Victor resisted the temptation to announce that somebody had deliberately cheated him. He remembered the way Noah had refused to claim more certainty than the evidence permitted. There were practical remedies available: reject the part, recover what could be recovered, and change the process. Anger alone could not reveal facts.
Greg, who expected dismissal after the failure, was surprised when Victor asked him to lead the review and report openly on his own mistakes. "You signed off on the part," Victor said. "I need you to own that. I also need you to help build a system where another mechanic can question the sign-off without risking his career."
Greg accepted the responsibility. He asked Daniel to serve as the independent reviewer on future restorations, even when Daniel disagreed with him. The younger mechanics watched the change with cautious interest. In most shops, admitting an error could end an assignment or damage a reputation, so people learned to hide uncertainty behind technical language. Here the man with the largest title had been publicly wrong, had apologized to a child, and was still being trusted with work. None of this made the damaged part acceptable, but it offered a different lesson about what competence might mean.
A week after the engine started, the team completed careful checks and a controlled test on the estate's private service road, with an experienced driver at the wheel. The Ferrari behaved beautifully, its sound rising cleanly through the trees before the driver brought it back to the garage. Greg inspected the components again while the car cooled. No timing drift appeared, and the repaired fuel connection remained secure. They planned further runs before Victor considered taking it onto public roads. For once, he was content to let the process unfold without demanding a celebration.
When the final test report came back, Victor invited Angela and Noah to the garage on a Saturday morning. Angela arrived in ordinary clothes, a blue blouse and dark trousers, rather than her work uniform. Victor recognized that he had scarcely seen her outside the identity his household assigned her. She looked less tired than she had during the long repair day, though a wary line remained between her brows. Noah carried his notebook but had left the oversized hoodie at home. He wore a clean green shirt Angela had bought from a discount store, and he looked as serious as ever.
"The Ferrari is running," Victor told them. "And we have the evidence to explain why." He showed them the test report, including the before-and-after measurements, and Noah studied it with careful interest. Greg explained the final checks without talking down to him.
When the boy did not understand one line, he said so, and Greg drew a quick diagram rather than skipping ahead. Angela watched this exchange from beside the workbench and realized that something subtle had changed. Her son was being taught, not merely praised. That mattered more to her than the car itself.
Victor then turned to Noah. "I asked Dr. Shaw at the institute to review your projects. She'd like to meet you. There would be workshops, classes, visits to real engineering labs, and eventually college preparation if that's the direction you choose.