Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies or any of it's characters, of course. All original characters are of my own mind except Clancey who is a conglomeration of different people in my life to whom I give the credit. My title, as far as putting it in Galacian was, in part, inspired by stress. It is translated into A Mother's Curse, which didn't look as pretty in English.

a Maldição da Nai

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Part I

1883 - 1899

Somewhere in Brooklyn, 1883

It was like a fairytale, the love they'd shared, those two. And neither the angels in Heaven, nor any being of this Earth could fathom a love so true. Together they would lay in the sands of Brighton Beach watching the day's end as small waves washed over their feet. Or lay in bed together just to enjoy ones company.

As the sun came through the tattered curtains, not a word escaped their lips. He gently brushed the single blond curl that rest on her forehead, gazing down at her admiringly. His hand moved down to her slightly rounded abdomen and she placed hers over his. He kissed her pregnant stomach and then kissed her lips.

And now, as she stood on the exact same beach -- her feet in the exact same sand -- looking out over the horizon, she could still feel his lips on hers, his touch, every fiber of his being as though he were standing next to her. She'd carried the hope with her that someday her beloved would return to her. She held onto that hope for six long months until she received a telegram confirming the death of a Mr. Joseph Molony. Her mother caught her as her legs gave way to the shock.

As she sat there, across from her mother, tears welled up in her eyes. Her dear, sweet Joseph was no more and the more she thought about it the sicker she became.

"Try not to think about it, Moira," her mother encouraged. "You'll make yourself ill."

"Ma--" Moira paused, for as she spoke the words, it was if she were asking them to herself. She looked at her newborn baby boy, who was the spitting image of his father, laying in his bassinet. "How am I to tell my baby why he hasn't a father?"

"There's plenty of time for that. As for now, try and get some sleep"

Moira Iapaluccia was very young. Possibly too young to have to deal with the situation she was facing. She was but twenty-years-young when she married Joseph Molony and birthed his son. She loved her son, dearly, but the love she had for her late husband was greater than any she had felt before or would ever feel again. It pained her to see her child with the eyes cut directly from Joseph's. So she did the only thing she felt she could.

That night she took her child from his bassinet, wrapping him in a thick blanket and put him in a basket. She traveled into town to the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church. Moira pulled back the blanket covering the infant's face and a single tear fell from her eye. Taking him in her arms she held him tightly and kissed his forehead before placing him back into the basket. From her pocket, she pulled out a key. It was the one Joseph wore around his neck. It was the key he'd given to her as collateral for her worry when he left, when he promised he'd come back. She kissed the key and folded it into the blankets.

She made not the same promise Joseph had made to her, for she knew such things were impossible to keep. Instead, she'd said a prayer on the steps of St. Augustine that night. A prayer, that she hoped, would be fulfilled.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God, protect my son that he may never know a pain so deep, nor a love so strong. Harden his heart so he may not be in despair once it's taken from him."

With that, she lay the basket on the top stair of the church and walked away never to see her son again.