We sat in silence, a silence that no longer felt as if it needed to be filled.

“Can I ask you something?” he said at last.

“When she made the wedding request, did you feel you could say no?”

I thought about it carefully.

The question was important, and I owed him a real answer.

“I felt tremendous pressure from the situation,” I admitted.

“Not from her trying to hurt me.

From knowing she might die and that any refusal would be irreversible.