Breaking Apart by M.D. Wanda Venters

Author:M.D. Wanda Venters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Written Dreams Publishing
Published: 2023-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Esther Park, as well as the rest of the clinic staff, was aware Mr. Hernandez was being questioned by the police. She caught a glimpse of him when he returned that afternoon. He looked positively stricken as he headed directly to his office.

Josh Baker’s death continued to haunt and terrify her. At least her entry in Josh’s medical record hadn’t caught anyone’s attention. Her thoughts drifted back to the day they met. Why did I agree to take a walk with him? What was I thinking?

They met in the hospital atrium. Esther knew she shouldn’t be seen leaving with him, so after a brief conversation, they decided to meet at the riverwalk downtown close to Esther’s apartment. She found a bench at their designated meeting spot in Confluence Park. The joining of the Platte River and Cherry Creek was fed by the snow melt. In the summer, kayakers had a field day in the rushing waters. Native grasses along the bank shivered in the wind. The sounds and sights of nature, right in the middle of the city, briefly calmed Esther’s troubled mind. She’d spotted Josh as he approached along the path.

They did indeed walk for about thirty minutes before resting on a bench in a more secluded stretch of the trail. Josh took Esther’s hand and traced patterns on her palm. When he leaned in to kiss her, she met him eagerly and didn’t want the moment to end.

Before long, they both knew where this walk would end up. At Esther’s apartment, they shed their clothes as soon as the door closed behind them.

Afterward, Esther could not believe what she had done. A sexual relationship with a patient was a sure way to get expelled from her residency. Her medical career would end before it even began. No one could ever find out. She vowed that would be her only transgression with Josh Baker. But of course, it wasn’t.

They continued to meet for over a month. It was Josh who called it off. In the short time they had been together, Esther was troubled by his drastic mood swings. He went from the attentive lover to a guilt-ridden, cheating husband in a matter of hours. On their last liaison, he sobbed and said it was over. That he couldn’t lose Amanda. He’d admitted to cheating on her previously and when she found out, Amanda made it clear that if it happened again, she would leave him.

“If I lose her, I might as well kill myself,” Esther remembered him saying. “She’s the only good thing that’s happened to me since that fucked up war.”

Despite the sting of his rejection, Esther was relieved the affair was over. When she looked at the situation objectively, it was clear Josh’s behavior reflected his psychopathology. But what excused my actions?

Later, when Josh returned to the clinic for his regular appointments with Dr. Vincent, he and Esther avoided any contact. Not a word, not a glance. Esther couldn’t help observing him, though. She noticed him in conversation with Sandra Collins on more than one occasion.

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