Goodbye, Mr. Regret

Herbert caught Jessica in his arms just in time.

Her skin was icy cold, her face ghostly pale, and sweat beaded on her forehead.

She'd started vomiting a reaction to the sight of all that blood.

Moving quickly, Herbert laid her gently on the ground, then lifted her legs at a forty-five-degree angle, supporting her ankles in his hands.

A few minutes later, Jessica's eyes fluttered open, but she was so weak she could barely move.

Herbert lowered her legs and helped her sit up against the wall. Jessica tried to glance toward Timothy, but Herbert swiftly covered her eyes with his hand. "Don't look," he said softly. "You faint at the sight of blood. If you go into shock, it could be dangerous."

Just then, the distant wail of the ambulance siren reached Jessica's ears, and the tension in her chest eased a little.

"Okay," she whispered, "I won't look."

In what felt like no time at all, the ambulance arrived. Paramedics rushed Timothy onto a stretcher, and Herbert scooped Jessica up and climbed in after them.

He asked the medics for an ice pack and pressed it to Jessica's forehead, shielding her from the sight of Timothy's wound, blocking her view with his own body.

On the other side of the ambulance, paramedics scrambled to save Timothy.

"Heart rate dropping!"

"Quick, stop the bleeding!"

A medic turned to them. "Family member-what's his blood type?"

Jessica managed a weak reply: "O."

"Start a transfusion, now!"

heart rate's still

erratically as she listened to the frantic voices and the

mind felt foggy and

move-I want

worry in his eyes. “Don't blame me for being harsh. You

to watch

her- Vince had told her. Her heart

her; his back had been covered in wounds that probably

had them. Why else would he be

beam had struck Timothy's head, splitting the skin

heavy plank of wood-only a tremendous force could have

chest tightened

a divorce. To leave him. To spend

then, when she found hope for her life again, she only wanted to live

want anything else—not to dredge up old wounds, not to

simple life that belonged

ended up like this between

of them was

other was battered and

wasn't the ending she

"Save him. Please; save him. I can't watch him die in front

it,

do whatever it takes. Don't let him