Stacey rented an apartment in the city, complete with a shared swimming pool, where Kaylee played joyfully. Mike thought things would finally settle down, but that was not the case. Only a week after Tuco’s arrest, Tuco’s uncle came to find him. The man was clearly prepared—he had even dug up every detail of Mike’s background.Tuco’s uncle was polite first, apologizing to Mike on his nephew’s behalf. Then, he made a veiled request for help: he asked Mike to tell the police that the handgun did not belong to Tuco, but had been snatched by Tuco during their argument. Currently, Tuco faced two charges—robbery and illegal possession of a firearm—and could be sentenced to eight years in prison. If Mike took the blame for the gun, the court would turn a blind eye given his past as a cop, and Tuco would only serve a few months.
He didn’t force Mike to give an answer right away. But if he could find out Mike’s background, he could easily track down Stacey and Kaylee too. This time, Mike had brought trouble upon himself.
Over the same week, Jimmy was equally restless. He was convinced that Kim’s demotion was Charles’ idea—and his suspicion wasn’t unfounded. After Jimmy started working in the mailroom at Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill (HHM), he was invited to Charles’ house for dinner, where Charles’ girlfriend Rebecca was also present. Rebecca was a musician, and Charles, acting on preconceptions, assumed Jimmy’s behavior would annoy her. So he set up a secret signal: if Rebecca touched her earlobe, Charles would send Jimmy away on the excuse of needing to check documents.
To his surprise, Jimmy’s humor delighted Rebecca that night—especially his jokes mocking lawyers. Charles anxiously touched his earlobe repeatedly, but Rebecca was too busy laughing at Jimmy to notice. After seeing Jimmy off, Charles and Rebecca cleaned up and prepared for bed. Charles even tried telling a lawyer joke, but Rebecca barely reacted.
This incident revealed their differences: Charles was broad-minded and calculating, while Jimmy was quick-witted and sociable. People liked Jimmy, but they respected Charles.
Perhaps because of this, Charles always thought Jimmy took shortcuts, and Jimmy believed Charles was secretly undermining him. This time, Jimmy felt largely responsible for Kim’s demotion. He even wrote a complaint letter for Kim, suing the firm for unfair treatment. But Kim would never accept this—she’d have no future in the legal industry if she did.
Jimmy still wouldn’t let it go, ranting that Charles was taking revenge. He offered to resign voluntarily to get Kim’s position back. Kim finally lost her temper, releasing all the frustration she’d bottled up. She snapped at Jimmy to stop interfering, focus on his own work, and never violate any bar association rules again.
As Kim had said, Clifford assigned Jimmy an associate lawyer named Erin—specifically to monitor him and prevent further rule violations. Meanwhile, Kim refused to settle for her current situation. During breaks from work every day, she used all her connections to find clients. Her efforts paid off: she finally secured a major bank’s commission for the firm. It was a $250,000 case, which Howard took very seriously and assigned to Charles personally. However, he didn’t reverse Kim’s demotion—she still had to stay in the large open office.
Charles would never take a major client lightly. He decided to come to work every midnight and leave at 9 a.m. This way, he wouldn’t disturb others, and he wouldn’t be bothered by annoying phone calls. Charles sat in the dark office, flipping through documents by the light of an oil lamp, as dawn broke outside. Suddenly, the lights in the outer assistant’s office turned on. He stepped out from behind his desk and saw Kim, looking gloomy. Kim had come to deliver reviewed documents and hadn’t expected to run into Charles. She quickly turned off the light and apologized repeatedly.
Charles thought they should talk. After making coffee, the two sat on the office sofa. Charles told her an old story: when he was in college, his father ran a small corner store—his father’s life’s work—and Jimmy had helped out there. After graduating college, Charles, who was working as a court clerk at the time, went home to sort out the store’s accounts. He found a $14,000 deficit—money Jimmy had stolen from the cash register little by little over the years. In the end, his father had to sell the store to pay off debts and passed away six months later. On the day of the funeral, Jimmy cried bitterly.
Since then, Charles had known Jimmy was kind at heart, but he couldn’t control himself and always needed someone to clean up his mess. This time, Charles said, Kim was that person.
Speaking as a firm leader, Charles believed Kim had a bright future—reviewing documents was a waste of her talent. He offered to mediate with Howard, calm him down, and get Kim’s position restored. Kim smiled softly, feeling a glimmer of hope. But she still didn’t know whether to trust Jimmy or Charles.