Chapter 3

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 a wild hen! 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?!"