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.

asked, "Wait, where did that voice just

it instantly—it was the ring Jessica had

"Ma'am, I never thought that ring could talk! With it, communication is so much easier for you. I heard Master

pressed. "What exactly was on the

gentle voice sounded

help keep it quiet. But now the ring's back on your

mind was a tangled

of paper, covered

event-Sheila had gone

strong

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

really

wouldn't get her anywhere. There was only one person who could give her

for her phone-she needed to call

own to type and let the

to cut it

to the master bedroom, settled into the

picked up almost