Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

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‘Sure, but –’‘But if we don’t have faith that he can feel better, even get better, then how ishe supposed to keep the faith that good things might happen?’Nathan put his mug on the table. He looked straight into my eyes.‘Lou. He’s not going to get better.’‘You don’t know that.’‘I do. Unless there is some massive breakthrough in stem cell research, Will islooking at another decade in that chair. Minimum. He knows it, even if his folksdon’t want to admit it. And this is half the trouble. She wants to keep him aliveat any cost. Mr T thinks there is a point where we have to let him decide.’‘Of course he gets to decide, Nathan. But he has to see what his actual choicesare.’‘He’s a bright guy. He knows exactly what his choices are.’My voice lifted in the little room. ‘No. You’re wrong. You tell me he was inthe same place before I came. You tell me he hasn’t changed his outlook even alittle bit just through me being here.’‘I can’t see inside his head, Lou.’‘You know I’ve changed the way he thinks.’‘No, I know that he will do pretty much anything to make you happy.’I stared at him. ‘You think he’s going through the motions just to keep mehappy?’ I felt furious with Nathan, furious with them all. ‘So if you don’t believeany of this can do any good, why were you going to come at all? Why did youeven want to come on this trip? Just a nice holiday, was it?’‘No. I want him to live.’‘But –’‘But I want him to live if he wants to live. If he doesn’t, then by forcing himto carry on, you, me – no matter how much we love him – we become justanother shitty bunch of people taking away his choices.’Nathan’s words reverberated into the silence. I wiped a solitary tear from mycheek and tried to make my heart rate return to normal. Nathan, apparentlyembarrassed by my tears, scratched absently at his neck, and then, after aminute, silently handed me a piece of kitchen roll.‘I can’t just let it happen, Nathan.’He said nothing.
‘I can’t.’I stared at my passport, sitting on the kitchen table. It was a terrible picture. Itlooked like someone else entirely. Someone whose life, whose way of being,might actually be nothing like my own. I stared at it, thinking.‘Nathan?’‘What?’‘If I could fix some other kind of trip, something the doctors would agree to,would you still come? Would you still help me?’‘Course I would.’ He stood, rinsed his mug and hauled his backpack over hisshoulder. He turned to face me before he left the kitchen. ‘But I’ve got to behonest, Lou. I’m not sure even you are going to be able to pull this one off.’
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JOJO MOYESMe Before YouPENGUIN BOOK
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Chapter 22Chapter 23Chapter 24Chapt
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To Charles, with love
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‘Right,’ he says. ‘Got to go.
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‘I didn’t catch that.’The tax
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‘Yup.’ I hung my jacket on the
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My mother’s hand stilled. Her gaz
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‘Bernard.’ Mum shot him a warni
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sure they do a grant for people lik
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He shrugged. ‘You said you liked
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‘I’ll ring them to confirm the
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I was twenty-six years old and I wa
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old days you wouldn’t have dreamt
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‘Frank - the owner - sold the caf
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the French windows. Finally, she tu
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Treena made a face. ‘I think it w
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3‘This is the annexe. It used to
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‘Then let’s go and introduce yo
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mostly my bag, but you do need to k
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‘Will it help?’I blinked, my mo
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hum of the television in the living
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His head had sunk into his shoulder
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‘Oh.’I could feel her watching
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with him, so I’d usually go and s
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I got the feeling that this was in
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Sasha? I’ve been doing a lot of w
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for you and I hope you do want to s
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Diet Cokes. When they, finally, ord
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to stick with them? To help them th
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I blinked. ‘Well … I think some
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5The thing about being catapulted i
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You said that you were hiring me fo
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‘He says you’re trying to poiso
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By the time Hunchback Man died, I w
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divided into ‘transport’, ‘in
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to lose patience. Then, finally, I
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drew closer, I could see the consul
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I took a step backwards, closed the
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I left.I read my magazine, lifting
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Nathan was crosser than I’d ever
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I could hear my father’s exclamat
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‘I suspect you’re going to.’
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lucky. And she said from the day sh
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‘Will … ’ I said, quietly.
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7Spring arrived overnight, as if wi
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It’s not that I was some kind of
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‘What does she have to be insecur
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There were all sorts of things that
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I twisted his straw round so that h
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dehumanized briskness that characte
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‘Please. Georgina.’ Mrs Traynor
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another long silence. And then Geor
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8CamillaI never set out to help kil
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It was that I could suddenly see no
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When Will first told me what he wan
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9I didn’t sleep that night. I lay
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I had been tidying the living room.
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probably ask why I couldn’t be mo
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I slid out from the porch and was d
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‘No. That’s not it.’‘Which
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whatever it is you’re going to th
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I looked at my sister hard. ‘You
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10They looked a bit surprised. Actu
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We all stared at our cups of tea.
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‘You’re probably going to have
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‘Can quadriplegics get drunk?’
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‘Would you jump in my grave so qu
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Four hours later I had the beginnin
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‘You look cheerful,’ Will said,
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I backed Will’s chair down carefu
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We watched the Sisterwood Cup, and
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fears at all that I was going to or
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Will his posh lunch in a restaurant
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‘It’s not going to happen,’ s
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Nathan was staring at the cans of l
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badges we might have had a nice lun
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And I had ideas. Things I wanted to
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‘You’ve never been to a concert
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‘And it’s incredibly tedious,
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Nathan went to pack Will’s bag. I
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Will looked sideways at me, his fac
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‘Are you all right?’ I found my
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13Patrick stood on the edge of the
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‘Yeah? Well it’s still better t
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‘I get nervous when a girl says s
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‘So … ’ Dad opened the fridge
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‘If you do that,’ Will observed
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it’s like a brain synapse - it ca
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‘It does, Mum.’ My eyes had fil
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‘Good to meet you, Patrick,’ Wi
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I stared at it. Will’s card. I ha
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I looked up the same piece at the l
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Perhaps it was something to do with
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Like it was some kind of contest.I
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Will was silent for a moment. I wat
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He swallowed. ‘The day we go and
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Mrs Traynor had waited until Nathan
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She and Leo’s father had been int
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television?’‘No,’ said Will.
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‘I’d be finding out what I coul
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him twice, bringing him music and n
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I scanned down to the next one.Dear
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their lift was out of order. Others
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‘Because your boyfriend says no.
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‘Nathan will enjoy it. Oh, come o
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and Dad decided it would be best if
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my problems. They seemed embarrassi
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‘Was he with someone?’I put the
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‘Oh, well. Here’s my stop.’ D
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‘Are you okay getting your own te
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His voice, when it came, was carefu
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he could not live without his girlf
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In the afternoon, there was a knock
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‘The Regent Street? Nice.’‘Ye
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And then, as he left to go running,
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She blinked hard, as if trying to t
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‘How dare you suggest I would do
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‘Come on. It’s finally stopped
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moving on with their lives. I made
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to work out where I was. The tall h
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minutes, perhaps talking, and then
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world, the warmth of Will’s hand
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Page 249 and 250: The morning of the wedding dawned b
Page 251 and 252: ground. Across the road from us in
Page 253 and 254: I just wanted to make it better.‘
Page 255 and 256: tense. They were like two dogs circ
Page 257 and 258: Will looked as if he were about to
Page 259 and 260: Something happened that evening. Th
Page 261 and 262: ‘Come on. Let’s give these fuck
Page 263 and 264: 19NathanThey thought we couldn’t
Page 265 and 266: propped him up, placing his legs ov
Page 267 and 268: I couldn’t really blame the guy.
Page 269 and 270: 20‘You what?’We were on the hil
Page 271 and 272: ‘But Will Traynor seems to take p
Page 273 and 274: Ritchie, had remembered my previous
Page 275 and 276: She glanced through it all in silen
Page 277 and 278: ‘I could apply for a grant. Or ma
Page 279 and 280: ‘All that said, the college idea
Page 281 and 282: sure that I didn’t lose sight of
Page 283 and 284: ‘But I -’‘Nearly seven years,
Page 285 and 286: We never got to the bottom of what
Page 287 and 288: and that wretched Alicia running of
Page 289 and 290: 22I ran into Accident and Emergency
Page 291 and 292: sure his own passport was still val
Page 293 and 294: I took his fingers gently in mine a
Page 295 and 296: ‘How does he look?’‘Bit bette
Page 297: We sat holding our mugs. From the c
Page 301 and 302: moved from his power chair until we
Page 303 and 304: cover of a blanket. The airline sta
Page 305 and 306: The hotel had, as promised, come up
Page 307 and 308: worked out that if he gave Will the
Page 309 and 310: I walked to the window and pulled b
Page 311 and 312: Two things happened on the last day
Page 313 and 314: ‘It’s a hard place to leave.’
Page 315 and 316: Will’s mouth closed on his words.
Page 317 and 318: I … I can’t live with that know
Page 319 and 320: 24There is nothing more disconcerti
Page 321 and 322: So although I looked childish - alt
Page 323 and 324: My voice broke into the conversatio
Page 325 and 326: 25KatrinaLouisa didn’t come out o
Page 327 and 328: Her voice was small, like Thomas’
Page 329 and 330: ‘Just leave me alone, Treen. Okay
Page 331 and 332: ‘Oh, that.’ She looked distract
Page 333 and 334: goodness’ sake. You’d think a m
Page 335 and 336: her umbrella and smiled, reaching r
Page 337 and 338: Twenty-six. Twenty-six of the bugge
Page 339 and 340: 26In other circumstances I suppose
Page 341 and 342: knowing what … what he’s …
Page 343 and 344: I didn’t look back. I ran all the
Page 345 and 346: things being better for him, then I
Page 347 and 348: ‘I know.’And there it was. He k
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‘You look absolutely beautiful.
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Mr Traynor some questions may be as
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EpilogueI was just following instru
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You’re going to feel uncomfortabl
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Q&A with Jojo1. Tell us a little ab
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highest or lowest, or be the most t
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purpose. I sat upright in bed, drag
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shaven, impassive. Even in the dark
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terrify two women and brutalize an
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as she crouched to hug her daughter
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PENGUIN BOOKSPublished by the Pengu
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