Page 51 of Drake Eternal

Drake was handsome and sexy, even now after I’d been with him for years. He was wealthy and skilled and intelligent.

I had to face the fact that any women would find him attractive and desirable. Separated from me, he could have his choice of women.

Nurses at the hospital. Women at the bar in his hotel…

I tried to push that from my mind with positive affirmations. No. We had a wonderful relationship.

Drake loved me.

We had fantastic sex — when we did have it. Like all married couples with children, we had less sex that before, but it was still very good.

I never turned him down and he was always receptive to me.

Why would he cheat, if he did?

I tried not to think about it, but I knew it would torture me until I got to Nairobi and could show him the photo and ask him directly.

We returned home in time for lunch with my father and Elaine. It would be our last lunch, as we were scheduled to take the flight that evening.

With that thought in mind, I got up and started packing for the trip. I would have mixed emotions during the day. Part of me was happy that we were going to see Drake in a short time, and I could clear up the confusion about the photo.

The other part of me was afraid to find out the truth. What if he had cheated on me?

What would I do?

I loved Drake. I was still in love with him. In my heart, I knew I hated the thought of not being his wife, but could I accept his infidelity, if that’s what this was?

What else could it be?

It was Drake. I knew his body.

He was naked with another woman in a bed…

I tried to distract myself so I could get on with my day, but I had a sick feeling in my stomach.

After we were all packed, while Sophie watched something to do with Frozen on the flatscreen, I sat with my laptop and tried to find out as much as I could from RiotGrrl.

There were so many, there was no way I could tell which one was her.

Nor could I tell if the photo was recent or old. I decided to send the photo to a friend at Columbia in the Journalism department who did photojournalism and knew all about photography.

KATE: Hey, Will. Can you tell anything from this image about who sent it and when the actual image was captured? I know you’re the expert on all things digital photography. I want to warn you ahead of time that it’s of a naked man, but the faces are covered up. No, I don’t search the net for porn, but I did get this image sent to me in an email yesterday. Thanks for any help you can give. Cheers.

I sat back and waited for his reply, hoping he had enough skills to figure out something enlightening about the photograph.

In a few moments, I got a text back from Will.

WILL: Can you forward me the original email? I could check that out as well. Give you any idea of who sent the email.

KATE: Thanks a million, Will. I’ll forward it to you right away.

I forwarded him the original email, and then, with nothing else to do but wait, I opened a YouTube window in my browser and surfed videos for a while about the floods in Nairobi and Kenya as a whole. The news was terrible.

Finally, three thirty rolled around and it was time for Sophie and me to Skype with Drake.

We sat on the sofa together, with my father beside us in his wheelchair, and dialed in to the call.

An image came up on the screen with Drake’s smiling face in the center and Sophie practically squealed with delight.

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