My attorney corrected one thing immediately: I could not personally slap a mechanic’s lien on the building simply because I had paid for renovations. I had already paid the contractors, and lien rights depended on state law and who performed the work. What I did have was $58,700 worth of invoices, bank transfers, messages from Emmett calling the apartment “ours,” and photographs showing exactly how much value my money had added to property controlled by his family’s trust.
...
