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?

hair loosely swept up, and-for the first time in

begin with; with a bit

always wanted their mom to look her

security guard arched an eyebrow.

simply smiled and

born mute. Years ago, after a devastating trauma, she'd lost

the sign-in sheet, scanning it before giving Jessica a

over.

woman, he thought.

already signed in. You can't just pretend

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

guard, exasperated, shoved the sign-in sheet toward her and

read the

to the sneers and sideways glances that came with

her chest

guard's suspicion that

name scrawled in Timothy's unmistakable

trying to hide it

a slip of paper tucked beneath the

over.

intuition had told her everything

last

was born, Timothy had insisted

finally clicked. Today, Jessica's decision

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

the attorneys heard Timothy's name, their politeness turned chilly. They'd usher