Goodbye, Mr. Regret novel Chapter 286

Timothy had already been feeling a bit guilty over the whole situation, but when Vince brought it all out into the open again, he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. His pride took a serious hit.

Worse yet, Vince was becoming more and more overbearing, meddling in places he had no business.

“If you have so much free time, Mr. Zimmerman, maybe you should spend it looking after your little sister. Your own family’s a mess, yet here you are worrying about someone else’s affairs.”

With Henry present, Timothy had no intention of arguing with Vince. He didn’t want to set a bad example for the boy.

Still, something seemed off. Timothy quickly caught on and asked, “How did you know we were here?”

Vince looked a little flustered but recovered almost immediately. “My father’s a fan of papercutting. I heard there’s a kids’ competition today, so I thought I’d stop by and see if any of the pieces caught his eye.”

It was a decent excuse, but Timothy just snorted. “Children’s artwork? You really think your father’s going to be impressed?”

“You never know,” Vince shot back. “He might stumble across a young prodigy.”

Vince wasn’t backing down an inch.

When it came to raising children, Timothy firmly believed you had to let them keep their dignity, especially in front of others. With Vince around, he decided not to say anything more to Henry. Whatever needed to be discussed could wait until they got home.

“Henry’s contest is about to start. I’ll take him to the auditorium.”

And with that, Timothy scooped Henry up and headed inside.

Vince followed them into the hall.

Timothy didn’t know a thing about papercutting, but Henry had obvious talent for it—undoubtedly inherited from Jessica. That made Timothy curious to see what Henry could create.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo was calling Jessica.

She answered, and Lorenzo’s voice came through the phone. “Mrs. Lawson, there’s a children’s papercutting competition today. I’ve recommended you to the judges, and the organizing committee would be honored if you’d serve as the chief judge for this event. Would you be available to guide the kids and share your expertise?”

Herbert quickly provided his own details as well, telling Mr. Smith to book a ticket for him too—he was accompanying Jessica overseas the next day.

As soon as they wrapped things up, Herbert drove Jessica straight to the competition.

Lorenzo met them outside and escorted Jessica to the judges’ lounge.

Herbert entered the main hall through the front entrance.

Inside, the contest was about to begin. The host took the stage, went over the event details and the rules, then called all the young contestants up. Each child found their seat according to their assigned number.

Next, it was time to invite the judges to take their seats.

All four judges were celebrated papercutting masters in the city, and every child learning the craft recognized them. As the judges walked onstage, the children looked up at them with awe and admiration.