Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
D rake emerged from Sophie’s room, a smile on his face and it made my heart squeeze to see him so happy to have us with him.
Was he happy?
Who was the woman with him in the photograph? Was she one of the nurses? A patient?
Was it Sam?
I just didn’t think Drake would be seduced by Sam — not at this point.
I really didn’t think he would cheat on me, so there had to be an explanation for the photo.
It must have been from before he met me.
He came right over and put his arms around me, pulling me against his body. “I’m so happy to have you both with me. It’s been so lonely here without you.”
He pulled my chin up and kissed me warmly.
“We missed you,” I said, a choke in my throat.
“I missed you more,” he said, smiling. “Let me show you just how much.”
I tried to smile but couldn’t. Not with that image in the back of my mind. “Drake, we need to talk.”
He frowned and pulled back. “That sounds serious.” He took my hand and led me to the sofa in the small living room area. “Sit with me. Tell me what’s bothering you.”
I sat on the sofa and tried to compose my thoughts. How do you ask your husband if he’s cheated on you without sounding like you doubt his fidelity?
Because asking him would mean I did.
Did I? Did I really?
There had to be some explanation for the photo, and so I had to get it out of the way if we wanted to go back to the way we were before he left, and before I got it.
I reached over to my handbag, which was sitting on the coffee table and removed my cell.
“I got this the other day.”
I searched my images and handed the phone over to him. He took it and frowned when he saw it, bending over closer to examine the image.
“What the hell?” He moved the image around and enlarged it, examining it closely. “Who sent it?”
I sighed. “Someone called RiotGrrl21. I looked her up but there are way too many with that handle. Is she a nurse at the hospital or something?”
“This,” he said and shook his head. “This is Sam.” He held the phone out for me. “You can see this mark here. She had a tattoo on her groin area. I guess it was a thing at one time for young women to get one.”
I remembered seeing the small mark, but it was small enough that you couldn’t make it out. It could have been a smudge mark on the photo or a bit of dirt.
“Sam?” It shocked me.
“Yes,” he said and exhaled. “She must have taken it when I was asleep.”
For a moment, I was confused. “When you were asleep?”
He nodded. “Yes. You knew we had a brief affair while I was here before I met you. She must have taken it while I was asleep or something. Look,” he said and pointed to his side, near his hip bone. “You can tell this is old. There’s no scar.”
I frowned.
Then it hit me — of course. Drake got cut when we were first together that left a two-inch scar just above his navel. It was so familiar to me, I didn’t even notice.
“The bitch sent it to you to hurt you, make you think we were having an affair now in revenge for me having her fired. When did you get it? What day?”
I took back the cell, a feeling of relief flooding over me. I went through my emails and there it was — the email from RiotGrrl21. I showed him the date and the email which said What an amazing lover - he really is Dr. Dangerous. Look at that cock - even soft it’s magnificent…
“I had a friend at work check it out, to see if he could find out anything about when the photo was taken, but he hasn’t gotten back to me.”
Drake pulled me closer, the expression on his face serious. “And you actually thought the photo may have been taken while I was here?”
“I tried not to think about it. I never worried about you being away, but then I get this photo and of course, I thought maybe you were unhappy because our sex life isn’t as…” I hesitated. “You know. Not as frequent as before.”
I felt tears spring to my eyes and kicked myself mentally for being so emotional.
Drake lifted my chin and looked deep into my eyes. “I would never, never , ever cheat on you. Never. You must believe me. You are my world. My universe. I am so happy to be with you, married to you. No other woman could ever come even close to you in my eyes, in my mind or in my heart.”
He kissed me and I felt both relief and regret that I had doubted him for even a moment.
The kiss ended and I wiped my eyes. “I thought that it had to be from before we met, but there was no way to know for sure. That’s why I asked my friend to check it out.”
“You should have asked me right away. If you would have sent it to me, I could have told you that it was from before we met. When I had a few encounters with Sam. Your fears would be gone.”
I exhaled heavily. “I didn’t want to bother you with something like this when you were literally saving people’s lives because of catastrophic flooding…”
“Nothing you do could bother me, especially if it’s something like this,” he said, pointing to the image. “My relationship with you is the single most important part of my life. Seriously. The most. Never doubt me for a moment. If something comes up or happens, you have to tell me about it right away. I don’t want you to ever worry and if you do, I want to ally those fears and worries right away because I will never — never — cheat on you.”
He held my chin in his hand and said those words while looking in my eyes.
I could tell he meant them.
It made my heart squeeze and relief to flood through me.
“I’m sorry I doubted you for even a moment.”
We kissed again.
Then, he shook his head. “Don’t feel bad. I have my own confession,” he said and showed me his own email on his cell.
Check out Page One. Quite the wife you got there…
Beneath the headline was the image of me with Carlton at the party.
“Oh, my God, Drake… I didn’t see that.” I took the cell and examined the photo. Carlton was leaning over me almost possessively. I remembered the night in question and how I had tried to get away from him, but he felt a kind of ownership of me because he hired me.
“That bastard,” I said and shook my head. “I never checked Page One because I was so glad to finally get my article finished and submitted. There were photographers at the party, and I should have known they’d use whatever they could to generate headlines. This never showed up in the actual paper online though. Someone from the paper must have sent this.”
I glanced at Drake, who nodded in agreement.
“Someone like Carlton Page perhaps?”
“Or one of the photographers. Or someone who doesn’t like me and wanted to cause problems. Did you think something was going on between us?”
He shook his head. “No. I did think that maybe you needed security to protect you, just in case someone was watching you, so I hired Kyle to put some guys on you while you were still in Brooklyn until you left.”
I felt a shock at that admission. “That must have been who I thought I saw following me… I called Kyle to ask if he could put someone on us, too.”
Drake smiled at that. “I know. Kyle told me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Drake exhaled. “I didn’t want you to be afraid. I wanted you to just live your life while we were separated and then you could come here, and I’d know you were safe.”
“Did you doubt me?” I asked, my voice soft. “Did you think Carlton and I…” I let out a laugh at that because it was so comical. I would never have, for even a moment, considered it even if I had been unhappy.
“Is he not a catch?” Drake grinned at that and searched for an image of Carlton Page on the internet. He found many, of course, because Carlton was a billionaire’s son. “He looks normal enough.”
“He’s a total nerd. A nerd who wears the best clothes and drives the best most expensive cars and thinks because of it, he’s a cool dude.”
Drake laughed. “I know the type. I tried my best all my life not to be that guy. At least my father wasn’t like your typical rich billionaire. That was the last thing he wanted. He hated capitalism and that was why instead of buying huge yachts and properties around the world, he created a foundation to help the poor and care for the sick.”
“He was a real humanitarian,” I said, thinking of the photo of Liam with his arm entwined with my father while they were in combat gear. I had a copy on my cell and called it up, then handed the cell to Drake.
“Dear old Dad. He was a humanitarian,” Drake said with a sigh. “I can’t wait to take Liam to see his grave. I only wish you could have known him,” he said and kissed me. “That Liam could have met him. He’d still be alive if he wasn’t so damn heroic. If he had just sent money like the rest of the moneyed class, he would be in New York City tinkering with his old cars and lamenting the fall of the Soviet Union.”
I smiled at that. “He did so much good with the business he started. All those surgical implements. And with the foundation. His legacy will live on. Which is more than most of us can say.”
He nodded and pulled me closer, kissing me, the photo of Liam on my cell in his hand.
We stayed like that for a moment, and then, he sighed.
“So now that we have all our confessions out of the way, what do you say to a nice warm bubble bath?”
I glanced up in his eyes and saw the warmth in them.
He knew that a bubble bath was the way to my heart. “I’m such a cheap date.”
“You are,” he said and kissed me, his arms pulling me down on top of him.
The way he was kissing me made me realize that the bubble bath would have to wait…