Goodbye, Mr. Regret

"I'm in Capital City right now. If I change the delivery address, when can I expect to receive the package?"

"If it's within the same city, you'll usually get it pretty early-definitely by tomorrow morning at the latest."

Timothy glanced around the hospital room. Sheila was still lying there, eyes closed. It was already late. Even if he wanted to talk to Jessica, it would have to wait until tomorrow.

"Alright, I'll send you the new address. Please arrange it as soon as possible."

Timothy forwarded the address of Jessica's previous hotel to the store clerk, along with his own phone number.

Sheila's injuries weren't nearly bad enough to leave her unconscious.

She just wanted to keep Timothy by her side a little longer, so she pretended to be asleep.

She heard everything he said outside the room.

So, the swan brooch he'd gotten wasn't for her after all.

She'd seen the news online.

Timothy had bought up every limited-edition brooch from each state in the country. She'd thought he just didn't want anyone to have the same one as her.

But in truth, he didn't want anyone to have the same one as Jessica.

Weren't those two swans supposed to represent their "Happy" and "Lucky"?

Jessica-mute

hand, hidden beneath the covers, curled into a tight

The next morning.

Sheila woke.

cue, Timothy's

He answered.

is this Timothy? There's a package here

leave it at the front desk—I'll

phone and turned to Sheila. "I need to step out for

"Timothy."

stopped him. "Ines's exhibition is today. You wanted me to finish that piece as soon as possible. I worked on it pretty much all night the day before

whether

"Sure."

my

come straight from Riverside,

were both in the

laptop and

opened it and navigated to her piece: The

the finishing touches on the

Venice was an original creation. Sheila had always been confident in

was sure Timothy-and Ines-would