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?" Jessica pointed to

it instantly—it was the ring Jessica had

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

Jessica pressed. "What exactly was

gentle

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 Timothy wasn't angry. He gave it back to you himself. Both Timothy and Henry care about you a lot. Please, don't let

was a tangled

paper, covered with

event-Sheila had

and Sallie's strong

things stacked up, and Jessica simply couldn't

she really

was only one person who could

her phone-she needed to call

two phones; she could use her own to

wasn't going to cut it

into the sitting area, and dialed Timothy's

up almost