Broken Obsession - Part Two (12 page)

Amber felt unloved, and when she felt unloved, she
normally ran to her children.

So the following morning, Amber took off with Peyton
to visit her other two children (by her first husband, Victor –
yes, Eduardo’s brother), Valentina and Adrian.

Victor nearly fainted within seeing his ex-wife on
their front doorstep. Victor had gotten custody of both the house
and their kids after filing for divorce, and had been awarded full
physical custody with Amber only being awarded one hour a day under
supervised visitation. She was considered ‘unstable’ by the court
and at the time of the hearing he was overjoyed with the
ruling—having felt she deserved much worse, like never seeing them
again—but at present, felt the kids needed their mother and to
spend some time with her. Valentina missed her mother and would
often lash out at him making Victor the bad guy for having kept
Amber from her. They didn’t understand why, they only knew that
their mother once lived in the house and then poof, she was
gone.

He hadn’t seen his former wife since the day of her
suicide attempt and the day he last laid eyes on her lying in a
hospital bed, unconscious. He was…almost relieved for a moment,
shock overtaking his breath. She was still pretty, he thought, even
with a silly knitted pink cap on her head in the middle of summer.
He was also glad to see her to be honest. Glad to see she looked…he
was going to say,
well
, but the more he stared at her the
more he realized she had been crying, and something else he noticed
right away too, she had been drinking. He knew from being married
to her all those years that Amber only drank when she was sad. What
on Earth did she have to be so unhappy about? Looking unconsciously
at Peyton first, he smiled then conveyed, “What brings you to my
door? You lost?”

Amber bit down on her lower lip. “Are the kids’
home?” She asked, slowly shutting her eyes, trying not to cry
again.

Victor shook his head and said, “No.”

Amber immediately felt the coldness in his voice,
“Can I wait to say hi to them? I know I’m alone and without a
court-appointed guardian, but I thought I could just stop by and
say hello at least.”

Victor watched Peyton grab her leg and hide behind
it, “The school bus will be dropping them off at the corner in
about fifteen minutes—you’re welcome to wait.”

Amber wiped away a tear; Victor was acting like all
was forgiven. She never did tell him that she was sorry. She had
cut her wrist and lapsed into a coma before there was even time to
offer any kind of explanation.

Amber little by little mouthed out the words ‘I’m
sorry’ and just before she turned away, Victor stepped into her and
gave her a lengthy, warm hug.

“I forgive you,” he said, whispering into her
ear.

She hugged him long and hard back and was so grateful
for his continued friendship. She needed a friend right now. While
she was in the hospital, when her mother would come to visit, she
would come by with the latest news and let Amber know that Victor
had gotten remarried. “How’s Josie?”

Victor let go of her still smiling, “She’s great,
she’s due in two months.”

Amber stared at him agape and managed a small smile,
“Really? So you’re gonna be a father again?”

Victor shoved his hands down his pockets and took
another peek at Peyton, who, by this time, was hiding behind his
mother’s leg completely, “Yeah, we’re having a girl.”

Amber’s heart swelled up, “That’s wonderful Victor,
I’m really happy for you.”

“Thanks Amber,” he said honestly, looking completely
at Peyton now. “And this must be…”

Amber didn’t hold Peyton up this time to show him off
but rather just let him linger around her leg a few more seconds.
She did however run her fingers through his head of hair. “This is
Peyton.”

Victor let his smile drop; let the recognition sink
in and then caught Amber’s eyes beginning to swell up. “What’s the
matter?” He finally asked at last.

Amber stared at him again. Should she tell him? Well,
it
was
the reason why she was there in the first place! “Do
you have a moment? So we could talk?”

“Josie went to the market; she’ll be back in about
half an hour…is that enough time for you?”

“All I need is ten…”

*****

Victor went to go and answer the door again. He
wasn’t surprised actually to see his brother now on his front
doorstep. He still looked the same, damn him, and Victor didn’t
greet him with a smile, but rather a drawn out glare.

“I’m here for Amber.”

“She’s not here,” Victor just relayed, admiring his
woodwork on the door he had sand down last weekend.

“Don’t play stupid with me Victor, her car’s
outside.”

“Don’t try to bully me Eduardo,” Victor bit back,
“Your presence doesn’t frighten me. I’m your brother, I see right
through your high and mighty act. We used to wear the same K-Mart
shoes you and I, or does your Harvard brain seem to forget about
all that?”

Eduardo allowed the insult to roll off his hundred
dollar shirt, “Where is she?” He let go exasperated.

“She’s with our kids.”

That hurt. He knew Victor maliciously didn’t mean to
say it the way, but Eduardo just felt like Victor just cut his
heart out. Knowing that his brother had her first always seemed to
injure his soul. “I’ll wait for her.”

“They went to the park, it’ll probably be
awhile.”

Just then, a car pulled up in the driveway and
Eduardo watched it come to a halt and a pregnant woman exited out
of the driver’s side carrying a grocery bag in her hand. She
stopped short of entering, stared at Eduardo and Eduardo in turn,
stared back at her. Eduardo turned to his brother, “Aren’t you
going to introduce us?”

Victor noted his wife’s reaction to him; she was
obviously entranced by his facade. Fuckin Eduardo, he wished that
he’d just have an accident already and disfigure his face. “So she
can fall in love with you too? Com’on Josie, just walk around
him.”

Josephine Sanchez walked around her brother-in-law,
but her eyes never wandered off his gorgeous face.

“Whether or not you believe it Victor,” Eduardo said,
gazing away from his wife now entering under Victor’s protective
arm. “Amber
is
my soul mate, so if you want to go on
believing that I stole her away from you, then you’re
disillusioned.” He stopped abruptly when Victor crossed his arms
across his chest. “Why in the hell is she here anyhow?”

“I’m her best friend,” Victor quickly reported.

“Her best friend?
I’m
her best friend.”

“You can’t even be a husband to her.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“She told me about the other woman Eduardo—I told you
if you ever tried to hurt her or use her, I would fight to the
death to protect her, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

“Is that what she told you?”

“She came over here distraught and crying—she doesn’t
even look the same anymore! Even
I knew
she went through a
complete transformation once she tasted alcohol, why the hell
didn’t you? What the fuck are you doing over there Eduardo?”

Eduardo stared at Victor who suddenly got the better
of him, “How convenient for you to continue to play the martyr. You
don’t know the truth. I told you I would never use her, she’s mine
and I always take care of what’s mine.”

Victor laughed, “Does that line really work? Cause it
smells like bullshit to me.”

“I don’t care what you think, I love Amber.”

“But you’re attracted to Stacey Somers, aren’t
you?”

Eduardo’s heart sunk. Good God, he knew? His little
brother could always read him. Eduardo wanted to lie but figured
what’s the use. “Yes.”

Victor tsked at his older brother. “Always the same
womanizer—you know I’ve stood back and watched you in action?
Envied you on how easy it was to get any woman you desired;
average, sweet, incredibly gorgeous, young, older, flawless women,
your entire life. And not once have I ever seen you appreciate what
you had...until you slept with my wife. See, I know what you have
now, there’s no more begrudging
Eduardo Sanchez
...I know
what it’s like to hold her, to kiss her—” Imagining his wife lying
down with his little brother thoroughly undid him yet again.
Eduardo cut him off right away, “Are you done yet?”

“Why, the truth hurting you Eduardo?” Victor
spitefully spewed out. “I had her first
estúpido!
You don’t
even comprehend what you have big brother! You don’t realize what
you have until it’s gone.
Desaparecido,
vanished.”

“Shut the hell up Victor, you don’t know what went on
between me and her...you might think you know, but you don’t.”

“Have you had sex with her yet?”

“Who? Amber?”

“Stacey.”

“That’s none of your business.”

“By you stealing my wife, you’ve made it my
business.”

Eduardo looked his little brother up and down.
Couldn’t believe he was still at his mercy. “I’ll just wait in the
car.”

“Yah, you do that, run away, get the hell out.”

Eduardo turned to really look at Victor. His little
brother, the little pain in the ass that he always tried to hide
from…the little annoying kid who was now all grown-up. Eduardo
didn’t know whether to keep arguing with him or give his little
brother a high-five for effort. “I’m sorry Victor.”

Victor bore into his brother’s eyes.

“You know something Eduardo? I’ve come to terms with
it. Oh yah, I was upset in the beginning, I even hit you in the
knee with a baseball bat, recall that? That’s how mad I was at you
for taking her away. But later, I realized that she must have
always loved you, and that’s what really hurt the most. Because the
more I thought about it, the more I realized that you two were
always together. Sitting next to each other, walking together,
laughing, swimming in the pool, she was always following you. She’s
never given me that much attention,” he hooted, “and we were
married!”

Attention? Yah, he had that right. Eduardo was always
trying to gather up Amber’s full attention, “So what advice can you
give me?”

Victor looked away from him and across at Eduardo’s
fancy car. “I may have been a little blind…or maybe it was just
that I trusted her so much to allow her to spend so much time with
you, but I remember when there was once a time the two of you were
just friends. Do you remember that?”

Eduardo did remember that. All those years...how many
were they again? Ten—ten painstaking years of wishing and yearning
to kiss Amber, hoping that she’d notice that he had been in love
with her and to have her act on the attraction, “Yah, I
remember.”

“So she needs a friend right now.”

Eduardo shoves his hands down his coat pockets. “A
friend?”

“Yes, a friend, shit, why does it have to be all or
nothing with you? If you think about big brother, this is really
the hardest relationship you’ve ever had.”

Eduardo gulped...again, he was absolutely right;
school, grades, money and especially woman were effortless to him.
Relationships, appreciation, empathy...those were difficult for him
to always achieve. He had to get Amber to stop drinking. Could he
do it? “Victor, do me a favor?”

Victor started to snort, “A favor? That all
depends.”

“Don’t tell her I was here. I’m going home.”

Victor wanted to continue talking to him really. He
missed their conversations with one another. He missed...his
older brother
—period. His marriage to Amber had been over
years earlier even before they began having their affair. He knew
there had been something wrong in their marriage, Amber felt
reserved even when he touched her back in high school and saying ‘I
love you’ had always been so difficult for her to admit.

It was midmorning and Amber was outside in her
backyard in the hot summer sun trying to work on her tan. She was
in her bikini and was rubbing tanning lotion all over her skin.
Conveniently next to her was also a bottle of SKYY Vodka—quickly
becoming her liquor of choice—along with a champagne glass filled
with cranberry juice.

Peyton was not too far away, only about twenty yards
or so kneeling in the gated sandbox his father had built for him
and every now and then, he and Patience tried to do something funny
that would normally put a smile on his mommy’s face, but mommy
continued to be sad. He tried everything to make Amber laugh, but
mommy still looked gloomy.

Amber was in total anguish. If her husband was
attracted to a new conquest then that meant that Amber was no
longer the woman he desired. She wasn’t all things to him
anymore.

Peyton was laughing and playing with all his pretend
patients while Amber continued to drink, her mind wandering off to
a private lonely sector; a place where she could escape from today
and back into the past when Eduardo once loved her and his thoughts
weren’t preoccupied with this new blond and she closed her eyes
trying to wish it true when she popped them back open within
hearing the pool man’s whistling. Gazing over at him, the fella
entered through the squeaky entrance pool gate. She gave him a
friendly wave, and he back at her.