Ximena and I spent the rest of the reception quietly collecting copies of everything the vendors had on file: the photocopied license, the signatures that were supposed to be mine, email instructions from Loretta, and invoices totaling far more than $34,700. I called the card issuers, disputed accounts I had never opened, and asked each vendor to preserve its records. The catering manager handled the immediate balance directly with the people who had actually booked the event, and my son and Odile finished their wedding without knowing any of this was happening.
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