Chapter 1

After years of grinding it out, I finally became the female lead in a TV series. But at the launch party, my father suddenly burst in and slapped me hard across the face.

With everyone staring in shock, he said, his voice full of grief, "Willow Delgado, I raised you all these years to be an actress, not a slut."

"You slept your way to the lead role. You've dragged my old face through the mud."

"I saw it with my own eyes out there, you draped all over one older man after another."

I covered my cheek and cried, wounded. "I didn't do anything. I just shook hands and made polite toasts."

My father spat. "Shameless thing. Pawing at men in front of everyone. God knows what you get up to in private."

An actor from the cast tried to reason with him. "Stop this. Slander like that against Willow, if it gets out, it'll destroy her career."

My father sneered. "Can a career built on being a slut ever last? I'm teaching her to walk the straight path, so she can go further."

He said to me, hard and final, "You are going to confess and apologize on a livestream in front of everyone, and swear to live cleanly from now on."

Later, I was branded a slut.

I lost everything, got cyber-bullied, got disfigured...

My father was eaten alive by regret, kneeling and begging me to forgive him. But I looked at him like a stranger.

......

"Get down on your knees, now!"

My father's roar exploded next to my ear.

In front of everyone, he was forcing me to kneel.

The whole banquet hall went silent.

The crew set down their chopsticks and stared at my father in disbelief.

And the entertainment reporters swung their cameras toward us.

A lot of these reporters had actually been hired by my father.

I'd started out as an extra, fought for years, and finally landed a lead. No one was happier than he was.

So he'd paid to bring the reporters in, wanting them to give me a real write-up.

What I never expected was that he'd come storming in halfway through, slap me, and force me to my knees.

This glorious launch party, my father had turned into a party of my humiliation.

Seeing that I hadn't moved, my father kicked me hard.

I couldn't keep my footing and went down.

Bitterness rose in my chest.

Ever since I was little, I'd been his pride, a pretty face, good at singing and dancing. He loved taking me around to relatives and friends to show me off.

He was always telling people I was a born star, that one day I'd be famous.

But at the same time, he believed in spare the rod and spoil the child, that beating was the only way to make something of a person.

The slightest defiance from me, and he'd tear into me, curse me lower than a dog.

He slapped my face and forced me to kneel again and again.

Sometimes in front of relatives, sometimes even out on the street.

He ground my dignity down bit by bit, stamped it into the dirt, and still told me it was for my own good, that he was teaching me self-respect.

After I made it into the industry, he only grew more sure of himself, certain his harsh discipline had paid off.

From then on, he was even stricter with me.

But this time, I didn't want to give in to him anymore.

I'd grown up. I wanted to live for myself, just once.

So I said, steady and clear, "I didn't do anything wrong. I won't kneel."

My father's eyes went red with rage, and he stared at me with a face full of grief. "You've grown up, grown your wings, and now you want to throw yourself away, is that it?"

"Fine. You did nothing wrong, so I'm the one at fault. You won't kneel, so I will."

He suddenly pulled out his phone and, with practiced ease, opened a livestream.

Then he knelt down in front of the camera, slapping his own face over and over. "I failed to raise my daughter right. I deserve to die. I didn't raise her well."

"I sent her to study the arts, and she became a slut. I'm useless!"