By his own reckoning, Arthur Black had done vastly more for everyone in this room than they’d ever done for him. In the nine years he’d been at th... helm of the team managing the assets of the Grayson-Stone Trust, his patronage had paid for dozens of houses, boats, sports cars, mistresses, second wives, third wives, dominatrixes, and God-knew-what-else for the men in this room.Sipping from the glass of single-malt Scotch he’d been handed and thinking about the speech he’d prepared in advance,. I started to cry. My eyes were filled with tears when my three four legged husbands were paraded in front of me by the three brothers and introduced.I didn’t bother to listen to their names. I could see they were German Shepherds. Big dogs. Weighing between 80 and 100 pounds I guessed. Their hair was Gray. They looked alike and probably from the same litter. They had been brought in on leashes, just like mine. With collars. Just like mine. Now they were unleashed. They were excited, they knew. The current situation provided far more than time – it provided purpose. With that firmly in mind, she focused all her attention on the spidery words, determined that she would conquer her nemesis and find the way home. ** Thakkor sat up in the bed the next morning and sighed as he looked at his wife next to him. She was frowning in her sleep, the mirror image of the expression she’d worn most of the day as she battled her spellbook. He’d barely managed to convince her to eat, and had to take. ” Then she reached for the intercom on her desk and pressed the button, “Melanie, didn’t you tell Mr. Webber that he now works in the cubicles downstairs?” Her words were greeted with silence, and so she glanced at her wall clock. ‘Damn! Of course she’s gone home for the day,’ she thought as she remembered that she had told her Secretary she could go home earlier. “Um… That’s kind of what I’m here about if you’ll just hear me …… he never got to complete the sentence before she shut him up..