Goodbye, Mr. Regret

"Ma'am?"

Mabel stepped in front of the TV, smiling brightly. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

That only made Jessica more suspicious.

She gently moved Mabel aside and glanced at the screen. The camera lingered on Timothy for a moment before cutting away.

The news shifted back to the anchor, who began introducing other stories.

Timothy didn't appear again.

Jessica checked the schedule: it was the morning news.

So Timothy had made headlines first thing in the morning.

Mabel let out a quiet sigh of relief. Jessica, meanwhile, grabbed her phone and began typing a message into her text-to-speech app.

"Mabel, did you block the TV because you saw Timothy with someone else?"

The app's gentle female voice rang out. Mabel, too flustered to wonder where the voice was coming from, immediately shook her head. "N-no, of course not!"

Jessica shot her a skeptical look.

Mabel asked, "Wait, where did that voice just

was the ring

the story behind it and smiled. "Ma'am, I never thought that ring could talk! With it, communication is so much easier for you. I heard Master Henry say that Timothy bought it for you at the Oakwood charity auction. He really put a

subject, Mabel," Jessica pressed. "What exactly

gentle voice sounded

how much Timothy cares about you. Henry was worried you'd return his gift and Timothy would be upset, so he asked me to help keep it quiet. But now the ring's back on your finger, which means Henry must have talked to Timothy, and

was a tangled

sheet of paper, covered with Sheila's

parent-child event-Sheila had

strong reaction to

these things stacked up, and Jessica simply couldn't convince herself

really just

knew asking Mabel wouldn't get her anywhere. There was only one

Mabel for her phone-she needed to

own to type and let the app

going to

bedroom, settled into the sitting area,

picked up