Goodbye, Mr. Regret

Vince was stunned.

Back then, after Sheila's offhand remark made him suspect Jessica might be her sister, he'd gone to Jessica's hometown to investigate. That's when Herbert inadvertently mentioned Jessica's birthmark. Vince pressed him for details, but that fool-believing Vince was interested in Jessica-refused to say a word about it. Vince had even snapped at him, demanding to know why he hadn't chased after Jessica in all these seven years.

All this time, Herbert hadn't gone after Jessy because he'd been hiding away in an operating room, researching aphasia?

Vince deeply regretted the way he'd spoken to Herbert that day.

If he'd known the truth, he never would have said those things.

Jessica's heart pounded so hard she felt paralyzed, unable to move.

He'd come back-returned to their hometown to find her. The very first time they met again, he'd given her that voice-emitting necklace.

Later, in order not to hold her back because of Timothy's suspicions, he'd brought up leaving the Wheeler family several times—and eventually, he really did leave.

He never told her, not wanting to put any pressure on her.

He spent seven years locked away in a lab, researching aphasia on his own, and never breathed a word.

When she finally found her voice, he only told her that a friend of his had made it possible.

how much he'd done for her,

surged and tumbled through Jessica's

he'd seen her getting bullied, he'd hang around after school, slinging his backpack over one shoulder, waiting

house, she'd always "coincidentally" bump

started junior high at a school farther from home, Mrs. Reynolds had bought him a bike, and

fights, never seemed to care

how, when they were little, he'd once asked her

she wanted to speak-just to be able

remembered that wish all these years? Had he been searching for a way to make it

off his family's fortune, he'd chosen to

at Jessica, whose eyes brimmed with pain so deep she seemed about

or Yates, it was Herbert's steadfast affection over

had given seven years

years of his life quietly

could Timothy

something was lodged there, making it hard to

she finally managed

she saw

with

his white coat, @stethoscope hanging around his neck, mask