Goodbye, Mr. Regret

Herbert gazed at Jessica, his expression uncertain. Was she only thanking him because she wanted to reconcile with Timothy?

"Jess, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Can you explain it a little more?" he asked gently.

Jessica looked down, her voice soft but steady. "What I mean is, I'm about to divorce him. If I suddenly owed him my life, and something happened to him, I'd feel trapped by that debt. Now that he's safe, I can leave him with a clear conscience."

She patiently laid her feelings bare.

"So you're really set on divorcing him?" Herbert asked.

She nodded. "Yes, I've made up my mind. I don't want to waste another seven years, Herbert..."

This morning, he'd been busy saving Timothy. She hadn't even found a moment to talk to him properly.

She had given seven years of her life to Timothy. She knew too well what it meant to pin all your hopes on someone for that long.

Jessica had sacrificed seven years for Timothy. Herbert, too, had spent seven years—for her—trying to cure her muteness.

"You're such a fool. I never realized there could be

yourself... for someone

you wrote in your essay that you wanted to be a police officer when you grew up. To fight for justice, protect your family, keep your

give up on your

you

who've lived it can truly

loved animation, but for Timothy, she gave it up. She stayed home, became his wife, bore his child, tended to their home-abandoning all her own

to keep his feelings hidden until

those childhood essays about dreams were just made up to get through the assignment..." Herbert

the truth, he'd regret it

breath. "Because you wanted to speak, I

dream changed. I wanted to be a doctor, because only by becoming

slipped down, silent and

not bound to her