Goodbye, Mr. Regret

The threat in the air was palpable.

Hollis could tell immediately-this was not a man he could afford to cross.

After a long while, Timothy stepped out of the visiting room, his chest tight, as if an invisible hand was squeezing the breath from his lungs.

That stormy night in the capital... she must have been terrified.

She'd called him for help, and he hadn't made it to her side.

Only now did he realize: she'd watched her mother jump to her death, then spent the entire night locked in the house by her father as thunder crashed outside. The shock and fear had robbed her of speech.

Everyone dismissed her as mute, but not a single person ever stopped to ask why she couldn't speak.

As for how she ended up with the Greene family...

That was another heartbreak entirely.

At least she'd found her grandmother.

"Mr. Lawson, about your father-in-law-"

"Enough. He's no father-in-law of mine!"

Jessica's adoptive mother had been driven to her death by that man.

With a trembling voice, Timothy bit out, "He's only got two or three months left on his sentence. Pay whatever it takes to get him released early and send him out of the country. The farther, the better."

He was just about to leave when Vince's car pulled up.

Jessica and Vince stepped out together.

Vince felt a pang of guilt toward Jessica. She'd come to him for help to find her birth father, and he'd already started the search.

Fortunately, with a name, photo, and details, it hadn't been hard. He'd found the man was locked up here and brought Jessica along.

The moment Vince saw Timothy, his expression tightened.

here, it could only be about Jessica's

"What are you

her conversation

him-yet refused to

came to

some nerve calling him

he fixed his gaze

spoke. "Jessy, that night, during

that night brought a wave of emotion crashing over Jessica. She cut him off sharply, "Don't bring

she was startled by the fluency of her

hopes on him, dialing his number in

But he hadn't come.

airport, buying a brooch

really can talk now," Vince said, his

that her throat felt perfectly

of a hand closing around her

in his wheelchair-he could only look up

but I need you to know-I did get your call that night. I went to

you went

She scoffed.

know you went. I

only did you

the entire

stock

swan brooches. Then you

all to

you really do have a knack for

exactly the right moment."

what you

what

Jessica could speak, she caught every word, no longer unable to respond as she once had no longer silenced by trauma and

hardened,