Goodbye, Mr. Regret

It was Henry calling.

Timothy answered, putting the phone on speaker—after all, Jessica would want to hear their son's voice too.

"Dad, where did you go? Did you forget I have the kids' arts and crafts competition today?"

Both Timothy and Jessica were well aware of Henry's big day.

After their recent family event, Henry had insisted Sheila accompany him, not wanting the other kids to tease him about his mom being unable to speak.

"I'm on my way to pick up your mom. We'll all go together, the three of us."

Jessica shot Timothy a sideways glance, raising her hand, ready to refuse. But before she could, Henry's voice piped up from the phone, "Dad, I already asked Miss Sheila to come with me. Remember? We agreed she'd keep me company! She'll be here soon-we're just waiting on you."

Thinking back, Timothy felt a twinge of guilt.

He hadn't put a stop to it the first time, and now Henry's impatience with his mother was starting to show-something Timothy found harder and harder to ignore.

But Henry had already arranged for Sheila to be there, and she was probably about to arrive. Backing out now would only make things awkward.

"I'll be home as soon as

looking a bit sheepish. "I'll take Henry to the competition

him to hurry up and leave-she didn't want him delaying

her hand and stepped into

shut, cutting off

at the ring

to her once before, but she'd returned it, not wanting to accept the gesture. This time, though, she didn't intend to

special voice function or not, the diamond alone was worth a small

was like to be left penniless because of his pressure, she might have

tucked it into

next stop was

was to take out

l hope you don't mind. You've seen for yourself how much trouble is communicating with lawyers or anyone else. This makes things so much easier. It's got smart features-even typing a letter or two

accepted it with a grateful smile, reaching out to

point. There was no reason to care