After Years I Became Lead, Dad Called Me Slut

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!"

The livestream chat exploded.

The viewer count climbed and climbed, and within minutes it had passed tens of thousands.

Some people who'd only stumbled in had no idea what was going on, and kept asking: "Who is this? Why is he slapping himself?"

The ones who knew the whole story filled them in: "That's Willow Delgado's dad. Willow slept her way to the top, and it broke him."

It didn't take long. The comments turned on me, all at once.

"Willow Delgado looked like such a good girl. Never thought she'd do something this shameless."

"I actually used to like her acting. When I heard she got the lead, I was excited. Never thought she'd throw herself away like this."

"Good thing her dad's got his head on straight. Discipline her right and maybe there's still hope for her."

Watching the people cursing me multiply, I panicked and lunged to grab his phone.

My father shoved me, and I went down.

He aimed the camera at me and shouted, "So you do know it's shameful?"

"When you were being a slut, you didn't mind the shame then? Now you want your dignity back? Too late!"

He called me a slut, over and over, and I broke down crying.

Bianca Edwards, my agent, hurried over, pulled my father aside, and shut off his phone.

She kept sighing, and said, heartsick, "I brought Willow up myself. I trust who she is."

"Ezra, smearing her like this will destroy her."

"Do you have any idea how long she fought, how much she went through to get this lead?"

The director beside her spoke up too, at a loss. "Mr. Delgado, do you think I took advantage of your daughter?"

He pointed at the woman next to him. "This is my wife. She's been watching me the whole time. You've got it wrong. There's no way I would ever touch her."

"I know you love your daughter, that's why I don't blame you. But I can't stand by and watch you ruin Willow."

"She's come so far, and it wasn't easy. A talent this good, right on the edge of a clear path ahead, and you come in and blow it all up like this."

"Hurry, find some way to explain it to everyone online. Otherwise all of Willow's years of work go down the drain."

But my father wouldn't be moved.

He gave a cold laugh. "If it wasn't you, then it was somebody else."

"I couldn't figure it out, how somebody so young could have people pushing her up this fast."

"Now I understand. She sold her body for it!"

"She used to not even be able to drink. She'd blush at the sight of a stranger. And now look at her, clinking glasses, hanging all over people, carrying herself like some cheap woman!"

"We don't want stolen money, and we don't want a role won by whoring around either."

He seized my arm hard and barked, "Come with me. We're going home."

I stumbled a step and looked back at the poster, unwilling to leave it.

I knew that the moment I walked out, I'd be starting over again.

Worse, I might get blacklisted from the whole industry, and never get another chance.

My father just said, cold, "Still not moving? You really do want the money and none of the shame."

"This role, you're quitting it. There is no room to discuss it with me."

I dropped to my knees crying and said to him, "Dad, this role really matters to me."

"I earned this role through my own hard work. Do you have any idea how much I went through all these years?"

My father slapped me hard across the face. "Hard work? You worked your way into someone's bed, that's what you did!"

Bianca came over and took hold of my father. "Ezra, calm down. You really have Willow wrong. I can promise you that."

But my father pushed her away.

He said to me, "Willow Delgado, you think these people helping you are doing it for your own good?"

"They're all destroying you, is what they're doing."

"You've only just started down the wrong road. Turn back now and it's not too late."

"I'm your father. I can't stand here and watch you go wrong."

"Nobody talking me out of it will work today. You're coming home with me right now, and you'll apologize to the whole internet, confess, and beg everyone to forgive you."

He dragged me home by my hair.

The second we were through the door he threw me down onto the couch. "Think hard about how you're going to apologize to your fans. The people I called will be here any minute."

Ten minutes later, two influencers arrived.

Both were streamers with millions of followers.

The moment they walked in, my father said to them, "This is my daughter. Go ahead and film."

"She slept her way into a role, but I brought her home and made her drop out of the production."

"They say you shouldn't air your dirty laundry, but I'm not afraid to. Owning your mistake is the right thing to do."

"In a little while she's going to apologize to the whole internet. I want you to share it, spread it around, so everyone can see she means it."

The two streamers just stood there.

They stammered out to my father, "Mr. Delgado, we make our living off traffic. The bigger the numbers, the more we earn."

"Which is to say, we're the last people to shy away from a good scandal."

"But this time, we have to say something to you."

"Once this video goes out, your daughter could get hit with a full-on pile-on online."

"She's just starting to make a name for herself in the industry. Raise her right, and she could become a real leading actress someday."

"But if she actually admits to the whole internet that she traded favors for a part, that's it. She's done. No one will ever cast her again."

"Mr. Delgado, can you really bring yourself to do this?"

"You're not making her own up to anything. You're destroying her."

The two of them meant every word, but my father wouldn't hear it.

He looked at me the way you look at something you've given up on. "This daughter of mine is nothing but bad habits now."

"Drinking. Staying out all night. Hanging all over men."

"If I keep letting her run wild, there's no telling how many worse habits she'll pick up. Maybe past saving."

"There's still time to fix it. Better late than never."

"As for no one casting her, that won't happen. As long as she apologizes and means it, the public will give her another chance."

The two streamers looked at each other, then at me, and had no choice but to set up the camera the way my father wanted.

My father kicked me. "Are you ready or not?"

I said nothing, tears running down my face.

Just then the front door swung open.

My mother was home, out of breath.

She'd rushed straight from work, drenched in sweat.

The moment she was inside, she said to my father, frantic, "Do you have any idea what her reputation means for a woman?"

"You're going to let everyone think she's a slut? How is she supposed to face anyone after that?"

My father said coldly, "If she did it, she shouldn't be afraid of people saying so."

"And if she's afraid of people saying so, she shouldn't have done it."

I pulled out my phone and held it out to him, my face soaked with tears. "Look. This is what people are calling me."

In just a few hours, the livestream my father posted earlier had already blown up.

The whole internet was calling me a slut.

Someone had even gotten hold of my phone number and was texting me insults.

My mother was crying, pounding her fists against my father. "What is it you even want? Are you trying to get your own daughter killed?"

My father frowned and said to me, "If you'd just admit it, no one would keep coming after you like this."

"You dig your heels in, of course people get angry."

"Willow, if you want a long career in this industry, you have to learn some self-respect."

"Take this as a lesson. Consider it a vaccine against worse."

My mother forced down her fury. "You say your own daughter is a slut, that she slept her way up. Do you have proof?"

"You've got nothing, so why are you framing her?"

My father said, "I saw it with my own eyes."

My mother pressed, desperate. "Saw what? Did you see her get into someone's bed? Walk into someone's room?"

"You made all of it up in your own head. You don't have a shred of hard evidence."

My father said impatiently, "She's my own daughter. Don't I know her?"

"And even if I'm wrong, correct it if it's true, watch yourself if it isn't. No harm in that."

"At the very least, after a scene like this, the whole industry will know our family raises its children strictly, and no one will try to lure her into being a slut."

Having brushed my mother off, my father turned to me. "Write a statement of apology. You'll read it out loud in front of the camera in a minute."

I shook my head.

My father's voice went urgent. "Still won't admit it? You think there's nothing wrong with being a slut?"

I said through gritted teeth, "You're the one accusing me of something I didn't do. I didn't do anything."

My father suddenly lost it and roared, "How did I raise a daughter with no shame?"

"It's not enough for you to disgrace yourself, you've dragged the whole Delgado name through the mud too."

He went wild, smashing and breaking things all over the house.

The TV shattered, the coffee table went over, a chair came apart in pieces...

My mother rushed over crying to stop him, and he shoved her hard. She hit the floor.

Venting his rage, he snarled at me, "So you'll never repent? Then I'll tell everyone exactly how you got that role."

"Willow Delgado, you want to make money by throwing away your dignity, I won't let you get away with it."

"You won't confess? Then I'll confess for you. Every single day, I'll apologize on your behalf on my livestream."

I looked at him in despair, tears pouring down my face. "I'll do what you say. I'll confess. Is that enough?"