CHAPTER 86: CHAPTER 86: EIGHT CATS

Early in the morning, Samual Pryce swiped his card to open the door and saw the young female intern in the team, dressed in a black uniform skirt, hurrying over from the direction of Justin Holden’s office, looking grim, holding a thick pile of documents in her arms.

"Attorney Pryce, good morning."

Seeing him, the female intern looked as if she had found a savior, slowed her pace slightly, lowered her voice and spoke quickly, her tone full of lingering fear, "Lawyer Holden... is he in a bad mood today?"

Samual Pryce raised an eyebrow.

"Why? Did he scold someone again?"

Justin Holden was famously strict in the law firm, but usually focused on the matter, not the person.

The female intern quickly shook her head, her voice even lower.

"It’s not scolding... It was Attorney Sinclair, he went to give Lawyer Holden some documents and accidentally took the paperwork meant for Team Two to Lawyer Holden’s office."

"It was just a batch of outdated case summaries, nothing confidential or urgent... Lawyer Holden just glanced at the cover and said nothing, and immediately made an internal call to HR, telling them to transfer the person from Litigation Team One to Support Team Two right away..."

As she spoke, she instinctively glanced back at the office at the end of the corridor, as if there was something terrifying inside.

"Team One and Team Two... are worlds apart, just for delivering an irrelevant document to the wrong place, Lawyer Holden, no matter how strict in the past, wouldn’t have..."

After listening, Samual Pryce also frowned.

The punishment was indeed unusually harsh, not resembling Justin Holden’s usual calm and rational style.

He patted the female intern’s shoulder, "Okay, I got it. Go ahead and get busy, and try not to provoke him today if there’s nothing urgent."

Feeling as if she’d been granted amnesty, the female intern quickly nodded and scurried off with the documents.

Samual Pryce walked to the entrance of Justin Holden’s office. The door was not completely closed, leaving a crack.

He knocked twice, then pushed the door open and went in.

Justin Holden was sitting behind a large desk, facing away from the door, gazing at the rising morning sun through the window.

Upon hearing the sound, he didn’t turn around.

On his desk, there was a dossier spread open.

The paper was somewhat old, a format from a few years ago.

Samual Pryce stepped closer, his eyes inadvertently scanning the open page.

Just by glancing at a few lines, his pupils suddenly contracted — it was Jean Ellison’s dossier.

The defendant’s column bore Jean Ellison’s name, the case type was intentional injury.

The brief case description below detailed how five years ago, the defendant Jean Ellison, at a bar, was violently coerced by the victim Lewis and, during the struggle, used a broken bottle to stab Lewis’s carotid artery, causing serious injury and paralysis.

Upon evaluation, her actions exceeded the limits of necessary defense...

The final judgment boldly stated a few words.

In the first trial, she was sentenced to five years imprisonment, with no objections from the defendant.

Samual Pryce took a sharp breath, looked up at Justin Holden.

Justin Holden seemed to know what he was seeing, raised his eyelids and locked eyes with him.

His expression was stern, showing no emotion on his face, but in his eyes, there was a looming storm.

His long fingers gently touched the personal information section on that dossier.

Jean Ellison, born on May 20th, native of Pullen City.

Claire Caldwell’s birthday was different. Claire was born in November; she was born in Kingswell City, grew up in Kingswell City, never been to Mount Pullen.

"She’s not."

Samual Pryce heard him mutter to himself, took few steps forward, frowning.

"Not... What do you mean by this?" He pointed at the dossier, "Isn’t she living under the same roof with you? Are you investigating her behind her back? Don’t you trust her?"

Justin Holden didn’t look at him, his gaze stuck on the cold text of the dossier, his long fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of the paper.

If this dossier was fake, there would surely be flaws.

His hand, clean and slender, with distinct knuckles, slowly flipped the pages. As the dossier was being opened, a section of his white wrist revealed from the cuff of his pale shirt, very attractive.

After a long pause, Justin Holden finally spoke, his voice hoarse.

"I suspect, Jean Ellison is Claire Caldwell."

"What?" Samual Pryce had just sat down on the sofa when his butt jumped up like it was pricked by a needle, his eyes widening in disbelief, "This is insane, how could you say such a thing?"

He quickly walked to the front of the desk, propping his hands on the tabletop, leaning forward, frowning as he looked at Justin Holden.

"You can eat carelessly, but you can’t speak carelessly. Do you know what that implies?"

He took a deep breath, trying to calm down, quickening his speech.

"If, and I’m just saying if, she really is Claire Caldwell, what do you call living with her?"

"Letting the wolf into the house, got it? You’re keeping someone beside you who wishes they could peel your skin off and break your bones. Would you dare close your eyes while you sleep at night? You’d have to sleep with one eye open, just in case she gets up in the middle of the night and stabs you."

Samual Pryce got more agitated as he spoke, cold sweat appearing on his forehead.

"Have you forgotten how ruthless that woman is? She said she’d haunt you even as a ghost. Regarding her family business... If she isn’t really dead, she came back not for reminiscing, but for your life."

Justin Holden lifted his eyes again, looking at the emotionally charged Samual Pryce.

His dark eyes were unfathomable, swirling with complicated emotions that were hard to comprehend, but there was no change in his facial expression, replying extremely dully.

"Whatever, I’ve been suffering from insomnia for a long time anyway."

He didn’t need to sleep with his eyes open; he simply couldn’t fall asleep.

These words acted like a bucket of cold water, temporarily quelling some of Samual Pryce’s agitation.

He stared dumbfoundedly at Justin Holden, opening his mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.

He was aware that since the incident five years ago, Justin Holden’s sleep had been completely ruined, relying on medication often.

Justin Holden suddenly frowned as if realizing something important.

These past few nights.

Since Jean Ellison and Jesse moved in, surprisingly... he hadn’t experienced insomnia, waking up in the morning as it was, proceeding as usual to exercise on the treadmill, then checking in at work.

His schedule had suddenly normalized, so much so that he hadn’t noticed the underlying issue.

"I haven’t had insomnia lately."

He added, as if confirming a suspicion within.

"Then you should be even more careful to sleep with one eye open. If she is indeed Claire Caldwell, and you aren’t having insomnia because she’s secretly giving you tranquilizers, wouldn’t that be horrible?"

Samual Pryce said urgently, genuinely worried for him.

"You," Justin Holden said with some helplessness, closing the dossier in front of him, "should read less tomato novels."

"I haven’t been reading tomato novels, been reading Eight Cats recently."

Samual Pryce said, pursuing his shadow as he had already gotten up to leave, taking the dossier from the table with him as well.

Another matter Justin Holden had someone investigate was also answered.

Someone indeed was secretly investigating the Caldwell family’s old case, but that person wasn’t Jean Ellison, it was Philip Paxton.