A woman stepped inside, and I recognized her immediately.

“Sally?” I said, confused. “What’s going on?”

Sally, Sam’s mother, looked apologetic. “I didn’t mean for it to seem like this. I just had to do something. When I picked Sam up yesterday, he couldn’t stop talking about the hike. He told me every detail.”

Leo stood still beside me.

Sally continued, looking directly at him.

“Sam said he offered to stay behind. But you didn’t let him. You told him, ‘As long as we are friends, I’ll never leave you behind.’”

My heart swelled again.

Sally’s eyes filled with tears. “And then you kept going.”

The room stayed quiet.

That’s when I realized… this wasn’t about punishment.

It was about something else entirely.

Something I hadn’t fully understood yet.

Sally’s words lingered in the air.

Then Carlson spoke again.

“We knew Mark, Sam’s father,” he said.

I looked at him, confused. “What?”

Carlson nodded. “We served with him. Years ago.”

“He used to carry Sam everywhere,” Sally added. “Anywhere Sam couldn’t go on his own, Mark made sure he didn’t miss out. After… after he died, I tried my best. But there were things I just couldn’t recreate for Sam.”

Her voice tightened, but she kept going.

“When I picked him up yesterday, he was different. The last time I saw him like that was six years ago, before his father died in combat. He couldn’t stop talking about the trees, the birds, the view from the top… things he had never experienced before. He said it felt like the world finally opened up to him.”

Sally smiled through her tears. Harris did too.

Leo gave a small smile.

Sally looked at him again.

“And he said it was because of you.”