Goodbye, Mr. Regret

"Love or not, I can't say for sure. But what I do know is-there's no way things will work out between you two."

The phone call left Timothy with a heavy heart.

He'd always thought Yates was on his side, speaking up for him, maybe even knowing Jessica was Salome, understanding that he didn't want a divorce, and trying to help him out.

Turns out, he'd gotten it all backwards.

"So," Timothy shot back, "if I can't be with her, you think you can?"

He might be miserable, but he wasn't about to lose his nerve.

His words hit Yates where it hurt, though to be fair, Yates hadn't exactly been a paragon of virtue himself. Back when he didn't know Jessica was Salome, he hadn't made Timothy's life hell the way Vince had.

That much, at least, was true.

"My chances are better than yours, Timothy. You're the one who burned this marriage to the ground. There's no going back."

"Spare me the lecture."

He knew. Of course he knew. But knowing didn't help he didn't want Jessica to leave, yet he couldn't find any way to make her stay.

"I'll say just one thing. There's one thing you did that's truly unforgivable, do you realize that? Today, she showed up in front of Mrs. Zimmerman, and Mrs. Zimmerman recognized her instantly. All I could think was—if you'd introduced her to people, just once in your seven years of marriage, the Zimmermans wouldn't have spent all these years not knowing she was Salome."

Yates' words cut deep.

She really was recognized at a glance?

He almost laughed at himself. All this time, he'd been fantasizing about removing her birthmark.

"What's worse," Yates pressed, "is that even after you found out, you kept it from the Zimmerman family. Tell me, Timothy-when did you know? Was it when Vince told you about the birthmark?"

The call ended abruptly.

his

pressing

he'd realized back when Vince first

and Jessica hadn't yet fallen

But he hadn't.

told himself it

himself that one year's difference meant

eyes. Maybe if the pain from his wounds was sharper, it could drown out

found himself longing for

for those quiet, gentle

father, never particularly capable, had remarried and started a new family. His grandfather was eager to raise him, and his father was only too happy to hand

Timothy had

it was endless schooling, then, as he grew

only after marrying Jessica that he learned

pressure, a place

every knot inside

comfortable, you'd get lost

something deeply: when you finally get what you've always longed for, you start to

you lose it, the

back, kept his distance, tried

he was learning

out on a mountainside with clients, negotiating a deal, and went for an early morning walk. As he wandered, he came upon an old chapel. They

giving a sermon on the first truth

spoke of three kinds of suffering: suffering from change,

the first two; the third, though-the suffering of pain-he remembered. The priest listed eight great pains of human life: birth, aging,

aging, sickness, and death. As for

realize he'd been living with two of them-wanting and not having, and being separated from someone he

as they'd left the chapel, the