Goodbye, Mr. Regret

Chapter 1

As soon as she closed the car door, the world's noise vanished.

Jessica Greene stared at the liver cancer diagnosis in her lap, her hazel eyes rimmed red. The paper trembled in her hands, crumpling beneath her grip.

The doctor had told her she'd missed the window for surgery-six months left, at best.

Today was the school's annual parent-child event. Out of the blue, Timothy

Lawson had told her she should come.

Seven years had passed since the day Timothy, once the untouchable darling of high society, became her husband.

In all those years, he'd never once brought her to a public event.

Once upon a time, that invitation would have sent her over the moon.

Even the housekeeper had beamed when she heard the news. "Mrs. Lawson, looks like Mr. Lawson finally wants to make things official!"

No one knew that ever since Jessica discovered his secret, she'd been quietly getting her affairs in order, preparing to leave him.

She hadn't planned to go to the school event at all.

But she couldn't bear the thought of disappointing her son.

She could shut Timothy out of her heart, but she couldn't do the same to Henry- the little boy she'd carried for nine long months.

Arriving at the school, Jessica took a notepad from her purse and wrote a neat line before handing it to the security guard.

Hello, I'm Henry Lawson's mom from Class 1-3. I'm here for the parent-child event -could you please let me in?

a soft, crinkled blouse, hair loosely swept up, and-for the first time in ages-the pearl earrings Timothy

to begin with; with a bit of effort, she looked warm and

wanted their mom to look her

an

simply smiled and

a devastating trauma, she'd lost her voice. By

guard pulled out the sign-in sheet,

over.

thought. Too bad

sharpened. "Henry's parents already signed in. You can't just pretend to be someone's

is my son. There's no

exasperated, shoved the sign-in sheet toward her and jabbed a finger at Henry's name. "Take a

as she read the names in

and sideways glances that came with

her chest felt

guard's suspicion that

was the name scrawled in

wasn't even trying to hide it

but once, while tidying Timothy's study, she'd found a slip of paper tucked beneath the desk. Sheila's name had been scribbled over

over.

intuition had told her everything she

last

son was born, Timothy had insisted on

clicked. Today, Jessica's decision to divorce

she'd poured her remaining strength into

the moment the attorneys heard Timothy's name, their politeness turned chilly. They'd

anymore. In six months, she'd