Chapter 1

My daughter, Emily Wood, looked at me as if I were her worst enemy.

I sent her to piano lessons, and she said I wanted her to be a show pony for other people's amusement.

When she wanted to meet her online boyfriend in real life, I put my foot down. She accused me of restricting her freedom.

She took home the gold at a piano competition and had a promising future, but during a public interview, she claimed I saw her as a cash cow.

Later, when I had a sudden heart attack, she dumped my medicine down the drain and said I should've been dead long ago.

After my time-traveling, I sold off her pricey piano and stopped paying for her extra lessons.

I watched her tumble from the heights straight into the gutter, completely indifferent.

But she ended up regretting it.

*****

I opened my eyes and saw a message from Emily's piano teacher. [Helen, it's time to pay for Emily's extra lessons this semester. As usual, it's 16 thousand.

[Also, has she been distracted lately? She's been using her phone during lessons, slacking off on practice, and hasn't completed her practice homework for two weeks in a row.

[If she keeps this up, she won't make it into the national piano competition, let alone win.

[Please talk to her when you get a chance and remind her to focus. Her future is on the line.]

I stared at the familiar words on my phone screen, my breath coming a little faster.

In my previous life, I got these same messages.

Back then, I asked Emily what was going on and found out she'd started chatting with a guy she met in an online game, a man ten years older than her, and she was planning to meet up with him offline.

She was still a minor, and getting mixed up with someone online was a recipe for disaster. I wasn't about to let her jump headfirst into that mess.

She threw a fit, threatening that if I didn't let her date, she'd rather die. Then she took a wrench and wrecked the piano I'd bought for her.

That piano cost nearly 30 thousand. It was a gift for her sixteenth birthday.

Of course, I didn't give in.

I shelled out a fortune to repair the piano, made her uninstall the game, paid for her extra lessons, and watched over her practice every single day.

Thanks to her hard work and persistence, she took home the gold at the piano competition six months later, caught the attention of several judges, and was directly admitted to a prestigious art academy.

Her future looked bright.

Watching her stand there, crowned with success, I felt a surge of pride.

But then, during the post-competition interview, Emily broke down in tears, practically putting me on trial as she exposed all my supposed crimes.

She said I was the one she hated most.

She claimed I made her learn piano to parade her on stage for other people's amusement.

She said I drove her dad and grandma away, keeping her from the people she loved most.

She said I wouldn't let her chase after true love, and forced her to break up with her boyfriend by threatening to end my life.

She said I was dirt poor, so I pinned all my hopes on her, trying to turn her into nothing but a cash cow.

Her voice was rough and broken, and the reporters couldn't help but feel for her.

When I saw the interview on TV, I got so mad that I had a heart attack right then and there.

Emily was standing right next to me. She dumped all my medicine down the drain, her face full of spite and the thrill of payback, as she'd finally gotten her revenge.

"Why bother with medicine? You should've died ages ago." Those were the last words I heard before I time-traveled.

My soul hovered overhead, watching as she sobbed while calling 911. They rushed me away, but it was already too late.

In front of the cameras, her tears moved countless viewers.

The prestigious art academy she was admitted to made a rare exception, waiving all her tuition fees and granting her a scholarship of 60 thousand dollars a year.

A famous pianist announced he wanted to take her in as his goddaughter, promising to send her abroad for further study.

Soon after, she reunited with her father after years apart, sharing their closeness online and receiving waves of blessings from netizens.

But as for me, netizens said my death was well-deserved, that punishment had finally come full circle.

My ashes were casually buried in a dilapidated cemetery on the city's outskirts. Whenever netizens visited from all over, they'd spit on my grave as a way to mark their visit.

My husband cheated on me, and we got divorced. I was so afraid Emily would get bullied by his mistress that I walked away with nothing to make sure I got custody of her.

I worked a full-time job during the day and took on two more part-time gigs at night, all to pay for her piano lessons.

I was terrified her talent would go to waste, so I spent a fortune hiring the best teacher I could find.

I poured years of sweat and tears into raising her up to the stars, only for her to turn around and grind me into the dirt. The mother-daughter bond meant nothing.

I typed out a reply to the piano teacher. [I'm sorry, but I won't be paying for Emily's extra piano lessons for the second half of the year. If she still wants to keep learning, her dad can handle it.]

Since she never cared about everything I did for her and treated me like her enemy, so be it. This time, I was giving her freedom back.