Episode 15

"You're going crazy, Angelina!" Joseph's shouts were heard throughout the penthouse. "Everyone is talking about your behavior. At first, I thought it was just gossip and jealousy from Stella, but the rumors about you are coming from all sides."

Joseph was never a kind and gentle man with his daughters. He believed that granting all their wishes would ensure that they were obedient and loyal.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Daddy," Angelina replied, studying her nails, pretending to be clueless.

"You're like this because you've never been put in your place or received a good spanking," he grumbled impatiently. Anyone who saw Joseph would know he was at his breaking point. "Behaving like a prostitute. Kissing multiple guys and who knows what else." He gestured with his hands as he spoke, nervous and completely unhinged.

"What do you have against prostitutes?" Angelina asked cheekily. "Everyone knows you have relationships with many of them, even though you're married."

"Say that again and you'll feel the weight of my hand on your face!" Joseph replied angrily. "I won't raise a worthless harlot for my business! These rumors harm you and our family."

"Then I'm quite pleased because that was my intention," Angelina replied sarcastically.

Everything happened too quickly. Joseph raised his arm and slapped her face with his heavy hand, causing Angelina to feel pain and burning instantly.

"What's going on here, Joseph?" Olivia entered the office at that moment, preventing him from hitting Angelina again. "You hurt her!" She approached Angelina, who had tears of hatred in her eyes.

"She deserves it, Olivia! She's gaining a reputation as a harlot in town! She doesn't respect our family!" Joseph fumed, red with anger. "I always thought I could make a great deal with her marriage." He referred to Angelina. "But all this beauty has amounted to nothing. She's only brought shame upon us."

Tears flowed down Angelina's cheeks as she placed her hand on her bruised cheek.

"I know everything, Joseph," Angelina no longer had the desire to call him Daddy. "I already know I'm a bastard, your biological daughter with who knows whom." Angelina spat out those words. She didn't want to hurt her mother, who listened in shock, unaware of how her daughter knew about her real origin, but it was stuck inside Angelina. "And I don't want this life for myself! To marry a stranger, without love, and have to endure all your betrayals!" She expressed everything without any remorse.

"So, you prefer your real mother's life? Is that it?" Joseph smiled cruelly and confirmed what everyone thought. "Do you want to be a prostitute like her?" He mocked Olivia without any respect, who was witnessing the whole fight. "I can send you to a cheap brothel right now!" He threatened.

"Stop this now, Joseph!" This time, it was Olivia who shouted as she never had before. She could accept all of Joseph's betrayals, but she would never let him mistreat her daughters. “I can accept everything, but if you lay a hand on Angelina again, I will end you!” Olivia's gaze was penetrating and fierce. Her pupils were dilated, filled with fire, aggressiveness, and determination. "I didn't enter this marriage with nothing! My father was a very wealthy man, and I endured you all these years only for the girls!"

Shocked by Olivia's reaction and realizing it wasn't worth continuing there, Joseph left the office without saying another word, leaving them both alone inside.

"My love," Olivia embraced Angelina and then held her face in her hands, analyzing it. "I can't believe he did this to you."

"I hate him, Mom," Angelina replied through sobs. "For everything he's done to you. I hate him so much,” she repeated, inconsolable.

"Why didn't you stay quiet?!" Olivia lamented. "Why did you have to confront your father like that?"

Olivia then took Angelina to her room on the first floor to apply antiseptic to the small cut on her lip, cleaning the wound.

After her mother left the room, following a long bath, all Angelina could think about was losing her damn virginity to become useless to Joseph once and for all. The worst part wasn't the slap or confirming that her real mother was a prostitute, but the fact that her father cared so little about her that he threatened to send her to a cheap brothel.

Since that fight, Joseph had kept Angelina on a short leash. She could no longer go out whenever she pleased and always had a driver or security guard with her.

"I don't want you to lose sight of her for one minute." Joseph demanded of his employee. "Keep your eyes always on her."

Angelina was also forbidden from going out at night to any party or club unless accompanied by her sister. Stella was so cunning that now she intended to help her father against Angelina. At first, she had been the one to spread all the gossip about the youngest one. Now that Angelina was really causing trouble, Stella wanted to play the good girl, protecting the family's honor.

"He doesn't take his eyes off our table, Angelina." Tiffany commented, watching the brute that Angelina's father had hired to watch her.

"He's an idiot." Angelina cursed. "Does he think I'm going to seduce some waiter in this restaurant?" Both laughed.

"I think you're flirting with danger. Your father is not a man of empty threats." Tiffany commented, concerned about everything that was happening in her best friend's life.

"Well, I count on you to help me if he decides to send me to a brothel. I'll hide at your house." Angelina joked.

"You know very well that I couldn't do anything to help you in that situation, Angel." Tiffany replied, apprehensive. "Please, don't provoke your father anymore. I don't understand this desire of yours. Do you know what it means to lose your virginity before marriage."

"Spare me, Tiffany. I could live with a few dirty looks and being mentioned by the mob mothers as a negative example." Angelina mocked. "“You see that woman over there? That's Angelina Castellano. She gave herself to a man before her wedding. Now, no one wants to marry her anymore. She only brought shame and humiliation to her family.”" Angelina laughed, attracting the attention of some tables around hers.

"You shouldn't joke about it." Tiffany scolded her.

Still smiling, Angelina watched a couple who had just arrived at the elegant restaurant where she and her friend were having lunch. Instantly, the sparkle in her eyes faded and Tiffany realized that something was wrong.