The office smelled faintly of leather and paper. Alberto Vargas stood by the window with a bandage at his temple and a thoughtful look in his eyes. He did not speak right away. He simply sat with the boy at a small round table and pushed an envelope across the smooth wood.
Inside was a scholarship certificate with Aurelio’s name written carefully in blue ink. School fees covered. Uniforms and meals provided. A modest apartment arranged through the company’s foundation until a guardian could be appointed.
The businessman looked back at the city and then at the child who had pulled him from the water. “Because sometimes it takes courage from a stranger to remind a man what matters,” he said quietly. “You did not ask who I was or what I could do for you. You saw a life and you acted. You saved me from the river and from something worse. I was forgetting myself.”
The words were not for cameras. There were no cameras in the room. They were simply true.
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