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?

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

beauty was understated to begin with; with a bit

They always wanted their mom to

arched an eyebrow. "Can't

simply smiled and

after a devastating trauma, she'd lost her voice. By now, she was used

out the sign-in sheet, scanning it

over.

thought. Too bad

"Henry's parents already signed in. You can't just pretend

is my

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

heart seized as she read the names

sneers and sideways glances that came

today, her chest felt

wasn't the guard's

was the name scrawled

trying

found a slip of paper tucked beneath the desk.

over.

woman's intuition had told her everything she

last name was

Timothy had insisted on the name

everything finally clicked. Today, Jessica's decision to divorce

Henry, she'd poured her remaining strength into

visited several law firms. But the moment the attorneys heard Timothy's name, their politeness turned chilly. They'd usher her out

In six months,