𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚀𝚞𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚜

𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚊

"All rise. All rise. Court is now in session. Judge E.A. Monahan presiding." someone called out. But I didn't care to pay attention to who it was, I was too nervous. "Are any of you boys represented by council?" The judge asked. We all turned to each other, what the heck was a council? "No? Good, that will move things along considerably." The judge continued as Spot spoke up "Hey your honor I object!" I rolled my eyes. This should be good. "On what grounds?" The judge asked annoyed. "On the grounds of Brooklyn your honor." he said confidently. We all busted out laughing Race and I burying our heads into either side of his shoulders. Monahan banged his gavel on the desk. "I fine each of you five dollars or two weeks confinement to the House of Refuge." He declared. "Woah woah woah. We don't got five bucks! We don't even got five cents!" I defended. "Hey yer honor how about I roll ya for it, double or nothing." Race quipped. We all laughed again. "Alright. Move along!" Denton and Dave walked in "I'll pay the fines. All of them." Denton informed the judge handing over the money. "Listen we gotta meet at Tibby's there's something I need to tell ya." I zoned out, what could Denton want to tell us? Was it something serious or good news? My mind went elsewhere and I began thinking about Spot. I never gave him his answer, I hope he didn't think it was a no. It was a for sure yes I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that the King of Brooklyn was asking me to be his girlfriend. I never thought a boy could like me, let alone a boy like Spot Conlon. "So order!" The judge banged his gavel bringing me back from my thoughts. Seeing Jack looking pissed, an upset Les, and a smirking Snyder, I quickly put the clues together. Jack had been sent to the Refuge.
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Denton walked into Tibby's looking rather sad. "Here." he said walking up to me and handing me an envelope. "A newsie from Brooklyn gave it to me to give to you." I opened the envelope a confused expression on my face. I pulled the piece of paper out of the fancy envelope and began reading.

Elizabeth Romano,
We hope this letter makes it's way to you. We are the Smith family, we moved to Italy from America 3 months ago. When we heard of the awful habits of the Espositos we took Martina out of there care immediately. She became like family to us and always told us great stories about you. Which is why we are sad to inform you that Martina has passed away.
Sending Love,
The Smiths

The whole room started to spin as I stared at the last sentence. This couldn't be true. I was supposed to go back for her, she was going to meet Spot and Race and Albert and the other boys. She was going to see me perform at the Vaudeville, teach me more about piano. She was going to meet my kids and tell them stories as she got older. I was supposed to be with her when this happened but I wasn't. There were voices around me but everything was muffled, I wanted to stand up and walk out. Run out of here and lock myself in the bathroom of the Lodging House, but I couldn't move anything. My face was burning up and I could feel the tears start to fall before I just let out a loud scream and cried.
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Spot's POV
"We get Jack out of the Refuge tonight. From now on, we trust no one but the newsies." Davey declared to us. We all agreed with him. Denton just walked out on us. Abandoned us and the strike. "NOOOO!" I heard Cuori scream. To anyone else it would just come off as her being really upset at Denton. But I could tell that something was very wrong. "Liz. Liz. Hey. Are you ok? What's wrong?" I asked rushing over to her Albert, Race, David, and Skittery following closely behind the rest of the newsies just stared from the doorway. "Lizzy I'm gonna need ya ta talk to me." At the nickname she cried harder. I noticed the paper laid on the table and picked it up scanning through it deciphering words best I could. Eventually I got the message. "What's it say Spot?" Skittery asked utterly terrified. "Martina." Was all I needed to say. All of the newsies new about her. Cuori never stopped fantasizing over what they would do when she went back for her. "You would've loved her Spot." Cuori said through tears. "And she would've loved you, like I do." She three herself onto me sobbing. I hesitated not know what to do processing those words, playing them over and over in my mind until finally I wrapped y arms around her pulling her out of her chair and sitting on the floor with her. I squeezed her tight. "I....I love you too, Elizabeth." I breathed out.
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It's been about an hour. We had to move Cuori to the Lodging House because we couldn't stay in the middle of a restaurant floor. As time went by I got more and more concerned about Cuori. She said she loved me. She loved me. My God that's gonna take another second to process. She never let me leave her or let go of her. Finally after a few more minutes she stopped. "I hoped that answered your question." I knew exactly what she was talking about. "It did." I said with a smile. "I can't believe she's gone." Cuori said, no more emotion on her face, just blank. She had no more tears left in her and that broke my heart. "I wish I could say I knew how you felt. But that would be lying. And I couldn't live with myself if I ever lied to you." I told her, stroking her hair gently. "It's ok." She mumbled curling into me and falling asleep almost instantly. I looked down at her showing no emotion. Normally I would if we were alone but I was surrounded by Manhattan newsies, I didn't want to show more vulnerability than I already did. "She really likes ya Spot." Skittery said almost sadly. "Don't break her heart." he got up and left the room. "Ya know. We used to have fun little conversations about.....you but that's not the point." Race started rushing the last part. "Anyway she used to refer to us as Amore around the guys. I new what she was talking about it was kinda like a code word." he finished. I cocked an eyebrow "Is that like Italian for Spot?" Race shook his head. "It means love. I don't know if she's told you yet but, she really does love you, Spot." "Alright. Alright. I think that's enough sappy sap for today." Albert said getting up. I smirked at the two. "Race and I are going to bust Jack out." Albert said. "Take care of the thing while we're gone." Race joked gesturing towards Cuori. "Will do."

A/N this chapter was a pain in the butt to write. I didn't plan on Martina dying BUUUUTTTT BUT BUT BUTT, I'm not making a sequel to this I'm planning on wrapping it up soon because it's kinda just a quick book to get me out there and to exercise my skills bc I haven't done this in a hot second and I didn't have a plan for her soooooooooooo :)