frog & fog (6)
After graduating from Harvard University at the age of twenty-four, Charlie Bonaparte easily became a lawyer at Channing Law Firm.
This was largely thanks to the support of his wife, Ellen Channing, the daughter of a legal scholar from Connecticut. He had easily gained admission to an Ivy League school, something nearly impossible for most ordinary people, and they had married before Charlie began working at the law firm.
For a top law firm, the most important things were not revenue, but its reputation, the high-quality clients it could provide, and the presence of renowned lawyers.
Charlie Bonaparte met every requirement. Coupled with Channing's capable management, Channing Law Firm had been in business for over a hundred years since opening in 1860. It had offices in major cities around the world, handling everything from corporate mergers and acquisitions, real estate, trade, finance, and overseas infrastructure projects to marriage law.
What else could divorcing couples do? Divide their property, of course. For respectable people, the fewer who knew of such a scandal, the better. The lawyers handling cases at Channing Law Firm worked in a new town in Paris's western suburbs, while clients were received in a neoclassical house in the city center. The mistress of the house was a hospitable Spanish art broker. Not every couple came to this house to handle divorce proceedings; some came to buy paintings, and occasionally she held exhibitions for one or two emerging artists. Every now and then, one or two young artists became the culprits who broke up other people's families. At such times, her husband provided legal assistance. They truly were an unusual couple.
The old Slytherin bat's pale, waxy face was so expressionless that it seemed to warn strangers away, but the apartment's doorman had seen even