The box was there, tempting Kath, and she knew it wasn’t here for her to open it, but after all, after almost 10 years without a single word from her baby sister she felt like she had earned the right to open that box and try and see what was in there. She walked towards the table as Lynne was reading her letter over and over again, her eyes wet with emotion, shaking and smiling at the same time. Katherine felt like someone had removed a weight on her soul, like she had been freed from the chains of resentment that had been holding her back for too long. She opened the box and was surprised by how full it was. In it laid 6 little packets all tied together with a string. Each of the packets had a name on it. The first one said “Mom and Dad”, and that wasn’t surprising at all, because obviously she would have written letters to them over the course of the years. There was one for Michael. One for “Christian, Nick and Joey”. One for Lisa. One for Amy. And ultimately, Kath saw there was one for her. She was at first really surprised that there weren’t any for Lauren but she then remembered what Nick had told her over the phone: the two had been in contact and had talked, so Dani probably gave it to her directly. She grabbed the packet that was for her and turned back to her mom. She saw she had fallen asleep. All these emotions probably had made her really tired and this nap was well deserved. She blew a kiss on her mom’s forehead and left the apartment, closing the door behind her as silently as possible.
Her car was parked just nearby but she didn’t feel like driving just yet. Too many emotions. She called Skyler to inform him that she was going to be home a little later than the usual, so he wouldn’t worry and decided to go for a walk on the beach. The wind was blowing through her hair, making her feel alive, making her breathe deeper than usual. She was feeling young again, empowered by Dani being somehow in her life again. No one who hasn’t experienced it could tell how hard it is to lose one sibling, but losing a second one is even worse, and she hadn’t felt whole ever since Dani had left her life. And now she was almost her again. As she decided to sit on a rock just by the water, Kath tried to imagine Lauren’s happiness when Dani had called her. It made her rethink and put in perspective all the things Nick Reali had said. Maybe she wasn’t ready for that biopic thing, maybe a movie was too much, but trying to get in contact with Dani again probably was worth a try. After all, she had learnt the hard way that life was short. She opened the packet carefully and the first thing she saw was something that looked like a copy of a handwritten letter. It wasn’t Dani’s handwriting. It was Christina’s. On it stood a note, written by Dani. “Those were her last words to me, I want to share them with you because I think you deserve to know. And because it’s been too long and too many things have been left unsaid. I’m tired of keeping everything to myself.”. There it was. That letter. The best kept secret in the Cimorelli family. She had it in her hands. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a minute before opening it.
Kath was seating at a table in the office, trying to write a poem down, that had been in her head as an unfinished work for the longest time when she heard her older sister shout:
“Kath! Kath! KATHERINE ANN CIMORELLI WHERE ARE YOU?”
“I’m here Chris, what’s the matter stop YELLING you’re gonna wake the little boys up!”
“UNSAID THINGS JUST WAS PLAYED ON SATURDAY NIGHT ONLINE, TWITTER IS GOING WILD, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO KATH IT’S YOUR SONG IT’S OUR SONG AND WE MADE IT, LIKE KRISTINA AT REPUBLIC RECORDS PREDICTED WHEN SHE FIRST HEARD THE SONG!!!”
It was all great, all amazing, they were both so excited and couldn’t help but scream and shout and be emotional, like 5 year olds on Christmas day.
“Girls, could you keep it a little quieter in here please? I’m trying to get the little boys to go to sleep.” Lynne interrupted.
“I’M SORRY MOM BUT NO WE CAN’T WE JUST GOT PLAYED ON SATURDAY NIGHT ONLINE!”
“MOM SAY SOMETHING THAT’S HUGE!”
And Kath and Christina stared at Lynne, eager to see her reaction but Lynne had turned her head so they wouldn’t see. So they wouldn’t realize that those were proud tears coming in her eyes, and that she couldn’t fight them. She was indeed so proud of her baby girls, they were off for a great success and that’s all she had ever wanted for them. She eventually turned her face back to face them, quickly wiping a tear off from her cheek that wouldn’t stay in her eye and smiled at them. She took both of the girls in her arms and said
“Where are you sisters? You need to tell them!! Are they still at that bonfire?”
Kath opened her eyes. She had been caught up in her thoughts a little too much and had let her mind wander a little too far. Back to the roots of the success of “Unsaid Things” that had triggered everything else. Truly unforgettable moments. She could have stayed there and remembered happy moments in her life forever. She still remembered their first concert in Europe, in Berlin, Germany, around the beginning of the year 2015. The fans were absolutely wild and coming from all Europe, screaming their names and singing along to every single one of the songs. Holding up heart-shaped signs during “Wings”, dancing the choregrapy to Renegade and Made In America. And that meet and greet really had been memorable. They had met people they had been seeing on Twitter forever, people that had been here supporting them for the longest time that had flown from all over Europe just to be here for their first European date. At that time Christina seemed really happy. What could have gone wrong between that and her suicide a few years later? What could have been so horrible, what could have gotten to her so much that she wouldn’t want to live anymore. For 20 years this question had been haunting Kath and she now had in her hands the letter that potentially held the answer to that. She looked at the letter again and then suddenly realized that she wasn’t strong enough to open it on her own. She took her phone and dialed Amy’s number. Her, Amy and Lisa would have to do it together, otherwise Kath wouldn’t be able to handle it. That was one thing they needed to do together, or not at all.
“Hey Ames, it’s Kath, do you have a minute?”
