Goodbye, Mr. Regret

Did he... still care about their marriage?

"Miss Sheila? Are you listening?"

Sheila quickly replied with a warm smile, "Of course I'm listening. Maybe your mom has her reasons. When your dad gets home tonight and finds out your mom returned the ring, he's bound to be upset. You should try to talk to her, alright?"

"Miss Sheila, you're always so understanding."

Henry suddenly felt that his mother had changed-she was starting to act a little unreasonable.

Sheila chatted with Henry for a while longer.

When Mabel called Henry for dinner, he reluctantly hung up the phone.

He looked down at the ring in his hand, thinking, Miss Sheila was right. Dad meant well, giving Mom a ring with a special little feature, but Mom refused to accept it. If Dad found out, he'd definitely be angry.

So Henry tucked the ring away, deciding not to let Timothy know.

At dinner, he even told Mabel to keep it a secret.

Mabel thought Henry had a good point. Mr. Wheeler had gone out of his way to give his wife a ring-probably to make up and reconcile. But Mrs. Wheeler sent it back. If Mr. Wheeler found out, he'd get upset again, and that wouldn't help matters between them.

So Mabel agreed to keep quiet.

day. She stayed in her room, working on intricate paper

family's mansion was huge, and with a household like theirs, parties and gatherings were hard to avoid. If she could display her paper cuttings at one of those events, maybe it

made Jessica pour

Timothy didn't go straight home. After leaving the office, he ordered dinner to go

before finally heading back to the

tidying up after dinner, then retired to their quarters in the back,

owners needed anything,

him, no matter how late he got home,

would doze off waiting, but at the slightest noise, she'd come out to

total darkness—none of the gentle warmth

along the wall for the

down to get his slippers from the shoe cabinet, he stood up too fast

against the

darkened. "Jessica?" he

No answer.

house felt icy

his slippers and pushed open