The images presented to Sam seemed perfectly normal, but he was able to notice some small details that softly embellished his memories. First, he noticed how his father was actually paying attention to him during lunch instead of scrolling through his cellphone. He also realized that his father was present at his first trip to the beach, when in reality it was his driver the one who took him along with the sitter.
The most painful dissimilitude between the images Atlantis showed him was the one of his first day of school where no one bothered to show up for him. No one from his large family, not even the uncles that would shower him with attention whenever his father was close came yet in the illusion his father watched him all the way until he entered the school.