The woman went completely still.

Her fingers rose slowly to the pin on her coat, touching it like she no longer trusted it to be real.

The little boy stood frozen in front of her, breathing hard, his eyes full of fear and hope.

“What is your mother’s name?” she asked.

He tightened his grip around the pin.

“Lina.”

The woman’s breath caught.

Years ago, her younger sister Lina had vanished after a terrible fight with their family. Everyone said she had run away. Later, they were told she was dead.

The woman stared at the boy’s face.

Now she could see it.

The familiar eyes. The same mouth. The same softness in the expression when he was trying not to cry.

“Where is she?” the woman whispered.

The boy looked down for a second, ashamed.

“She’s sick,” he said. “She sells flowers near the bridge at night.”

The woman covered her mouth.

The boy’s voice shook harder now.

“She told me if I ever saw the lady with the other pin, I should stop her. Even if she got mad.”

Tears filled the woman’s eyes.

“Why didn’t she come to me herself?”

The boy blinked fast.

“She said you were rich now,” he whispered. “She thought maybe you forgot her.”

The words hit her like a wound reopening.

She dropped to her knees right there on the sidewalk so she could look at him properly.

“I never forgot her,” she said, voice breaking. “I searched for her.”

The boy’s face crumpled.

He pulled a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to her with trembling fingers.

“She told me to give you this if you believed me.”

It was a photo.

Two young sisters smiling, each wearing the same gold leaf pin.

On the back, in faded handwriting, were four words:

Find me before morning.

The woman looked up, eyes filled with panic now.

“Before morning?”

The boy nodded, tears sliding down his cheeks.

His voice came out small and urgent.

“She said if I found you too late… you’d only meet her at the hospital.”