Elena Morales came to see me three days later, after Wayne gave her my business contact information with her permission.

She wore a clean work jacket embroidered with the name of her steel company and carried a ledger so worn that the corners had curled.

“I don’t want charity,” she said before she sat.

“I want to be paid for work we did.”

I told her I was not personally the contracting company and could not promise payment on its behalf.

But I wanted to understand why the invoices had been marked paid and whether an independent receiver could prioritize verified obligations.