MEL M.

I’m engaged, and my fiancé recently found out I own a small apartment that my parents helped me buy years ago. It’s in my name, fully paid off. I’ve always seen it as my safety net. Now he’s asking me to sell it after we get married so we can “invest together” and put everything into a house under both our names. He says keeping it means I’m planning for a future without him. But I don’t see it that way. I see it as something I built before him, something that protects me no matter what happens. And now I feel guilty for wanting to keep it.