I thought I posted this before, guess not.
So when you lend the money to your aunt, did you guys have anything written down which can help you out when time needed to go to court? ( I know it's your family, but still. It's 10k.)
For those of you, in the future which "maybe" will lend money to one of your relatives, write the term down!!!!
I'm borrowing around 10-30k from family members, but I have to write it down on a personal guarantee that need to be payback with low interest. I know a lot of asian people say's, "oh their family members, you know family member always got your back." I call that half bullshit. When your stuck financially, only your parent going to help you out. Rest is there to give you spirit support. If you don't want to lose money, then always write down a personal loan term. Also usually when people in the family come to ask you for money, ask them about their current finance. What's their wages, what's their spending, and how are they going to pay you back ect? You need to go into detail. It's your hard earn money, you need to protect it.
Good luck John, Hope your aunt do pay you back on this. From my understanding of few guys I heard, most of them never talk to that relative again.