For several seconds, I couldn’t move.
Not because my legs didn’t work.
Because my mind had stopped.
Sammy’s tiny hand was still wrapped around mine.
His voice was barely a whisper.
“Mr. Caldwell… you don’t want your legs back.”
I stared at him.
“What did you say?”
Rebecca immediately stepped forward.
“Sammy, that’s not something you should say.”
But the little boy didn’t look afraid.
He looked sad.
Like he wasn’t trying to hurt me.
Like he was simply saying something everyone else was too scared to admit.
“You want to stop feeling like you’re not the same person anymore.”
The words hit harder than any doctor’s diagnosis.
Because they were true.
Completely true.
For months, everyone had asked me the same question.
“When will you walk again?”
My doctors asked.
My employees asked.
My investors asked.
Everyone wanted to know when Ethan Caldwell would return.
When the powerful businessman would sit at the head of the table again.
When the man who built an empire from nothing would become himself again.
But nobody asked the question Sammy asked.
“Are you okay?”
Not once.
I looked at him carefully.
“How did you know that?”
Sammy shrugged.
“My mom cries when she thinks nobody sees her too.”
I turned toward Rebecca.
Her face immediately changed.
“Sammy…”
He continued.
“She sits in the kitchen sometimes after work and says she wishes she could fix things.”
My chest tightened.
Rebecca looked embarrassed.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Caldwell. He shouldn’t have—”
“No.”
I raised my hand.
