I only had to be patient in exactly the way they could not be, to sit still and keep the record while their own impatience did my work for me.

My grandfather had been right about them to the last decimal.

He had known they would not be able to help themselves, and he had built his whole quiet strategy around the certainty that greed, given enough rope and enough time, always hangs itself.

Chapter 12 — The Family Meeting

Three days later they summoned me to a “family meeting” at the house, and I understood the summons for what it was — a last attempt to intimidate the quiet one back into her place before things went any further.

So I dressed for it.