**Diary Entry**
I gave my daughter a flat as a wedding gift. Only later did I realise what a terrible mistake Id made.
I had a wonderful wifebeautiful, loving, clever. We spent twenty-three years together, the happiest of my life. But recently, a dreadful illness took her from me. Together, wed raised our daughter, Emily.
While my wife was still alive, she suggested we buy another flat to rent out for extra income. My pension was barely enough to scrape by, but she insisted property was always a safe bet. “The money will come in steadily,” she said. “And if times get hard, we can always sell.” Emily, our daughter, was old enough to sort her own living arrangements by then.
When Emily accepted her boyfriends marriage proposal, I gave them the second flat as a wedding present so they wouldnt have to rent. But I soon regretted it deeply. Id always thought my daughter had a good head on her shouldersuntil she did *this*.
The moment I signed the flat over to her, she sold it and bought a brand-new Mercedes with the money.
“Where will you live now, Emily?” I asked.
“Oh, Dad, well easily save up for another place,” she said breezily. “For now, well rent. James and I have always dreamed of owning a nice car. Weve even got a few thousand left, so were flying to Spainwe deserve a proper holiday!”
To say I was stunned would be an understatement. And did that car last long? Of course not. Three months later, my son-in-law crashed it, turning it into scrap metal. At least Emily wasnt hurt. Then she found out James had been seeing another woman and left him.
Now she had no choice but to move back in with mehaving lost her husband, the flat, and the car.
