Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

slowly around the table and he took her in his arms, like he had when we were
little. He stood there and held her really, really tightly to him.
‘Oh Jesus Christ, the poor fella. And poor you. Oh Jesus.’
I’m not sure I ever saw Dad look so shocked.
‘What a bloody mess.’
‘You went through all this? Without saying anything? And all we got was a
postcard about scuba diving?’ My mother was incredulous. ‘We thought you
were having the holiday of a lifetime.’
‘I wasn’t alone. Treena knew,’ she said, looking at me. ‘Treena was great.’
‘I didn’t do anything,’ I said, hugging Thomas. He had lost interest in the
conversation now that Mum had put an open tin of Celebrations in front of him.
‘I was just an ear. You did the lot. You came up with all the ideas.’
‘And some ideas they turned out to be.’ She leant against Dad, sounding
bereft.
Dad tilted her chin so that she had to look at him. ‘But you did everything you
could.’
‘And I failed.’
‘Who says you failed?’ Dad stroked her hair back from her face. His
expression was tender. ‘I’m just thinking of what I know about Will Traynor,
what I know about men like him. And I’ll say one thing to you. I’m not sure
anyone in the world was ever going to persuade that man once he’d set his mind
to something. He’s who he is. You can’t make people change who they are.’
‘But his parents! They can’t let him kill himself,’ said Mum. ‘What kind of
people are they?’
‘They’re normal people, Mum. Mrs Traynor just doesn’t know what else she
can do.’
‘Well, not bloody taking him to this clinic would be a start.’ Mum was angry.
Two points of colour had risen to her cheekbones. ‘I would fight for you two, for
Thomas, until my dying breath.’
‘Even if he’d already tried to kill himself?’ I said. ‘In really grim ways?’
‘He’s ill, Katrina. He’s depressed. People who are vulnerable should not be
given the chance to do something that they’ll … ’ She tailed off in mute fury and
dabbed at her eyes with a napkin. ‘That woman must be heartless. Heartless.
And to think they got Louisa involved in all this. She’s a magistrate, for