“My mom said if you cried when you heard it… you were the one.”

The woman went completely still.

The words hit harder than the shattered glass.

Her hand hovered in the air.

“The one what?”

The child clutched the flute tighter.

“The one she loved.”

The woman’s breath broke.

A few feet away, the elegant guests stood frozen, suddenly ashamed to be watching.

The woman looked at the flute.

Then at the child’s face again.

“Where is Anna?”

The child’s lips trembled.

“She couldn’t come.”

The woman shook her head, already crying harder now.

“No. Don’t do that. Don’t answer me like that.”

The child’s voice turned even smaller.

“She made me promise to play for you if I ever found you.”

The woman dropped fully to her knees.

“Found me?”

The child nodded.

“She said you didn’t leave her.”

The woman’s eyes widened.

“Who told her that?”

The child turned slowly and looked toward the table.

Toward one of the men who had gone pale and silent.

“He did.”

The woman followed the child’s gaze.

The man couldn’t meet her eyes.

Her voice came out raw now.

“You told me Anna betrayed me.”

The child took a shaky breath.

“My mom said he kept you apart.”

The woman looked back at the child, her whole body shaking.

“Why didn’t she come herself?”

The child’s chin trembled.

For a second, it seemed like they might not be able to say it.

Then came the line that hollowed the woman out completely.

“Because she died this morning… and her last wish was for me to find my other mother.”