Our Love Story: Hard to Guard Against the Sudden Love Strike-Chapter 332 - 320: Sugar Plan

The next day, due to Simon Forrester’s insistence, Sienna Thornton took him and Rhonda Wagner to Linden, over two hundred kilometers away, to find another witness.

The car stopped under an old apartment building with a style reminiscent of the 80s or 90s in Linden.

Sienna Thornton rolled down the car window and looked up. The building’s grayish exterior walls were mottled and decrepit, the balcony railings rusty. The neighborhood had no property management, wild grass was growing in corners, and the trash bins had their lids ajar.

This was where poor people lived.

"Do Jane Jefferson’s parents also live here?" Sienna Thornton asked.

Simon Forrester nodded.

"Hasn’t she made quite a bit of money these years? Why are her parents still living in a place like this?"

"You’re using normal people’s logic. Of course, you can’t understand what someone like her is thinking," Simon Forrester said.

Sienna Thornton thought about it and agreed, shaking her head without asking more questions.

After a while, a woman in her twenties, dressed in a somewhat street-smart style, was brought down and pushed into the car.

Once the car door closed, Sienna Thornton turned on a recorder, took a photo from a file bag, and held it in front of her: "The girl in the photo is named Paige Pemberton. Do you know her?"

"Yes, I do."

"In July 2019, why did you give her five hundred thousand in cash?"

Perhaps Tobias Blackwood’s people had already briefed her, so the young woman obediently replied, "Yanzi asked me to give it to her."

"Who is Yanzi?"

"Jane Jefferson." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Sienna Thornton’s voice turned cold, raising the pitch: "Why did Jane Jefferson ask you to give Paige Pemberton five hundred thousand in cash?"

"Jane Jefferson wanted her to change her testimony. Apparently, she worked at a hotel and didn’t check the ID thoroughly, letting minors check in. At the time, she didn’t notify her boss. Jane Jefferson wanted her to change her statement with the police to say she had notified her boss then."

"How did Jane Jefferson give you this five hundred thousand? How much commission did she give you?"

The streetwise girl scratched her rainbow-colored hair, saying, "Yanzi stuffed the money directly in a travel bag and brought it to my house. It was six hundred thousand at the time, with another one hundred thousand as my commission."

"Did anyone see her give you that cash?"

"No..."

"Do you know where she got all that cash from?"

"I don’t know..."

...

Sienna Thornton got to the bottom of how Jane Jefferson instructed the witness to perjure and change testimony, and recorded it. The streetwise girl expressed willingness to testify in court.

Having collected the evidence, Sienna Thornton and her team set off back to Brimfield.

All along the way, she discussed with Rhonda Wagner the possibility of winning the case. They both believed the worst outcome could be case dismissal due to insufficient evidence, even if they had a witness because of the lack of material evidence.

Although the situation was not very optimistic, Sienna Thornton still began preparing the case files after returning to the law firm in the afternoon, making sure to have Rochelle Linwood deliver the files to the relevant departments before leaving work.

.

A month later, Sienna Thornton received news that the relevant departments had begun investigating the obstruction of testimony case against Jane Jefferson, including collecting testimony from witnesses and investigating the fifty thousand used to bribe the witness to change their testimony.

They contacted Jane Jefferson, who was far away in Britione, asking her to return to the country to cooperate with the investigation.

It was late November, and Brimfield was almost entering winter. Since she was going to Europe for a month the following week, Sienna Thornton was working around the clock.

That night, while working in the study, Simon Forrester, also busy at the computer, took a call, and surprisingly put it on speaker.

Thomas Reed’s low "Jules" pulled the engrossed Sienna Thornton from her work. She looked at Simon Forrester and mouthed, "Do you need me to leave?"

Simon Forrester shook his head, bringing the phone over to her side so they could listen together.

On the other end, Thomas Reed asked, "Can we just let the bed-and-breakfast case go?"

Simon Forrester’s tone was firm: "No! We must get to the bottom of it!"

Thomas Reed said, "Jane Jefferson did something foolish at the time, but it has been so long, and Sienna’s lawyer’s license has been saved. Bringing up the old case again serves no purpose."

Sienna Thornton suddenly felt a surge of emotion rise to her chest.

If others didn’t know the significance of this case to her, then so be it. But for Thomas Reed, who was also a lawyer, who knew how hard she had worked to establish a reputation in Brimfield’s legal circles, and who had watched her struggle for three months after the bed-and-breakfast case, it was infuriating that he was advising her not to reopen the old case!

Sienna Thornton was furious and, regardless of it being Thomas Reed’s call with Simon Forrester, she said directly, "Partner Reed, this case is a criminal case. Even if I wanted to drop it now, I can’t. What you’re saying is useless!"

Perhaps not expecting her to be on the line as well, Thomas Reed didn’t speak for a while. After a pause, he said softly, "Sienna, it’s my fault, bringing you this trouble."