Doctors without Boundaries

I was dumbstruck, all of this time wondering whether something had been going on, and now this guy just spills it all out for me, I couldn't believe it. I felt numb.

"Wow, okay. So, did Ryan finally end it? Is he back home now in Chicago with his wife and kids?"

"Well, I spoke with Emily just before, asked her if she's kept in touch with Ryan or not. I mean it was super clear that they were a couple back then, they both lived together, dined together, they were inseparable. It's not like the two of them were a secret or anything. But here's the interesting bit, she told me he's now working at Elliot Hospital with her in Manchester. He started there just a month ago, according to her. I think she probably helped him to get the job there too, but she'd never say that."

"Hold on, did he get divorced? Did he leave his wife and kids for Emily?" the older balding guy asked.

"I asked her that, well if he's now divorced anyway. She said no, he's just working with her for a while, whatever that means. I bet Ryan has told his wife he's off on a contract overseas somewhere, meanwhile he's banging the hell out of hottest young doctor in New Hampshire."

"He must have massive balls to pull that off, lying to his wife so he can be with Emily. To do that with a wife and kids at home, seriously that's a little fucked up." The balding thinner guy answered, and I had to agree with his point of view, it is fucked up. Emily has fucked up our marriage now too.

"You say that, but you haven't seen Emily sunning herself topless at the beach or by the pool in Puerto Rico. If you'd seen her body and those tits, my god, even you might have second thoughts." The fatter guy replied.

"No, I couldn't live with myself if I ever did that to my family, no matter how gorgeous she is, it's just not worth it. And she's married too, so, she's now working and no doubt sleeping with Ryan again and then what? She goes home to her husband afterwards?" The older thinner guy replied back.

"Yeah, I know, sucks to be him. Well, don't mention any of this when she gets here after five. It's really none of our business if she wants to fuck around outside of her marriage. I bet Ryan will probably be here soon as well, there's no way he'd miss an opportunity to spend the night with her. I bet he'll be pounding her until the wee hours of the morning for sure." The bigger guy replied.

"Well, it'll be nice to catch up with Ryan again. Although, I can't say I'll have as much respect for him now. It's not a good thing what he's doing. I could never even think of doing that shit to my wife and kids." The balding guy answered.

"Oh, come on, not even for someone as hot as Emily? Man, I'd give my left nut to have just one night with her." The bigger replied while chuckling out aloud.

"But you're single. You don't have a wife and kids at home to think about. There's more to life than just sex, even if she's a ten out of ten like Emily." The balding guy answered.

"Fair enough, just remember, mom's the word when Emily or Ryan gets here, okay?"

"Sure."

I was still trying to pick my jaw up off the ground, hearing them talk about my cheating wife with her lover like that, I was still feeling like I'd just been sucker-punched.

It was all clear to me now, everything made sense. Even her recent behavior was explained, she's now fucking this Ryan guy again. The other Saturday, I bet she spent all day fucking him when she was out, that's why she never answered her phone and wanted to shower straight away when she got home, and to wash her soiled clothes. She also didn't want me to see her naked because she probably had marks on her still from their fuck session less than an hour earlier.

My anger was at a boiling point, I wanted to grab the fatter guy and ask him 'what else did he know'? But instead, I tried my best to act casually as I got up and left the bar. I swear if someone had bumped into me on the way out, I probably would've slugged them.

I went and sat down out front of the convention center again, it's now after 4:30pm. Did I want to wait around to see her with him? To see who this Ryan guy is. No, to me it doesn't really matter who he is, it's Emily I'm most angry with. I don't care if he's cheating on his wife, I really don't give a shit. I only care that Emily is cheating on me. That's it.

What makes me the angriest with Emily are the lies and deceit, not just the betrayal. If she fell in love with this guy shortly after arriving in Puerto Rico, why didn't she break up with me then? At least she should've had the courage to do it when she returned home next. Instead to pretend that we were still good, to have sex with me after that when she clearly no longer loved me, why?

Now to help this guy get a job in our own hometown, where everyone knows us, to be continuing her affair right under my nose. It's that complete lack of respect for me, like she's rubbing it in my face, that's what I can't understand. Why would she do that? I've given her everything I could, we've always been best friends and lovers since high school. I've never so much as kissed another girl other than Emily, let alone have sex with someone else. And now she's flaunting her infidelity like she doesn't care for me at all. How did we get to this point?

Only one thing remains here, do I need to see her with him with my own two eyes? To remove any doubt whatsoever. Maybe. I'm thinking of it as closure, seeing her being with another man that she's romantically and sexually involved with, it will make it clear to me once and for all that our marriage is truly over.

I tried to gather myself, it was hard. I still had thoughts and anger and frustrations and questions all swirling around inside my head. The main question was why? Why Emily, why did you want to cheat on me?

It's after 5pm now, so I got up and made my way back inside as most people were leaving. I don't want to confront her yet, I just want to see her with him for myself, for closure. I made my way towards the bar, stopping and sitting at a café close by. From where I'm sitting, I can see the end of the bar where I was earlier.

The two guys are still there along with Emily and the other woman now. There was now also a third man, a tall guy with nicely combed brown hair who looked in good shape and dressed well. He was standing beside Emily; now he places his arm around her waist as they stand there chatting with the others. This must be Ryan; this is the guy my wife has been cheating on me with.

Seeing my wife standing there with another man as he has his arm around her, claiming her for his own, it's hard to take. Up until today I thought that Emily only had love for me and me alone. Even with all my suspicions, I was hoping and praying that I was wrong. It's hard to explain this moment, to see her with him with my own eyes, she's broken my heart and any trust I have for people all in one fell swoop.

What do I do now? Do I go in there and confront her? Do I smash this guy in the face and tell my wife to fuck off? I want to, so very much I want to go in there and let my anger fly. But no, I don't need assault charges added on top of the pain that she's already inflicting upon me.

My pragmatic side tells me to not make any rash decisions while emotionally distraught, that I need to go home and calm down first. I have my proof now, I got what I came here for. I pulled out my phone, turning on the video as I zoomed in recording them. As if on cue, Emily turned a little towards Ryan and kissed him on the lips, just a quick kiss but it clearly showed what he meant to her. I pressed stop, then headed for the garage.

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It felt strange walking into our home, the one we've shared together for a number of years now. While I've been lonely here while Emily was in Puerto Rico, our home now felt different. It now served only as a reminder of what should've been but what now isn't.

It was going to be hard sleeping here tonight, knowing that my wife is getting fucked in a hotel room by her lover in Boston while I lay here alone. Again, the only real question I had was why? Why Emily?

I decided to head back out, to go to a bar or something, to get some dinner and maybe hang out having a few beers with my friends, I just didn't want to be alone. I didn't get home until 2am, I had no problem sleeping as well after having drank way too much during the night.

The hangover in the morning seemed to compound my bad mood about my marriage. I needed to clear my head and figure out what I was going to do before Emily got home later this evening. One thing I knew for sure, our marriage wasn't going to continue like before, I wasn't going to pretend that I didn't know or that I would accept this. No, it's definitely the end, but what now?

Do I pack my bags and move out? No, fuck that. She's the one cheating, she can go and live with her boyfriend. He must be renting somewhere in town; he's even working with her now. How do you do that? Lie so blatantly to your wife about where you are? Does she even know that's he's living in New Hampshire, working here?

That's when I knew what to do. I opened up my laptop and went to the Doctors Without Boundaries website, looking to see if they had any details for him. They didn't, not publicly anyway, so I checked the popular employment websites, searching for Ryan Knight, Doctor, Chicago. I got a hit.

When I went to his profile, it listed both his time in Honduras and Puerto Rico recently working as the team leader for Doctors Without Boundaries. I went to his contact details, he had that he lived in Chicago and provided an email, along with both his mobile and his home number. Bingo.

I made myself a coffee and sat out in the backyard while I drank it. Do I really want to go through with this? I'm hurting right now for the destruction of my own marriage, and he helped cause that to happen. But his wife and kids aren't to blame, do I want to ruin their lives too? No, but his wife deserves to know. She should know the truth; besides, he doesn't get to ruin my life and walk away into the sunset with both my wife and his.

I got up and went back inside, I called the home phone number listed on the employment site.

"Hello, Melissa speaking."

"Melissa Knight" I replied.

"Yes, that's right."

"Hi Melissa, this is Kevin from Doctors Without Boundaries, would I be able to speak to your husband Ryan about an opportunity we have for him?" I replied.

"I'm sorry, he's already working for you, he's in Costa Rico right now."

"That can't be right, I don't have that on our database. I have that his most recent contract was in Puerto Rico earlier this year. Is that correct?" I continued.

"Yes, that's right. But he recently left on a new contract to Costa Rico about a month ago now. Maybe you should call someone there to confirm things. Or you could ring my husband on his number, although reception is pretty bad down there, my calls almost never get through." Melissa responded.

"Is it? We've never had an issue with cell service in Central America before. Besides, I don't think we have any placements for Costa Rico, they have a really good healthcare system there. Could you do me a favor? Could you check your husband's flights to Costa Rico, and if you could give me the flight number. We pay for all the trips, so I'll be able to find that in our database and clear all of this up nice and quick." I responded.

"Um, yeah, sure. Just give me a moment, I'm not on my laptop right now." Ryan's wife replied. She took a minute or two to log into her laptop and their emails, before responding to me.

"This can't be right, I can't find any emails here for his flights, give me a moment, I'll check the flight booking website we use." Melissa continued.

"Thanks Melissa, this will make it a lot easier for me to relink everything in our database." I added as she typed away on her laptop.

"Okay, here it is, oh, that's strange. His flight was just one-way from Chicago to Boston. He normally flies via Texas for his trips to Central America, with connecting flights to whichever country he's going to. I'm not sure why he'd fly to Boston, and there doesn't seem to be any other flights listed after that." Melissa responded.

"Really? We never book flights through Boston unless our contractors live in the North-East. What's the flight number you have there, maybe I can check on my end to see what's happened." I continued.

Melissa then read out the flight number, I pretended like I was entering it somewhere as she spoke.

"Um, I've got nothing in our database. He never came through us for that flight. Are you sure he's working on a contract for us? There's no other companies or NGO's that perhaps he's working for?" I asked his wife.

"No, he told me the contract is with Doctors Without Boundaries in Costa Rico for six months. I'm one hundred percent sure of it." She responded.

"Well, I'm not sure what else to tell you, apart from that he's not currently working with us, and that we haven't paid for any flights, accommodation or wages for him recently either. Maybe if you check your bank statements, you might see details of another flight he paid for, or you might be able to see who's been paying his wages. I know this is probably a bit strange, but I don't have anything here for him at present, that's why I was calling to offer him some work." I responded.

"Hold on then, give me a moment." Melissa replied with a sigh. I could hear her typing away, if nothing else, she'd be suspicious of her husband now, she'd want to know the truth.

"This can't be right. What the hell is going on?" Melissa spoke out aloud although it was clear she wasn't talking to me.

"He hasn't withdrawn from our bank account for the last month, how the hell is he paying for anything?" Melissa again said out aloud.

"Maybe he got a cash advance before he left, or he has another bank account." I responded.

"No, we only have our shared account and there's no cash advances on here. Why would he open another account?"

"I can't answer that. Have there been any deposits into your shared account recently? Surely, he's getting wages if he's away working somewhere?" I asked her.

"Yes, there have been three deposits so far, the same amount each week. They're all bank transfers, from another bank it looks like. In the details it says here that it's from a bank in Manchester, New Hampshire. Why would he be transferring money into our account from a bank in New Hampshire? This doesn't make any sense whatsoever." She again asked out aloud.

"Well, that's like an hour's drive from Boston. I guess that explains the one-way flight to Boston then I'm assuming. Um, that's weird..." I continued, begging her to bite.

"What's weird?" Melissa replied, taking my bait.

"Well, we only have one other doctor in our database that comes from Manchester, New Hampshire. I placed her with her last contract, it was in Puerto Rico working for your husband for a year up until June. What would he be doing in Manchester with her? Is he working there with her again I wonder? That would make a lot of sense if you're now receiving transfers for his wages from a bank there." I responded, the insinuation for his wife was clear even if I played it calmly.

"That's impossible. What would he be doing working in New Hampshire with some woman who worked for him before? Why would he not tell me that? Why would he not tell me about the flights and the bank accounts? Oh my God.." Melissa's voice trailed off.

And there it is, she just realized the implications of this. She has just realized that her husband is cheating on her, lying to her.

"Who is she? This woman that lives in Manchester? What's her name?" Melissa almost demanded.

"I can't give out personal information of our former employees. I'm so sorry." I responded as if I meant it.

"But she's a doctor, right?" Melissa continued.

"Well, I only place contracts for doctors, that's what I do." I answered her.

"Manchester can't be that big, surely there can't be that many hospitals there. He has to be working at one of them." Melissa responded.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Knight, I'm not following." I added, keeping my charade going.

"Don't worry, I'll find out where he's working, what he's been up to. Is there anything else? I don't think my husband will be wanting a job with you at the moment." Melissa responded.

"Okay, I'm sorry about all of the confusion I've caused. I hope you get to the bottom of it." I replied.

"Oh, don't worry, I will." Melissa stated forcefully before ending the call.

Well, that couldn't have gone any better, but why did I still feel like a big piece of shit for doing it? I can't enjoy ruining her life, even if her husband and my wife are the real cause of it, I'm just helping her to find the truth. With that out of the way, I needed to figure out what to do about Emily.

I decided I'm not moving out, that's what Emily has to do. I went into the garage and grabbed two of our suitcases, taking them into the bedroom and started packing up her clothes. They were full before I finished, so I grabbed our last suitcase from the laundry, packing the rest of her clothes and all of her stiff from the bathroom. With that out of the way, I took all three suitcases to just inside the front door, leaving them there for when Emily gets home later tonight. With that task done, I hit the gym before going on a run.

As I sit here eating my lunch, I'm trying to think about what I'll say to her, what she might say in response. I'm determined not to lose my temper; I don't want her to see how much pain I'm in right now. No, I'll have the courage to do what she should've done a year ago, I'll end it once and for all.

I watched some sports on the TV to pass the time, it's almost 6pm now and it won't be long before Emily is calling me to come and pick her up at the train station. That reminds me, I grabbed my phone and switched it off. Two can play this game.

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At 7:30pm I can hear a car stop out front and a door close, shortly followed by our front door opening and shutting. As Emily enters the living room where I'm sitting, I watch her stop and sigh.

"John, why is your phone off? You were meant to come and pick me up, I had to get an uber home. And what's up with all our suitcases at the front door?" Emily asked as she flopped down on the couch beside me.

"I'm so worn out; it's been a very busy and tiring weekend. I feel like I need a few days off to recover now." Emily continued after I hadn't said anything yet.

"Those suitcases are for you, they're full of all your clothes and stuff. I know exactly why you're so tired after last night. I know who you spent last night with. I know all about it." I replied calmly.

"John, what are you talking about? You're not making any sense." Emily replied with a twinge of concern in her voice.

"You can stop lying now, Emily. It's over. You should've had the courage to end our marriage a year ago after you started cheating on me. From that point on we've been going through the motions, I didn't understand why, but now I do." I remained calm as I replied to her.

"What are you talking about? Cheating? What are you saying, John? I love you." Emily replied, the pitch in her voice getting higher. I think she's starting to understand that it's all unravelling now.

"Yeah, right. You haven't loved me since Dr Ryan Knight started fucking the hell out of you every day and night while you were in Puerto Rico. Like I said, I know all about it."

Emily was silent, her eyes started to tear up as she eventually jumped up and ran into the bedroom, locking the door behind her. I'm annoyed, she doesn't even have the courage to admit it now that she's been caught. Maybe she's been lying for so long now that it's hard for her to admit what she's been doing.