The Paris Lawyer by Sylvie Granotier

Author:Sylvie Granotier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: legal procedural, psychological thriller, France, suspense, lawyer, Paris, prize-winning fiction
Publisher: Le French Book
Published: 2014-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

24

His young dozing wife extends her face, warm like a croissant just out of the oven, for a good-bye kiss. She puckers her lips like a child before settling deeper into her pillow. He tiptoes down the steps to avoid disturbing her further.

Violet emerges from the steamy bathroom, Catherine’s plump body wrapped in a large towel, her hair, golden down, standing up like the feathers on a fledgling.

“Look what I found in the woods today!”

“Oh, the pretty little boy.”

The little girl giggles, shaking her head.

“In any case, you did the right thing bringing her back to the house. She is very cute. What is her name? Grumpy?”

“Noooo,” Catherine cries out.

“Kate,” her mother says, “Pretty girl Kate.”

She sticks the small, round wiggly body in his arms as she goes to find pajamas in the dresser. He tries to be tender, something he feels intensely but still has trouble conveying with his touch.

He envies the little girl’s trusting abandon, her way of snuggling against him, her head on his shoulder, how she grabs his hair, rolling it around her finger to examine it closely, then letting it go and pressing her cheek against her father’s, forcefully, passionately, and then smothering him with hugs.

He hates that he feels relieved when he hands their daughter back to her mother; she is so much more at ease. He thinks that is the purpose of maternity, of nine months of being one with a child, enough time to overcome all forms of shyness.

He looks at them—his wife, his daughter, the perfect representation of happiness.

He says to himself that he is lucky. He is happy that he has the prettiest woman on earth and that she has chosen to leave everything behind her to build her happiness with him, in a relationship of total trusting dependence.

He says to himself that they do not need anyone else. Theirs is a small, self-sufficient unit.

Why does life give you the rarest, most exquisite dishes to taste, just to whisk them away from you?

On April 12, 1988, it looks like it is going to rain all afternoon. The sky is nothing but a compact black block that is advancing like the front lines of an army. And then the enormous block breaks apart, leaving thick clouds in its place.

The doctor does his rounds in the afternoon, as he does every other day. More specifically, he is with one of his oldest and favorite patients, Melanie Rondeix. He changes a bandage, makes sure the wound is healing properly, and gives her the day’s news. Roland’s cow took off once again, and, as usual, stopped in the middle of the road as soon as the first car came by, creating an absurd traffic jam on a road where so few people ever travel. And Michelon’s daughter tried to run away but was found at the train station, waiting for a train to Paris. She didn’t have a ticket or any money. She wants to be an actress in the capital, all because her

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.