Our Love Story: Hard to Guard Against the Sudden Love Strike-Chapter 239 - 236: Searching for Clues

Lawyer Young asked in a low voice, "Who are you going to talk to?"

The male attorney, who had more than ten years of experience over Sienna Thornton, spoke carefully and respectfully to the young new president before him.

Sienna, unaccustomed to acting superior toward subordinates, softened her expression and smiled, "At the very least, we need to understand how the plaintiff’s depression came about. Don’t worry, I have a plan. You all can get on with other matters; I’ll handle this line of inquiry."

She took Rochelle Linwood to visit the heavy industrial plant where the incident involving Anwell occurred. First, they inspected the scene of the incident, listening to the site management describe what happened at the time of the accident, while she herself stood before the machine to reconstruct the situation.

Due to the angle of the surveillance footage, it did not capture whether Anwell was operating against regulations at the time; the determination of Anwell’s noncompliance came from the site management. In general, in such cases, the judge would hold the company responsible for Anwell’s occupational injuries and various losses.

According to Anwell’s wage standard, the company was supposed to pay thirteen months of disability allowance based on Anwell’s assessed level seven disability, in addition to various mental distress compensation, transportation fees, nutrition fees, rehabilitation fees, and all other miscellaneous expenses. The court would at most award Anwell between 200,000 to 300,000 yuan in compensation from Forrester Group.

However, because Forrester Group indeed delayed handling the matter for two years, which led to Anwell’s severe depression, although depression does not necessarily mean the loss of working ability, if the plaintiff’s lawyer argues for Forrester Group to cover all of Anwell’s future depression recovery costs, it would be no small sum. No wonder the plaintiff felt bold enough to demand a one-time payment of over 2,000,000 yuan from Forrester Group.

If Forrester Group wants to win the case, it must prove that Anwell’s depression did not result from the occupational injury but from other factors.

Sienna had previously studied a little introductory psychology, and she knew that Anwell developing severe depression despite the injury not being irreversible likely indicated pre-existing depressive tendencies.

She asked some colleagues who were relatively close to Anwell, and they all reported that Anwell was typically sensitive and suspicious, often seen gloomy, and frequently distracted during machine operation, almost causing major accidents several times.

One female colleague showed Sienna Anwell’s social media activity; in the month leading up to the incident, Anwell frequently shared pessimistic and dark content related to emotions.

Sienna speculated that Anwell’s emotional state was likely unstable, that they had depressive tendencies before the incident, and with a major blow, the depression erupted.

This blow likely had something to do with emotions.

By then, Sienna was starting to piece things together. She instructed Rochelle to investigate Anwell’s spouse to see if there were signs of infidelity or domestic violence.

Upon investigation, Anwell’s spouse appeared normal, being a home-oriented man. Every day after work, he would first pick up the child from school, buy groceries, and cook a meal at home. Nightly around eight, he would take his wife and child for a walk in the community, seeming like a good family man from the Grant Family.

Seeing the investigation report, Sienna shifted her approach and decided to look into Anwell’s possible other emotional involvements.

She chose to start with the easiest-to-access workplace romance, heading back to the heavy industrial plant, and retrieved surveillance from the time Anwell was employed there, focusing on the time clock and parking area. It turned out Anwell had been consistently commuting with another male colleague, always sitting in the front passenger seat, the two entering and exiting together daily, resembling a married couple.

However, that male colleague had resigned a month before the incident, coinciding with the timeframe when Anwell shared emotionally distressing content on social media.

With most of the case understood, it was now a matter of gathering evidence.

Sienna obtained the personnel details of the male colleague involved with Anwell from the management department and went personally to his residential community, intercepting him after his shift downstairs.

The man was momentarily taken aback upon seeing her and asked, "Who are you?"

Sienna introduced herself, "Sienna Thornton from Forrester Group’s legal department. I have a few matters to clarify about Anwell."

At the mention of Anwell, the man immediately looked upstairs anxiously and said, "I left the company two years ago, I’ve got nothing to say!"

His stance was rather firm.

Sienna gave a soft smile and also gazed in the direction he had looked, "Your wife must be off work, ready with dinner and waiting for you? How about we discuss this at your home?"

She gestured to the personnel file copy in her hand as she spoke.

The man’s face turned ashen, but Sienna continued, "Or, there’s a café by the community gate, we could chat over there?"

The man, seeing no other choice, gave her a glance and nodded.

The two went to the café, selecting a booth in a corner.

Sienna concisely stated her purpose; realizing she wasn’t there to defend Anwell, the man visibly relaxed and disclosed the extramarital affair he maintained with Anwell for years.

Sienna asked, "Would you mind if I record this conversation? We might need to submit it as evidence in court later."

Hearing this, the man’s expression darkened once more, he hesitated and asked, "If this goes to court, will my previous relationship with her become public?"

Sienna smiled and replied, "Forrester Group primarily wants Anwell to withdraw the lawsuit and does not aim to take the case to court. This evidence is just to present to Anwell’s lawyer, who would typically advise her to withdraw, thus keeping it out of the courts."

Still unsure, the man asked, "Will her lawyer expose me?"

"You can rest assured of that; there’s a confidentiality agreement between a lawyer and their client. They cannot disclose anything related to the case."

The man, feeling reassured, consented to Sienna’s recording.

Sienna then questioned him on key details, specifically the timeline of when the emotional crisis with Anwell occurred, when their relationship ended, and what Anwell’s emotional state was during those periods.

During the recording, Sienna focused especially on the two events that dealt fatal blows to Anwell, to substantiate that the depression was indeed caused by emotional failure. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

After recording, the man provided additional valuable items—

WeChat conversation logs: Multiple messages from Anwell poured out to him, lamenting how his emotional neglect left her distraught, resulting in her distractedly mishandling the machinery and causing the tragedy; he chose that time to end things with her. Later, Anwell frantically sent voice messages to him, purportedly saying that the breakup triggered her depression and she felt suicidal.

With the screenshots and Anwell’s voice messages in hand, Sienna immediately called Anwell’s lawyer, setting a meeting at Cognitas the following day for a private settlement.

The case was nearly resolved. Sienna returned home past ten o’clock, and Simon Forrester, busy in his study, came out upon hearing her return, asking, "Have you eaten?"

"Yes, I have."

Simon walked to the bar, poured a glass of warm water, and handed it to her, "Didn’t Cognitas mention they hadn’t picked up any cases yet? Why were you back so late?"

Sienna then brought up Anwell’s lawsuit against Forrester Group.