As he left the hospital that evening, Richard felt the contours of his world shift. He had come to fire an employee but ended up saving a life, finding, perhaps, a new direction for his own in the process. The experience ignited a resolve to bring more humanity into his leadership, to look beyond metrics and understand the faces and stories behind them.

The encounter with Ethan and Maria had given him more than just a dramatic start to the week; it was the beginning of a journey toward empathy and responsibility, one that would define the future of Holbrook Logistics in ways he hadn’t anticipated.