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"I don't understand, Momma. Why do you need

this?"

"Insurance," she said taking the papers back,

obviously not pleased with my confusion. She

restored them to her wall safe. After she closed it, she

turned back to me. "There is no man in the world I

would trust. Absolutely none. I thought I had taught

you that."

"But aren't you in love with Tony?"

"Of course, I'm in love with him. What's that

got to do with it?"

"But if you're in love, why do you need such a

contract?" was still dumbfounded.

"Honestly, Leigh. For an A-plus student, you act so stupid sometimes. I told you . . never trust a man, no matter what. I love Tony and he loves me, but that doesn't mean that some time later on, he might not do something to displease me or manufacture something I supposedly did to displease him, just so he could get his way with me. This is insurance," she said pointing to the safe. "He knows he can't send me packing without losing half of what

he has and that helps to keep a man under control. "I wanted to show you this now to make you

feel better about the future. You will have everything

now, Leigh. You don't have anything to worry about

anymore."

"But wasn't Tony upset when you asked for

this?"

"He was, but he loves me so much, he

swallowed whatever bad feelings he had about it," she

said proudly. "That's why I love him--I'm the most

important thing in his life. Understand?"

I didn't know what to say. I had thought love

meant trust. Were you really in love if you had to

have lawyers and judges looking over your shoulders? "So, now that you know everything, you can be

happy, too," she said. "Come on. We've got to get

back to the reception. I've instructed the servants to hand out the Tatterton memento now and I want to see the looks on the faces of the guests when they each

receive one.