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.

She stayed in her room, working

a household like theirs, parties and gatherings were hard to avoid. If she could display her

pour her heart

home. After leaving the office, he ordered dinner to go and brought it

until past eleven before finally heading back to the house. The mansion was

retired to their quarters in the back, leaving the family their privacy for the

the owners needed

Jessica married him, no matter how late he got

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

open the door to total darkness—none of the gentle warmth

felt along the wall for the

from the shoe cabinet, he

his forehead against the overhead

darkened. "Jessica?" he called

No answer.

felt icy

slippers and