“My mom said if anyone recognized that song… I should run.”

The woman stopped breathing.

The adults at the table were silent now, their phones forgotten.

The woman’s hand fell to her side.

“What did she say about me?”

The child’s eyes filled.

“She didn’t say your name.”

A tear slid down the woman’s face.

“She just said there was a lady in gold who used to play it with her.”

The woman covered her mouth.

The child’s voice was small, but steady.

“She said if I ever found you, I should ask why you never came back.”

The woman looked like she’d been struck.

“I tried.”

The child blinked at her.

“She told me you were dead.”

The child shook their head.

“She said someone made her leave.”

The woman’s whole body went rigid.

“Who?”

The child turned and pointed toward the table.

Not at the crowd.

At one man sitting frozen in his chair.

“He did.”

The woman turned slowly.

The elegant man had gone pale.

Her voice broke open.

“You told me Anna abandoned me.”

The man stood abruptly.

“It was complicated.”

The child stepped closer, trembling now.

“My mom made me learn that song so you’d believe me.”

The woman looked back at the child.

Her eyes dropped to the faint red mark on the cheek.

Then to the flute.

Then back to those eyes.

And when she finally spoke, her voice was barely there.

“Anna didn’t get sick, did she?”

The child shook their head, crying now.

“No.”

A long, brutal silence settled over the terrace.

Then the child whispered the line that shattered her completely.

“She died looking for you.”