Chapter Twenty-Eight

Callie

24 hours later

This is it. I think to myself. I wished Sasha could have come with me, but her husband had some important meetings and she has a family now and another child. So, I brought Jaynie with me. I knew she’d enjoy a Black Diamond concert and especially one held in Beau’s honour. I didn’t tell her I was beyond furious that Eddie hadn’t even bothered to call me and tell me about it, that he was using my son to benefit himself. I muster a smile when Jaynie shrieks at the sight of Beau’s picture on the big screen.

“He would have loved this, Callie. I’m so glad you asked me to come.”

“I’m glad you came,” I say, offering her a smile. My attention is directed at the crowd moving aside, that’s when I see Marcus walking in my direction and laugh to myself. He still makes me think of Men in Black, dressed head to toe in an expensive black suit and his dark shades.

“Ladies, please come with me,” he says and I shake my head; I’m not ready to confront Eddie, not with Jaynie around. I didn’t really think through how I’d get him alone. He must know I’m here.

“Does he know I’m here?” I ask quietly as we start walking.

“No, Sasha called Mickki, and he swore me to secrecy. He’ll only know you’re here, when and if you want him to. They didn’t want him to ruin the night for you.”

“Thank you, it means a lot.” He doesn’t say anything else, he just nods and leads us to a roped off section, which I find odd. I’ve never seen anything like this at a concert, but this isn’t just any concert it’s Black Diamond’s final concert ever and it dawns on me that this is a big deal.

When the guys all walk out on stage, I find myself holding my breath. The sight of him makes my palms sweaty and the thumping of my heart physically hurts. I’m quickly reminded of how much I still love him, even the anger melts away until I remember he’s engaged.

“It was only a stupid article from some bimbo in love with Eddie,” Jaynie says as if she can read my mind.

“What do you mean?” I say, playing dumb.

“Don’t act stupid, Callie, you’re far from it. I know you get the notifications on your phone. I don’t believe, for one second, that he’d touch that chick with a ten-foot pole.” Jaynie may be right, but it doesn’t change anything. The asshole didn’t even invite me and that tells me he doesn’t care. I wonder if he even knew the concert was in Beau’s honour considering he’s always been oblivious to anything going on around him unless it somehow directly involves him. Jaynie sings song after song as loudly as she can. After two encores, Mickki tries to quieten down the crowd.

“Alright, alright, if everyone shuts up we may do one more song,” Mickki says and the crowd falls silent in the hope of hearing them one last time. Just when I think he’s about to say something else, Eddie walks towards him and takes the microphone.

“Thank you all for coming, we appreciate the support from all our fans over the years. I want to give a special mention to Beau,” he says. “I didn’t have a chance to get to know Beau very well before he passed away, but he was truly an extraordinary kid who loved his mum so much. She’s here tonight. Callie, where are you?” Jaynie starts jumping up and down squealing and pointing to me, no point trying to hide now. “Yo, Marcus bring her up to the stage.”

I shake my head, no. “Nope, no way,” I say as Marcus walks my way.

“No point fighting it,” he says. “He’ll just come to you.”

He’s right and I follow him up to the stage, my heart beating through my chest. Once I’m on the stage, Eddie walks over to me. My emotions are all over the place, I want to cry and scream, sucker punch him in his junk, but I just stand there and stare at him; everything just melts away.

“Callie, from the first day you walked into my life, it changed. At first, I was far from happy about the situation, but over time you grew on me and not having you in my life hasn’t been easy. I miss you, I miss your no-bullshit attitude. I thought if I let you go, and it was meant to be, you’d find your way back to me, but a wise kid made me realise-life is too short to wait,” he says, the sweat visibly running down his face. He shakily gets down on one knee and his hands are shaking. What the hell is he doing? He can’t propose, not when there’s so much I need to say and so much he doesn’t know.

“Callie, I know this is crazy,” he says and the crowd cheers him on. “But I don’t want to waste any more time, I love you and can’t imagine my future without you in it. Will you marry me?”

“I…I’m pregnant,” I finally spit out and I watch for a reaction, but he just stands there speechless for a second and literally passes out. I knew this was too much for him to handle, fuck, it’s too much for me to handle. I was booked in for a termination, I couldn’t bring another child into this world when I’d done such a bad job at being a mother the first time; I can barely keep my shit together and Eddie is just as unstable. I didn’t want my sister to know, or even Eddie, but when I watched Beau’s video he made me think that maybe I should think it through some more. Then Eddie catches me off guard and I just blurt it out in front of thousands of people. There’s no way to take that back and him passing out is the icing in the cake. We’re as screwed up as I thought we were.