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.

all day. She stayed in her room, working

parties and gatherings were hard to avoid. If she could display her paper cuttings

thought made Jessica pour her heart

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

until past eleven before finally heading

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

owners needed anything,

how late he got home, there was always

at the slightest noise, she'd come

Timothy pushed open the door to total darkness—none of the gentle

felt along the wall for the switch and flicked on the

get his slippers from the shoe cabinet, he stood

forehead against

face darkened. "Jessica?" he

No answer.

felt

slippers and pushed open the bedroom