The store went silent in a way Mara would remember long after the moment passed.
The cashier stopped moving. The people behind them stopped shifting their weight. Even the hum of the refrigeration units seemed to fade into the background.
Mara felt tears spill freely now, hot and uncontrollable. She covered her mouth with one hand, holding Leo with the other, her body shaking not from embarrassment but from the sudden release of something she had been carrying for too long.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I can’t take this. I’ll never be able to repay you.”
The boy shook his head, almost impatiently, like the answer was obvious. “This isn’t something you repay,” he said. “It’s something you do when you can.”
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