White Lies and Sweet Compromise( 𝐁𝐖𝐖𝐌💕)

Chapter 58

Deacon felt his heart fluttered with love and his gut clenched with emotions as he stared at Wendy but it was the look of total adoration on his father's face that sent it soaring further as he turned to the laughing man seated at the head of the table.

He was not sure if he could ever remember the older man laughing or if there was a time he saw his father looking jovial and relaxed. There was something entirely different about his father, he glanced enquiringly at the other man sitting across from him, his blank face gave away nothing but he was sure he saw a glint of delight in the man's dark eyes.

"Ms Preston or can I call you Wendy," his father said leaning against the back of his chair as he stared at her. "You remind me of the first woman I fell in love with. Her name was Rebecca Lennox. She had the most beautiful eyes, they were eyes that drown you in their expressive depths. When others speak with words or actions she does it with her eyes.

I saw a bit of her in you as I came in. It was all there in your eyes. I could see all your turmoil, your anxiety, your fears but more so your determination. I saw it swirl like a whirlpool before it came bursting from your lips. I would have been very disappointed if you had quelch your feelings and walked away as Rebecca did."

The room was once again filled with silence until the food was brought in causing a change in conversation and a lesser rigid atmosphere. Dinner brought with it a light conversation that allowed both Deacon and Wendy to see a side of the older man that they never expected to be there.

Deacon on the other hand was not as conflicted as Wendy because a few days ago Amir had hand-delivered to him a package that he was told to personally give him on his return. He had been sceptical about its contents knowing the type of man he had considered his father to be.

The contents had however opened for him a new view of the man that was his father. Inside was the true identity of the man who came to America sixty-nine years ago along with details of his grandparents that circumstances never allowed him the chance to reap the benefits of the sacrifice they made.

There were things in that long detailed letter that he would keep locked away in his mind until time erased them all as did the fire in his fireplace to the papers on which it was written. He knew it had taken a lot for the elder man to reveal as well as confess to the many ill choices, dirty deeds and compromising situations that fostered the basis of his life.

He was only now happy to know that they had crossed the bridge and life had given them a chance to make amends. Wendy was right in saying that all his father did he did out of his version of love and protection for the only part of his lineage that was left.

The little boy who came to America was battered and broken in so many ways that seeped out from him all his past knowledge of his parent's love and caused nothing but scars and bitterness to soothe his brokenness as he fought to survive in the cruel ungiving world where nothing was given freely and when you take it was with brute force and manipulative cunningness.

He looked over at Amir who he had not expected to see here but had over the years gotten used to seeing at his father's side. He knew Amir as the uncle he never had and he remembered a few occasions where the rather imposing figure had played the role of a father when Deacon Ffrench Sr had not. Their eyes met and he saw sadness there for a minute before he looked down at his wine glass.

He knew what it signified and it broke his heart because that sadness was his too. His father seated at the head of the table his food barely touched was looking at him and Wendy but his eyes were playing images of a past that were like shrouds of misty shadows waiting for the time when they can become clear again.

Deacon knew that this time with his father was not to live in regrets or hold grudges. The past was gone and the present had brought with it clarity. Life is the instigator of the paths we take as we are mere pawns in its game.

It teaches us lessons some we learn right away others we learn from by numerous downfalls and some we learn from by the mistake others made, however, what we do with the lessons learned is up to us.

Deacon Ffrench Sr was now putting into action his final result from a lesson life taught him. He sought to make amends and when he pulled himself together he asked for Amir to bring the package he requested he bring with him on his arrival earlier to the house.

Wendy who was still not sure what was happening and was pretty much just trying to not shatter further the chance she had to keep Deacon in her life was surprised when Amir placed a box in front of her. She stared at the white dress box with its neatly bowed ribbon then looked at the three men hoping to decipher what was happening.

She reached for the box when Deacon nodded at her to open it but it was not until she saw the look of open expectation on his father's face that her trembling fingers undid the bow releasing the ribbon and removing the box's cover. After pulling aside the crepe paper she gasped at its contents. Inside was a wedding dress assembly.

She lifted the lace and satin stilettoes and saw that there were tiny pearls embedded in the lace. She looked at Deacon to see that he was not at all surprised and her quizzical glare was returned with a prompt to look at the dress.

Wendy felt her mouth practically drop to the floor as she stared gaping at the dress she lifted from the box and held in her hands. It too was of satin and lace. The heart-shaped bodice was covered in lace matching to the shoes and the same pearls were intricately hand-sewn on the bodice dotted the satin wide skirt of the dress to the hem. The matching lace veil was just as beautiful.

"Wendy forty-one years ago I made one of the biggest mistakes in my life and that was letting love slip from my grasp. I did many things in my past wrong and I have little time in the present to get a few right. I ask that you wear that dress today and make me a happy man by marrying my son and bringing to my generation the happiness I so foolishly deny myself."

Wendy looked at Deacon Ffrench Sr as he got up from the chair and made his way to where she sat. She looked up at him as he stared down at her.

"What do you mean by marrying him today?" she asked after staring dumbfounded at him for a few seconds.

"There are a few family and friends that are arriving in the next hour to see you become the bride that you are destined to be." He told her shocking her once more. "I want Deacon to have what I never had and what I selfishly robbed him of; love, family and happiness. I would like it if you would give me the honour of walking you down the aisle and handing you to my son."

Wendy felt tears spring from her eyes and spill down her cheeks as she nodded then tearfully answered.

"Yes, yes I will."

The older man took her hand and pulled her from the chair into a loving embrace. Wendy was bombarded with a thousand emotions.

An hour later give or take a few minutes those emotions intensified as she walked with Deacon Ffrench Sr into his backyard shadowed by a cool mystic, green forest and gazed upon by her family, friends and his son the love of her life... she had never been happier.

It started with a white lie and a compromise but it ended in love ever after.

𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷

😊 hheeyy.

I hope you enjoyed coming all this way with White Lies and Sweet Compromise   ☺.

I am happy to say I enjoyed Wendy and Deacon finding love on their journey. It is fair to say that when love decides to join life in its desire to fit together a love story it is not about the beginning it's the ending that counts 💕

See you in the final chapter👉

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