Right, so, avoiding the topic wasn't an option, then. Roger nodded slowly. "What do you want me to say, Als? It's all I've been thinking about since Padma told me. She hadn't seen me in two years- last she'd known of me I'm dead and buried in the ground. To her, I'm liable to disappear any moment, and she's back to being a widow. If I'm not thinking of the girls, I'm thinking about her, and everything I've put her through."
"You-" He gestured with his wine glass to Alicia, "you're strong. You always have been." Which didn't mean that she wouldn't be upset when he died, but... in some ways, perhaps, Roger had a feeling that Alicia would be able to cope better. If nothing else, she'd still have her husband and her children to lean on, then and there. It was a poor comparison- which was why he didn't say it aloud.