Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

learning to adapt to his situation. It was a sweet thing for her to say as I knew
that, in some respects, she might legitimately have hoped for an end to it all. It
was Will’s accident that had so curtailed our plans for a life together, after all.
She must have secretly hoped that my responsibilities towards Will would one
day end so that I could be free.
And I walked along beside her, feeling her hand resting in the crook of my
arm, listening to her sing-song voice. I couldn’t tell her the truth – the truth that
just a handful of us knew. That if the girl failed with her ranches and her bungee
jumping and hot tubs and what have you, she would paradoxically be setting me
free. Because the only way I would ever be able to leave my family was if Will
decided, after all, that he was still determined to go to this infernal place in
Switzerland.
I knew it, and Camilla knew it. Even if neither of us would admit it to
ourselves. Only on my son’s death would I be free to live the life of my
choosing.
‘Don’t,’ she said, catching my expression.
Dear Della. She could tell what I was thinking, even when I didn’t know
myself.
‘It’s good news, Steven. Really. You never know, this might be the start of a
whole new independent life for Will.’
I placed my hand over hers. A braver man might have told her what I really
thought. A braver man would have let her go long ago – her, and maybe even my
wife too.
‘You’re right,’ I said, forcing a smile. ‘Let’s hope he comes back full of tales
of bungee ropes or whatever horror it is the young people like to inflict upon
each other.’
She nudged me. ‘He might make you put one up in the castle.’
‘White-water rafting in the moat?’ I said. ‘I shall file it away as a possible
attraction for next summer’s season.’
Sustained by this unlikely picture, we walked, occasionally chuckling, all the
way down to the boathouse.
And then Will got pneumonia.