Because really, isn’t that what power is? A middle-aged Rumpelstiltskin, jumping up and down, visibly out of breath, swinging on a chandelier, and no one daring to laugh. A grown man so cross with an oil painting of an old lady he looks as if he is about to burst the buttons off his shirt, and nobody daring to suggest he might be overreacting just a little.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1)

Importance: Nikki believes that it is the power that Ned holds over people that allows him to behave any way he sees fit. Nikki is responsible for trying to smooth over Ned’s tantrums without upsetting him worse.

In other words: either Adam Groom told his brother Ned by the end of this weekend that he was quitting, that he wanted to be bought out of his share in the Home Group, that a working partnership that had lasted a quarter of a...
-- Narrator (Chapter 1)