Chapter 2

I exhaled slowly and got up, taking a look around.

In my previous life, before the divorce, this was the house I shared with my daughter, my husband, and his mother.

Right now, Emily was at school, my husband, Richard Wood, was away on a business trip, and his mother, Harper Wood, was out shopping with her friends, still not back yet.

The house wasn't big, with three bedrooms and a living room.

Harper had her room, Emily had hers, and the third room was basically Emily's study and music room, filled with her piano and books.

Richard was always busy with work, traveling for business, and was rarely home.

When he did come back, he'd sleep in Harper's room, and she'd move in with Emily to share the biggest bed in the house.

As for me, I slept on the pull-out sofa in the living room.

During the day, it was a regular sofa, and at night, I'd pull it out to sleep on. It made me feel like I didn't belong here at all, like some outsider in my own home.

My personal space was squeezed down to a tiny corner behind a cabinet door in the piano room.

Even so, Emily always complained that my stuff was taking up too much space and wanted to toss all my clothes out.

The house was our joint property, and after Richard cheated, it should've been mine alone.

But Richard and his mistress were sly as foxes, and Harper kept stirring the pot.

To get custody of Emily, I had to give up the house and leave with nothing, moving us into a tiny rental near her school.

Emily never stopped fighting with me about it.

She kept saying the house was always meant to be Richard's, and that if I wanted a divorce, I should've left on my own instead of making her suffer with me.

She was always accusing me of pocketing the child support and never giving her enough spending money. But the truth was, Richard never paid a dime in child support.

She thought I was keeping her away from Richard because I was afraid he'd take her away from me.

But honestly, I didn't want her to see Richard and his mistress living it up, finally getting the son they'd been desperate for, while she was nothing but an afterthought to them.

Ever since she was little, she believed Richard was the best dad ever, and she liked Harper simply because she was his mom.

But she had no clue that Richard and his mother had always been disappointed in me for giving them a daughter instead of a son to continue their bloodline.

But my good intentions were always twisted into something ugly.

I devoted half my life to Emily, and in the end, all I got in return was misunderstanding and blame. It was sad and absurd.

But lucky for me, I time-traveled. This time, I finally get to choose how I want to live.

I called the music store, registered the new piano for resale, and got ready to sell it at a discount.

In my previous life, I spent all my hard-earned savings to buy Emily a new piano.

Her old piano was so worn out, always going out of tune, and no matter how many times I had it repaired, it never got any better.

In six months, she'd be competing in the national piano competition, her one shot at a breakthrough. I couldn't let a broken-down piano bury her musical talent.

But she smashed the gift I'd carefully chosen. Well, if she didn't want it, I would take it back for myself.

Just then, Emily came home from school, backpack slung over her shoulder.

She was all smiles, her voice sweet as honey as she flirted into her phone, "I'm home. See you later, Babe."

But the moment she saw me, her smile vanished in an instant, her eyes full of disgust.

I was standing in the piano room when she saw me and yelled, "What are you doing here, Helen? Are you here to spy on me playing piano again? Don't you ever get tired of being so creepy?

"I've told you a million times, I don't want to play the piano. I hate it. I don't want to. Why do you always force me to play that crappy piano?

"Other parents are so cool about stuff. Why can't you be? When other kids get home from school, they get to do whatever they want, watch TV, read novels, and play games.

"I have to practice every single day, and if I want to play a bit more at night, you're always on my case to go to bed."

Even though I'd already decided to stop caring about Emily, her words felt like knives stabbing into my heart, a pain I couldn't shake off, no matter how hard I tried.

I remembered how, when she was little, she told me she wanted to be a pianist someday, her eyes full of dreams and longing.

Richard never wanted to spend that much on her, and Harper always called her nothing but a useless girl.

I was the only one who, despite all the blame from the family, spent a fortune to send her to piano lessons, to help her make her dream come true.

And now she claimed she hated it, saying I forced her to play.

I only asked her to practice for an hour every night, so she'd be ready for the national piano competition. Did that really mean I was stealing her freedom?

Pushing her to practice more, aiming for a prestigious university was all for her sake.

She'd stay up gaming until two in the morning, then have to drag herself out of bed at six for school. Was I really the villain for telling her to stop and get some sleep?

By now, I wasn't angry anymore. I was completely numb, my heart gone cold.

I said calmly, "You're right. From now on, I won't make you practice piano anymore."