The only reason anyone put up with her at all was that she controlled a substantial portion of Thorn Industries, which her brother Reginald had given her in a rare moment of irresponsible generosity. As a consequence, she had always been able to live quite comfortably, and had never become a live-in burden to any of her relatives. The fact that she controlled so much stock did not present much of a problem as long as she was alive, since she took no interest whatsoever in the running of the company. But when she did die, which might conceivably be soon, given the simple fact of her advanced age, she could cause a bit of a stir if she chose to do something unreasonable with her share of the business. She could, in fact, tip the whole balance of authority in the company if she so decided.

Aunt Marion knew she was not well liked, not that she minded. She'd never been popular. She was rarely invited to anyone's home for dinner, not even by her own relatives on the most traditional family holidays.

But this year, Aunt Marion had something very specific and very important to say, so she had swallowed her pride and her dignity and had invited herself to Richard Thorn's for the Thanksgiving weekend.

***