Goodbye, Mr. Regret

How could she possibly bear the weight of his deep affection?

"Little Mute," Herbert murmured her nickname softly. "Don't be sad. Honestly, being a doctor is a good profession. After I became one, I grew to love it. Helping people, seeing them recover-it's fulfilling, it gives me a sense of

accomplishment. Maybe from now on, I'll always be a doctor."

But Jessica just kept repeating, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," over and over.

"It's my fault. Seven years ago..."

She couldn't hold back her tears. "Seven years ago, I saved Timothy from a fire. My phone was lost in the blaze, so I bought a new one, got a new number, and never recovered my old contacts. Soon after, I married Timothy, and all the ties I had to my past faded away. I never got in touch with you again... That's on me. You kept worrying about my mutism, even though I vanished from your life."

“It's alright,” Herbert said gently. "You got married, you focused on your family. That's normal. You saved Timothy's life seven years ago was that why he married you?"

Jessica shook her head. "No. He didn't know it was me. He thought it was Sheila."

Sheila. He said it was because she

had been determined to get a divorce. She never told him the truth, and

his life?" Herbert was incredulous. How could

point telling him now. He's been refusing to sign the papers for so long-if he knew the truth, he'd be even less willing, and then it would just turn into

his lips together. "At first, didn't you want a divorce because of him and Sheila? Don't you want to ask him—maybe he almost married Sheila because he thought

I

she learned the truth, she no longer wanted to

"Little Mute." Herbert's hands

He

f

forget him when this is over? If you can't, maybe you should tell him the truth. If his mistake-believing Sheila saved him-was the reason he treated her differently and caused a rift in your marriage, wouldn't it be a waste to divorce over something