It is a humbling thing, to have a small child correctly refuse to trust you, and to know that the child is right, and to accept that you will have to earn, slowly and without shortcut, a trust you once had for free and threw away.

Alex had spent his whole adult life closing deals with promises, sealing agreements with his word, being a man whose assurances carried weight.

And a five-year-old had just informed him, accurately, that his word was worth nothing here, and that he would have to prove himself instead, day by day, for as long as it took.

It was exactly the lesson he needed.

And it came, as the most important lessons in this whole story did, from a child.