Chapter 21

Carl Samples knocked on the door a little before seven o'clock. When he saw Amy he threw his arms around her and kissed her. He held her for a while talking to her.

Brad tapped him on the shoulder, "Excuse me, I thought you were here on business, not to man-handle my wife."

Carl turned and smiled at him, "I don't hear her complaining."

He kissed Amy one more time, "Really Amy, as much as I enjoy this, I have to get these papers signed and get home. Betty is going to serve me my head. I left the house early this morning to prepare for court. Anyway congratulations on your wedding and I hope you know what you've gotten into. You know, I've had to get him out of jail many times for beating women."

Brad glared at him, "I thought you promised to never tell her about that."

They all laughed and Brad suggested that they go into the office.

Carl had Amy sit at the desk and reached for his briefcase and pulled out a thick stack of papers. Most had the blue cover page that lawyers liked to use to protect the documents. He sat the stack of papers on his lap and told her that Brad had instructed him what he wanted her to sign and that most of the paperwork was what a husband and wife needed to sign if they owned property.

"Is the pre-nuptial agreement in there?"

Carl shuffled his papers and hesitantly said that Brad had arranged that. He started shoving papers in front of her explaining that there were so many because of the duplicates. As soon as she signed one Carl would take it from her and shove another in front of her. Often he told her that this one was just a duplicate of the previous one she had signed. Amy would quite often say that she had a cramp in her hand and didn't know how many more she could sign. Carl always told her, that she just had to sign a few more.

Finally all of the papers were signed and Carl sorted out their copies and sat them on the desk. He got up and said that he really had to leave.

"I've been neglecting Betty a lot for the past few months and I have to figure someway to make it up to her. I asked her if she wanted to spend some time at your lodge, but she told me that I'm not getting off that easy, that this lack of attention was going to cost me."

As he started out the door he turned and told Brad that everything was ready for Sunday and that Joseph had insisted on catering the affair himself and that he threatened Carl with bodily harm if he tried to pay for any part of it. Amy looked at Brad, not knowing what he was talking about.

After Carl was out the door she turned to him, "What's this about Sunday."

"I have invited all of my friends and all of your friends that I know and invited them to a cookout here at the house Sunday. I want to introduce my beautiful wife to the world and I intend to let the world know how lucky I am. I made Carl keep it to himself so that you and I could make the announcement together. I made him promise to keep it a secret even from Betty. Carl left the list of people that he invited on the desk. You'll have to go over the list and see if there's anyone else that you want to invite."

"The only one that I would really insist on being there would be Carol. You know she's going to be jealous. She has a gigantic crush on you."

They went to the patio and sat, enjoying the summer evening. It wouldn't be dark for a while and the temperature wasn't too high.

"What did I sign this evening. The papers were coming so fast and furious that I didn't have a chance to read them."

"Well, basically you will be my slave for the rest of your life. You agreed that you will be my main wife and that you will treat all of my other wives kindly. You agreed to call me master whenever you address me and to agree with every word I say."

She glared at him, "First off, don't even think about another woman. I intend to keep you well satisfied. Second, I know that you would never ask me to be a slave to you. Third, I love you very much and if I thought that is what you really wanted I would do it."

She stuck her tongue out at him, "But I'd make sure that you regretted taking any more wives though."

Brad got up and picked up the stack of papers on the desk and brought them back to her. He sorted them in the order that he wanted her to see them.

"Where is the pre-nuptial agreement? I'd like to see what it says about those other wives."

He stared at the papers for a minute, "Well now, that's a problem. Amy, I couldn't do that to you. I'm not that type of person. If I thought that I needed something like that to protect me, I wouldn't have married you. Let's review these papers and I think you'll see where my head is."

He handed her the first document, "This transfers fifty percent of the stock in Pittson Development Corporation to you and makes you Chief Operating Officer. If you ever leave me, we'll have to cut all of the buildings in half. This one document makes you pretty wealthy in your own right."