Goodbye, Mr. Regret

Back at the hotel, she switched her phone to silent mode.

Tomorrow was her advisor's exhibition.

She wanted to be well-rested for it.

At noon, Timothy's eyes snapped open, and he immediately sat up in bed.

Sheila grabbed his arm, her voice urgent. "Timothy, what are you doing? You need to rest-lie down."

Timothy turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"

"I went to the hospital this morning and saw Secretary Allen with Henry. When I asked, he told me you'd arrived in the city late last night. Then the hospital called -they said you'd been found unconscious out on the street by the rescue team. Timothy, do you realize how dangerous that was? With all that flooding last night, if they'd gotten to you any later..."

The thought alone made Sheila shudder. Someone unconscious, lying in water for too long-it could have been fatal.

"Timothy, the weather was awful last night. All flights were grounded. What could possibly be so urgent that you had to travel here overnight?"

"Where's my phone?"

brand-new phone from her

to take out your SIM card and put it in someone else's phone just to reach me. Timothy, do you have any idea how

ignoring her concerns, and

rang out,

swung his legs

after him. "Timothy, where are you going? The

strides down the hall. Sheila

way to Capital City... for

only learned today that, after midnight, the city center was closed off because of severe flooding. Timothy had waded through the floodwaters

bed. The doctor explained that the rescue team found him after he'd fallen into an open manhole-one of the covers had been swept away by the flood-and that's how he'd passed out. If

who was always so meticulous and clean, had marched through filthy water and collapsed

really that important to

snapped out of her thoughts, Timothy had already disappeared

as it hit the first floor and rushed down

desk, Timothy was asking for Jessica's room number. As soon as he had it, he sped off toward