Goodbye, Mr. Regret

"Sallie, do you seriously have the nerve to call me right now? Or have you just conveniently forgotten everything that happened?"

She was furious.

Vince gritted his teeth and spat out, "Let me make myself perfectly clear: from this day on, whatever happens to Timothy-whether he lives or dies-has absolutely nothing to do with the Zimmerman family!"

With those words, he hung up.

Sallie nearly threw her phone in frustration.

This was a disaster.

Salome had always been the Zimmermans' favorite. That day, right in front of Vince, she'd called Jessica a mute and accused her of embarrassing the Lawsons just by showing up.

It was no wonder Vince had lost his temper.

But now Timothy had vanished without a trace. Where was she supposed to find him?

Timothy was on the mountain.

He'd returned to the same old abbey he'd visited once before.

He was lucky; just as he walked in, he came across Father Benedict, the abbey's head priest, whom he'd met on his previous visit.

"Father," Timothy greeted him quietly.

Father Benedict pressed his palms together and bowed his head slightly. "Peace be with you, my son."

Timothy had seen enough of the world to know the proper etiquette, and since he'd come seeking the priest's guidance on how to escape his pain, he tried to follow Father Benedict's example, bowing his head and folding his hands. "Peace be with you, Father. I visited your abbey once before, and your words about suffering left a deep impression on me. I have some questions I'd like to ask."

come this way, my

Benedict into the

chants played in the background. The moment Timothy stepped through the doorway, he

turmoil in his heart seemed to quiet, if only for a

low table, where a pot of tea was kept warm. After a

are you?" the

his surprise. It wasn't often that anyone could see

did you

"It's written all over

He prided himself on

were out in the open, there was no point hiding them. He got straight to the point: "How do I ease the pain of unfulfilled

it can be eased?" Father Benedict

back to me, if we could go back to our old life together, then the pain would

before he spoke, "When an addict is

the drug," Timothy

he does, does the pain go away

just comes back the

"So, do you understand

"You mean, for an addict, the relief from pain is only temporary. Taking the drug eases the suffering for a moment, but it doesn't solve

ebbs for a little while,

just the absence of pain. The deeper the suffering, the more intense the fleeting relief, but that only feeds

chill run through him. He understood the

he couldn't do

back to me and we lived as we

pain by taking the drug? Does someone who never started ever suffer withdrawal? The only real cure is to quit entirely.