, you know, the investor I told you
about last month?”

Amber gazed out toward her husband’s line of
direction; she didn’t see anyone who looked familiar. “Yes, but no,
what does he look like?”

“That’s right, you two never met,” Eduardo realized,
getting ready to go over and greet him, “Wait at the bar, I’ll go
and bring him over.”

Bring him over? Wait at the bar? Amber then rolled
her eyes and looked over at the elongated mahogany with all the
shiny bottles calling out her name. She did what she was told and
walked over to have a sit. She waited all but five seconds before
the bartender asked her what she wanted to drink. A martini sounded
good and the bartender handed her something pink. Two glasses later
and she was feeling mighty fine and glanced out at the crowd and
didn’t see Eduardo anywhere. How dare he abandon her there!

Amber was just about to leave her seat when her view
was suddenly clouded over by a black tuxedo tie.

“You’re beautiful,” she heard the tie say.

Amber then raised her eyes to his face and thought
pretty much the same thing. The man was terribly good-looking; she
realized immediately and felt a stab of guilt of admitting the
observation. Amber just smiled, “Thank you.”

“Please tell me you came here alone.”

Amber smiled again and looked down at her crossed
legs. The tip of her knee had been exposed along with her long dark
tanned legs. At that moment she did feel beautiful and looked up at
the stranger and into his eyes. They were brown, but mesmerizing,
hypnotic; he was also Latin and very, very pleasant on
her
eyes. “No,” she nodded, grinning again, only sweetly this time,
“I’m here with my husband.”

The man let out an apparent sigh and tilted his head
from one side still admiring the view. “Lucky man,” he said, about
to walk away only to be cornered by Amber’s husband.

“So you met?” Eduardo asked sternly, shifting looks
from his wife and then to his investment partner.

At that moment, Amber felt a shiver go up and down
her spine. She couldn’t determine whether it was the alcohol or the
new arrival’s apparent physical chemistry. She felt an immediate
connection with this stranger and couldn’t understand why.

Amber then stood up from her perched position and
stood up next to her husband, “Um, no honey, we haven’t met.”

The gentlemen beamed and displayed his pearly white
teeth and Amber nearly expired at that moment. Eduardo’s business
partner had a polished smile and his eyes lit up when he exposed
that grin which only seemed to enhance his magnetic appearance. She
was so drawn to this man, it frightened her.

“So this is Mrs. Sanchez?” The man simply relayed,
putting two and two together.

Amber looked shyly down at the ground first before
extending out her hand for him to shake.

“Tony Rivera, this is my wife, Amber,” Eduardo said
next, ignoring their bizarre intense moments.

Anthony Rivera, aka Tony to his very intimate
friends, took Amber’s hand and instead of shaking it like any
normal person would do, felt the impulse to kiss the back of her
knuckles like a gentlemen of the eighteenth century. He had been so
taken by her; he rolled his eyes only to close them because he just
made an absolute fool of himself in front of Eduardo and probably
pay for it financially later. He didn’t want to come off as looking
like he was trying too hard, but he was never one to steal another
man’s wife. Don’t get him wrong, Tony has had numerous lovers over
the years, all brunettes and his female of choice. Tall, stunningly
beautiful with dark or auburn hair and Mrs. Sanchez would have been
some trophy. He had just broken up with his live-in girlfriend of
seven years; Cara, that was her name, they even had a daughter
together, but after they lost her to leukemia, they coasted apart
in depression and Tony’s been drifting ever since to one girl to
the next. Never wanting to be alone, he tried not to look too
desperate but the next few ladies would always stay weeks at a time
and grab a few baubles on their way out. His business was booming
however and Tony decided to concentrate on making more money and
met Eduardo Sanchez through a mutual friend of theirs. Deciding to
go into trade with him, he started with a few short-term
investments and turned out that those minor interim investments
converted into rather large funds and figured being in business
with Eduardo Sanchez was a no-brainer, and Eduardo was of equal
mind; he was a smart cat and Tony fed off of him and his ideas.
Eduardo had a great eye for finance and Tony would throw in his two
cents and the both of them would often come out on top. Eduardo
would frequently talk about his wife but Tony would always try and
change the subject. Eduardo was always so upbeat and seemed too
happy, even for him and Tony only wanted to wallow in his misery.
He needed some serious help; he needed to get laid.