Goodbye, Mr. Regret

She thought, Larkin would definitely love this.

After all, it was Larkin who had given the photo to the gallery in the first place.

Once the piece was framed, the shop owner wrapped it carefully in a layer of crimson cloth to protect it on the road.

Jessica paid for everything, left the delivery address, and scheduled for it to arrive later that evening.

The papercut was quite large-nearly six feet long-making it impossible to carry home herself.

She'd been up until nearly 2 a.m. last night, then woke at dawn to work on it, finally finishing by late afternoon.

Fortunately, she hadn't lost her touch. If her hands weren't steady, there simply wouldn't have been enough time.

As Jessica stepped out of the framing shop, her phone buzzed with a message from Vince.

"Jessica, I'm outside your building. I came to pick you up-are you not home?"

She hadn't expected Vince to show up in person.

"I'm out, but I'll be back right away," she replied.

"I'll wait for you."

When Jessica arrived home, she found two people standing at her door.

One carried an impressively large bag, while the other struggled with several boxes in his arms.

"Jessica, open up!"

smile put her instantly at ease, the sort of easy charm that

she couldn't very well leave her guests standing out in

"This is the makeup artist I arranged. The boxes

so busy finishing Larkin's gift, had completely forgotten

a high society gala tonight, after all-no way she could show up in her usual

phone: "Thank you for going to all

way out here. Go on, get changed

makeup

come by, but the old man had called Timothy directly. Timothy

was determined to make sure Jessica

a legend

business world, practically

slouch himself he was

1.n

but he had

a step behind

of ruthless skill.

really wasn't much that could throw

there truly

Mrs. Timothy Lawson. Vince could easily guess why: the Lawson family would never

probably didn't want to admit that Timothy had married

And if he had, why keep it