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.

"Wait, where did that voice just come from?" Jessica pointed to the ring

the

for you. I heard Master Henry say that Timothy bought it for you at the Oakwood charity

pressed. "What exactly was on

ring's gentle voice

me to help keep it quiet. But now the ring's back on your finger, which means Henry must have talked to Timothy, and Timothy wasn't angry. He gave it back to you himself. Both Timothy and Henry care about you a

mind was a tangled

of paper, covered

had gone in her

and Sallie's strong reaction to

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

she really

There was only one person who could give

Mabel for her phone-she needed

use her own to

wasn't going to cut

returned to the master bedroom, settled into the sitting area, and

picked up almost