Goodbye, Mr. Regret

Timothy stepped out and quietly closed the study door behind him.

Jessica's hands shook as she straightened herself up, struggling to regain her composure.

A crushing sense of shame wrapped around her, suffocating and inescapable. They were husband and wife.

She knew all too well that he had reacted just moments before she couldn't pretend otherwise. It was one thing for her to no longer want to share a bed with him, but the way he could immediately regain his composure at the sound of Sheila's voice-that was another matter entirely.

Jessica had never imagined that Timothy, who always seemed so refined and well-mannered, could have been involved in such an illicit affair.

"Timothy, has Jessica come back?" Sheila's voice floated in from outside.

"She's back."

"Dad asked me to bring her a gift. Is she in the master bedroom? I'll give it to her." Jessica stood frozen near the study door, her heart wound tight as a spring.

Sheila's father-that made him Timothy's grandfather.

Jessica couldn't make sense of it. In all their seven years of marriage, Timothy had never once introduced her to anyone from his mother's side of the family. In fact, the entire Lawson family seemed to avoid the topic altogether.

If their marriage had been a secret, maybe his mother's relatives simply didn't know she existed. Or perhaps they just looked down on her, a woman with no real voice in the family. But Henry-Henry was Timothy's own son.

Timothy's mother's family

to

explanation Jessica could think of was the one she least wanted to accept: it had something to do

She forced herself not to dwell on it. None of that

me," Timothy said. "I'll make sure she gets it. You and

sleep with Miss

the boy's hair. "Of

wide grin and jumped with excitement. "Miss Sheila, that's

chatter echoed through the

upon a time, Henry had been glued to her side. Because he was a boy, Timothy had insisted early on that

sneak into her room, curling up beside her,

mom.

to sleep in her room, as if he'd found

a

while, when the sound of footsteps upstairs finally faded away,

was empty.

master bedroom.