In my previous life, after I got divorced, the court awarded me custody of our newborn son, as he was still nursing.

On the other hand, our daughter would live with my ex-husband.

I raised my son to be humble and polite. He was admitted to MIT.

On the day the results were announced, various media outlets rushed to interview me to ask about my parenting secrets.

Meanwhile, my daughter dropped out of school and eloped with a hooligan. She got pregnant before she was even sixteen, becoming a negative example of teenage delinquency. At thirty, she was still sponging off her father, having achieved nothing in life.

My ex-husband's dream of having a successful daughter was shattered, much to his shame.

He came to confront me at my son's college acceptance party. He insisted that I had passed on bad genes to our daughter, which caused her failure.

During the argument, he stabbed me in the chest and then jumped to his death.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the courtroom on the day of the child custody ruling.

This time, my ex-husband spoke before I could, asking the judge to grant him custody of our son.

I immediately realized he too had been reborn.

My chest was still aching faintly when I heard the sharp sound of the gavel echoing through the courtroom.

"Both parties, please state your reasons for seeking custody!"

Before I could fully grasp what was happening, I heard the familiar voice of my ex-husband, Jason Langford.

"Your Honor! I have a job and a stable source of income. I can provide my son with the best education and environment! I request the court to grant me his custody!"

I looked at my son, crying in the audience, at my daughter whose eyes were red, and at my agitated ex-husband, and suddenly, everything clicked into place.

I was reborn!

I was reborn to the day I was in court with my ex-husband fighting for custody!

After hearing what Jason said, the judge hesitated.

"Shawn Langford is less than a hundred days old and has not reached the age to be weaned from breastfeeding. The court recommends that his custody be given to the mother, Luna Combs, while Anna Langford, who is six years old, be in the custody of the father, Jason Langford."

Hearing the judge say the exact same words I heard in my previous life made my thoughts drift to the past.

I had resigned from my job after marrying Jason to become a full-time housewife. Considering that I would have to take care of my son, who was still breastfeeding, I had followed the court's advice in my previous life and reluctantly gave up custody of my six-year-old daughter to my ex-husband.

I never could have imagined that my daughter would go astray under Jason's care. She gave birth when she should have been in school, ruining her life.

At my son's college admission party when he was eighteen, the local media came to interview us.

Jason, unable to bear the shame, came to confront me during the celebration. He insisted that I had given all the good genes to our son, which was why our daughter had become the way she was.

Driven by extreme emotions, he stabbed me to death.

Memories from my past life made me shudder.

Since the heavens had given me a chance to live again, I would definitely change the outcome this time. I would not stand by and watch my daughter go astray!

Meanwhile, Jason was still arguing, saying that he could hire a nutritionist for Shawn and that he could deliver fresh milk from New Zealand by air to replace breastfeeding, so it would be no worse than being raised by his biological mother.

The judge sighed helplessly. He signaled for silence, then asked for my thoughts.

Under Jason's eager gaze, I nodded to the judge.

"I can let Jason have custody of Shawn, but he must guarantee that he will never see Anna outside of the legally mandated visitation times."

As soon as I said that, Jason chuckled.

"You think too highly of yourself, Luna! She's got trashy genes—she'll never be anything more than the gutter trash she is! Forget the legally mandated visitation times, I don't even want to see her again after this!" said Jason while looking at my daughter.

My daughter silently lowered her head, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Although she was only six years old, I knew that her mind and her emotional intelligence were much more mature than those of her peers. Although she couldn't fully understand what Jason had just said, she knew one thing:

Her father hated her!

In order to prevent Jason from saying anything that would upset my daughter further, I signed the legal documents as quickly as possible and led my daughter out of the courthouse.

Outside the courthouse door, Jason looked at me triumphantly while holding Shawn in his arms.

"Luna, I know you were reborn too. I can't believe you chose to raise Anna this time! Since you passed on all the inferior genes to her, raising her is your punishment! Don't worry, this time, I'll definitely raise Shawn to be an outstanding child. Meanwhile, you can become the laughingstock of the community with Anna!"

With that, Jason turned and left.

I held my sobbing daughter in my arms and shook my head as Jason walked away.

If there really was a genetic problem with the children as Jason said, then the defective one should be our son, Shawn!

I will always remember how naughty and unruly my son was in my previous life.

At the age of three, he pushed a female classmate down the slide in kindergarten and abused the neighbor's pet cat.

He was also a habitual liar. He often pushed blame onto others and shirked responsibility...

I beat him and scolded him, but he wouldn't change.

At the age of six, he pushed the neighbor's daughter into the swimming pool on purpose, almost killing her.

After that day, I realized that I had to do something.

If I didn't, Shawn would eventually grow into a problematic teenager who would cause harm to others.

I decided to take Shawn back to the countryside and spend a year educating him in all aspects of his thoughts and behavior.

At first, he would not listen and often ran away from home, so I asked the local hooligans I had contacted in advance to intercept him. When they caught him, they would beat him up.

It must be said that when dealing with naughty children, social education is sometimes more effective than parental guidance.

After a few beatings, Shawn was finally willing to listen to me, and his temperament also improved a lot.

I worked hard to help him grow from a troublemaker into an excellent student with good character and learning habits.

But when Shawn grew up, he didn't appreciate my efforts.

He often exaggerated when he told his classmates and teachers about his childhood, portraying me as an extreme and foul-tempered mother.

Every time I saw him post things like [A broken family is the cause of lifelong trauma] on his social media, I felt sad and heartbroken.

But when I saw that admission letter from MIT, I felt that all the efforts were worth it.

It didn't matter if my son hated me as long as he was successful. I believed he would definitely understand my good intentions one day.

But I did not live to see that day. I was stabbed to death by Jason during the celebration.

Since Jason was so sure in both my past and present lives that my genes were the problem, let's see how he would raise Shawn, who was problematic since he was a child.

"Mommy, did Daddy divorce you because he didn't like me?"

On the way home, my daughter, who had remained silent the whole time, couldn’t help but voice her inner doubt.

"If Daddy doesn't like me, I can go to an orphanage. Can you and Daddy get back together then?"

"Don’t be silly!"

My heart ached as I looked at my daughter. I couldn't understand how such a considerate and sensible child became a rebellious delinquent in my previous life.

"It's not your fault. This is between Daddy and me. It has nothing to do with you."

My daughter nodded as if she understood, but her hesitant look pricked at my heart like a thorn.

I knew that if I wanted to raise my daughter well, I first needed a stable source of income.

I recalled that in my previous life, I had found a job through a referral from an old coworker that allowed me to support Shawn independently.

I took out my phone and was about to send a text to my old coworker when I received a message from a mutual friend. It contained a screenshot of an announcement Jason made on social media.

I did not know if it was because Jason had successfully won custody, but he remarried earlier than in my previous life.

In the picture, Jason held his new marriage certificate in one hand and his new wife, Rachel White, in the other, grinning widely.

I had seen this photo in my previous life too.

The difference was that, this time, there was a girl about Anna's age standing next to Rachel. She seemed to be Rachel's daughter.

The girl glared at Shawn with intense dislike.

My intuition told me that my daughter must have been bullied when she lived with them in my previous life.

Before I could think further, I received a call from Jason.

I answered, confused. On the other end of the phone, Jason's voice sounded smug.

"I'm having a double celebration today. Don't be too jealous!"

I was about to hang up when I suddenly heard the cry of a baby from the other end.

Then came a girl's sharp scolding.

"All you do is cry! You're so noisy! If you don't stop crying, I'll choke you to death!"

My heart sank.

I felt like my guess earlier was instantly confirmed.

"Jason, is Shawn being bullied?"

Jason denied impatiently, "Don't be so sensitive! The kids are just playing around. Cindy is just joking with Shawn. My son inherited my excellent genes, so everyone loves him. Cindy likes him so much, there's no way she would bully him."

I wanted to say something more, but he abruptly hung up.

Forget it!

I already owed my daughter a lot in my previous life.

This time, I only wanted to take care of my daughter and myself!

Three years had passed since my divorce, and it was the third year since I had re-entered the workforce.

The project I was in charge of made the company a lot of money.

With the project bonus, I signed my daughter up for the piano and dance classes she had always wanted to take.

After being reborn, I paid great attention to my daughter's material and psychological needs.

I didn't want her to be easily moved by a boy's cheap concern in the future due to the lack of family love and the lack of material and psychological fulfillment.

To my surprise, I saw Jason again for the first time in three years at the entrance of the youth activity center.

Jason was also surprised to see me and Anna. Noticing my daughter's practice clothes, he scoffed and said, "You sure are willing to spend money on her, Luna! These extracurricular classes aren't cheap. Are you really trying to make something out of trash?"

Jason's cutting words made my daughter swallow the word "Daddy" that she was about to call out.

She looked at Jason in confusion, not understanding why her father disliked her.

With a frown, I warned him seriously, "Jason, Anna is your daughter too! Even if you don't like her, you don't have to talk about her like that!"

I had been constantly educating Anna about Jason in the last three years.

I feared that the sensitive Anna would trap herself in the mindset of "how to make her father like her", leading to her acting obedient in order to please him.

Therefore, the first thing I taught her was to accept that her father didn't love her.

Accepting that a parent may not love you is a problem many adults can't solve.

But I wanted Anna to know that she didn't have to please anyone or stand for unprovoked malice.

Anna had grown a lot in the past three years, in all aspects.

Now, hearing Jason's malicious remark, she only showed a brief disappointment before telling Jason righteously, "I'm not trash! I'm Mommy's daughter, Anna Combs!"

"You even changed her surname!"

Jason snorted and continued, "Luna, since we were married for seven years, let me give you a piece of advice. Some children will always be inferior because of their genes. They're hopeless! No matter how hard you try to educate and cultivate them, you'll only end up raising an ungrateful wretch! Be careful, or you might end up raising a pregnant teenage girl who doesn't respect herself and runs away with a hooligan!"

I couldn't stand that smug face anymore. I raised my arm to slap him.

But my action was suddenly interrupted by a child's voice.

"Mommy?"

It was Shawn, the son whom I hadn't seen for three years.

Jason warily picked him up.

"I'm warning you, Luna, the court awarded me custody of Shawn. Don't even think about abducting my genius son!"

That was the reason why Jason had been preventing me from visiting Shawn for the past three years.

The current Shawn was no different from the way he looked in my memory. He had an innocent face, beautiful round eyes, and a mouth that was adept at telling lies.

I suddenly had a bad feeling. What was Jason doing at the youth activity center with Shawn?

Hearing my question, Jason smiled confidently.

"What else? For classes, of course! My son inherited the best genes from me, so he's way smarter than other kids his age! I heard there's a new programming class at the youth activity center, so I brought him here to enroll. My son will be going straight to MIT in the future, so he must start learning these skills from a young age!"

I was shocked.

"Shawn is only three years old! Jason, are you crazy?!"