Scott's Shame
Chapter 08 - Scott's Shame
Scott Bennett looked up from his shift at the warehouse loading dock the following morning to find his wife and son standing at the edge of the parking lot, and for a long moment, he simply stood frozen, disbelief and shame warring visibly across his tired, weathered face.
Eli reached him first, running the full distance across the parking lot and throwing his arms around his father with a force that nearly knocked them both over.
"Dad," Eli sobbed, "I knew you didn't just leave us. I knew it."
Scott held his son tightly, tears falling freely, his whole body shaking with eleven months of accumulated grief and shame finally breaking loose all at once.
"I'm so sorry," he said, voice broken. "I'm so sorry, I never should have let you both go this long without knowing where I was."
Renee approached more slowly, her own emotions considerably more complicated, relief and hurt and love all tangled together in a way that made her hesitate before finally closing the distance between them.
"Why didn't you call," she asked, tears falling. "Why did you let us believe you'd simply abandoned us."
Scott's shoulders sagged, the specific, complete collapse of a man who had spent nearly a year hiding from exactly this question.
"I lost everything," he said. "My job, my reputation, everything I'd built for our family. I couldn't face coming home and telling you I'd been accused of stealing, that nobody believed me, that I had no way to prove my innocence and no way to provide for either of you anymore. I told myself disappearing was easier than watching you both slowly stop believing in me."
"We never stopped believing in you," Renee said. "I never once believed you actually stole anything. I just didn't know where you'd gone, or whether you were even safe."
Daniel, standing a respectful distance away throughout this reunion, finally stepped forward once the initial wave of emotion had settled slightly.
"Mr. Bennett," he said. "My name is Daniel Sharpe. I own the Meridian Grand hotel group, which acquired the Ashford Regency about two years ago. I believe I have information that's going to matter considerably to you."
Scott looked at him, confusion and wariness crossing his face. "What kind of information."
"I believe you were wrongly terminated," Daniel said. "I've reviewed the theft investigation personally, and I don't believe the evidence supports what happened to you. I intend to find out exactly what did happen, and I intend to make it right, as completely as it's possible to make right."
Scott stared at him, something that looked almost like disbelief crossing his exhausted face, an entire year of shame and self-doubt suddenly confronting the possibility that his own innocence might finally, actually be recognized.
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"Why would you do that," Scott asked. "You don't know me."
Daniel glanced down at the gold watch on his own wrist. "Your son found me, actually. Recognized this watch from across a hotel lobby. I think, in a sense, he's the reason any of us are standing here today."
