When I opened my eyes again, I was wrapped in a warm embrace.

Did I… time travel?

As I tried to make sense of it, I looked up and met a pair of gentle, loving eyes.

Xena?

She looked exhausted but had a motherly tenderness about her. Yet, that face belonged to the very same Xena who had been my worst nightmare!

“Oh, my sweet baby! You’re my precious little darling.”

I stared at her in shock, my eyes wide with disbelief.

Her voice was filled with warmth, but I felt a chill run down my spine. Memories of her tormenting me at school replayed in my mind like a horror movie.

I struggled frantically in her arms, my tiny hands reaching out to poke her eyes, but I was too small to reach.

Startled by my desperate movements, Xena gasped, “Oh no, don’t be scared, sweetheart!”

Hearing that familiar voice, it suddenly dawned on me.

I had been reborn!

And I was now Xena’s daughter!

“Did the baby pee?” asked a clear, firm voice.

Xena’s face flushed slightly. “Let me check.”

She quickly pulled off the diaper to take a look. “The baby’s fine. No accidents!

“Ah!”

She let out a scream and tossed me onto the hospital bed.

I started wailing immediately.

In a flash, Felix Lincoln rushed over. He scooped me up in his arms and gently soothed me, “It’s okay, don’t cry. Daddy’s here.”

Then he turned to Xena, furious. “What’s wrong with you? Why would you throw her like that?”

Xena pointed at her face in a panic. “She… she peed on me!”

“She’s just a baby. She can’t control herself. But you can, can’t you?

“How are you going to be a mother if you act like this? She’s so little. What if you hurt her? How am I supposed to trust you to take care of her?”

Xena looked both defensive and guilty. “I didn’t mean to!”

Felix’s expression turned cold. “Starting today, I’m cutting off your credit cards. You need to stay home and learn how to properly care for a child. No more shopping sprees, and no going out.”

I glanced at his stern face, then at Xena’s frustrated, teary eyes, and couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction. I burst out giggling.

Who would have thought my dad would be this reliable?

And who would have imagined that Xena, the same girl who was a total nightmare back in school, would be put in her place by her husband. She was not even allowed to spend money freely.

Back in school, Xena was the most defiant person around.

Looking at her now, it seemed like karma had really come back around!

From that point on, Xena’s life became a non-stop cycle of taking care of me around the clock. It was a “wonderful” mix of sleepless nights and constant chaos.

Whenever she tried to sleep, I would start crying. After an hour of her exhausting attempts to soothe me, just when she thought I had settled down, I would wake up screaming again.

When she tried to feed me, I would spit up right in her face.

Any chance I got, I would yank her hair or grab at her face.

I pushed her to the brink. She had hoped to sweet-talk Felix into getting her credit cards back so she could go shopping. But eventually, she was so fed up that she handed me over to the nanny.

The moment the nanny held me, I started crying so loudly it could break everyone’s heart in the whole mansion.

Her mother-in-law, my grandma, stormed in, glaring at her. “Xena! What kind of mother are you? You don’t even want to take care of your own child? If you can’t handle it, then get out of my house!

“Seriously, what kind of useless woman did we let into this family?”

Grumbling under her breath, Grandma rocked me in her arms, and I, of course, stopped crying right away.

I shot Xena a smug smile, and she looked horrified. “Mom! She… she’s a monster!”

Grandma frowned. “That’s your baby. How could she be a monster? Are you out of your mind?”

I squinted, a satisfied grin spreading across my face, and then I closed my eyes dismissively as if to say, “You’ve lost this one.”

“Mom! I’m not making this up! How could a baby have expressions like that?”

Grandma glanced down at me, and I quickly pretended to be asleep.

She glared at Xena. “Enough with the nonsense! Say it again, and I’ll call a therapist for you!

“We never should have let Felix marry you. Look at you—calling your own child a monster just because you want to go shopping?”

She raised her hand and, with a sharp “smack,” slapped Xena across the face.

“That’s for talking nonsense! And that’s for being selfish!

“You little gold digger, you don’t even care about your own kid!”

Xena stared at me with fear in her eyes.

I looked right back at her, letting out a soft, mocking laugh.

Xena, this was just the beginning.