Goodbye, Mr. Regret

As soon as she closed the car door, the world's noise vanished.

Jessica Greene stared at the liver cancer diagnosis in her lap, her hazel eyes rimmed red. The paper trembled in her hands, crumpling beneath her grip.

The doctor had told her she'd missed the window for surgery-six months left, at best.

Today was the school's annual parent-child event. Out of the blue, Timothy

Lawson had told her she should come.

Seven years had passed since the day Timothy, once the untouchable darling of high society, became her husband.

In all those years, he'd never once brought her to a public event.

Once upon a time, that invitation would have sent her over the moon.

Even the housekeeper had beamed when she heard the news. "Mrs. Lawson, looks like Mr. Lawson finally wants to make things official!"

No one knew that ever since Jessica discovered his secret, she'd been quietly getting her affairs in order, preparing to leave him.

She hadn't planned to go to the school event at all.

But she couldn't bear the thought of disappointing her son.

She could shut Timothy out of her heart, but she couldn't do the same to Henry- the little boy she'd carried for nine long months.

Arriving at the school, Jessica took a notepad from her purse and wrote a neat line before handing it to the security guard.

Hello, I'm Henry Lawson's mom from Class 1-3. I'm here for the parent-child event -could you please let me in?

had chosen her outfit carefully: a soft, crinkled blouse, hair loosely swept up, and-for the first time in ages-the pearl earrings Timothy had

beauty was understated to begin with; with a bit of

how kids were. They always wanted their mom to look her

security guard arched an eyebrow. "Can't

simply smiled

mute. Years ago, after a devastating trauma, she'd lost her voice. By now, she

sign-in sheet, scanning it before giving

over.

thought. Too bad

tone sharpened. "Henry's parents already signed in. You can't just pretend

frowned and quickly wrote, Henry is my son. There's no reason for me to

shoved the sign-in sheet toward her and jabbed a finger at Henry's

as she read the names in the parent signature

and sideways glances

today, her chest

guard's

the name scrawled

trying to

met Sheila, but once, while tidying Timothy's study, she'd found a slip of paper tucked beneath the desk. Sheila's name had been

over.

told her everything

Sheila's last name

Timothy had

Jessica's

from caring for Henry, she'd poured her remaining strength into

the attorneys heard Timothy's name, their politeness turned