Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

I made to get out of the car. Her hand shot out. It sat there on my arm, strange
and radioactive. We both stared at it.
‘You signed a contract, Miss Clark,’ she said. ‘You signed a contract where
you promised to work for us for six months. By my calculations you have only
done two. I am simply requiring you to fulfil your contractual obligations.’
Her voice had become brittle. I looked down at Mrs Traynor’s hand and saw
that it was trembling.
She swallowed. ‘Please.’
My parents were watching from the porch. I could see them, mugs poised in
their hands, the only two people facing away from the theatre next door. They
turned away awkwardly when they saw that I had noticed them. Dad, I realized,
was wearing the tartan slippers with the paint splodges.
I pushed the handle of the door. ‘Mrs Traynor, I really can’t sit by and
watch … it’s too weird. I don’t want to be part of this.’
‘Just think about it. Tomorrow is Good Friday – I’ll tell Will you have a
family commitment if you really just need some time. Take the Bank Holiday
weekend to think about it. But please. Come back. Come back and help him.’
I walked back into the house without looking back. I sat in the living room,
staring at the television while my parents followed me in, exchanged glances and
pretended not to be watching me.
It was almost eleven minutes before I finally heard Mrs Traynor’s car start up
and drive away.
My sister confronted me within five minutes of arriving home, thundering up the
stairs and throwing open the door of my room.
‘Yes, do come in,’ I said. I was lying on the bed, my legs stretched up the wall,
staring at the ceiling. I was wearing tights and blue sequinned shorts, which now
looped unattractively around the tops of my legs.
Katrina stood in the doorway. ‘Is it true?’
‘That Dympna Grisham has finally thrown out her cheating no-good
philandering husband and –’
‘Don’t be smart. About your job.’
I traced the pattern of the wallpaper with my big toe. ‘Yes, I handed in my
notice. Yes, I know Mum and Dad are not too happy about it. Yes, yes, yes to