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.

deflect, Mabel asked, "Wait, where did that voice just come from?"

was the

remembered 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

subject, Mabel," Jessica pressed. "What exactly was on

gentle voice sounded

was nothing. You're overthinking it. Look at 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

mind was

sheet of paper,

event-Sheila had gone in

strong

up, and Jessica simply couldn't convince herself not to be

really just imagining

anywhere. There was only one

for her

her own to type and let the app speak

going to

into the sitting area,

picked up almost