Prologue

"Dad, please... I really don't know who he was  - Ahhh!" A slap went across Samantha's face, and it came from her beloved father. 

The man that used to adore her and treated her like a princess, had hurt her for the first time in her life!

"Winfield, stop it! She is your daughter!" Matilda, her grandmother, covered Samantha's frame, embracing her for protection. 

Winfield Davis may be a father, but he was the most fearful General of the country's military arms. With his bare hands and flaming rage, he was capable of causing suffering to his own daughter. 

"What kind of woman are you? Have I not raised you well?!" The General reprimanded. He grabbed on to Samantha's jaws and clenched his fingers on her crying face. "I turned the military camp upside down! No one - and I repeat! No one owned up to being the father of your child!"

He was about to slap Samantha again when Matilda pleaded, "Stop this! We can't do anything about it! It's already done!"

"Daddy, I'm sorry! This is my fault! If  - If I had known Samantha wanted to have random sex with a stranger, I would have stayed by her side during the party! Please don't blame Sam, Daddy! This is my fault as much as it is Sam's." Samantha's stepsister, Annie Jones, came rushing in their direction. 

Annie acted to help, but clearly, she was trashing Samantha with her words. 

Samantha's eyes darted at Annie! To her, indeed, it was her stepsister's fault! It was Annie who gave her the keycard to a hotel room while attending a friend's wedding; a senior rank from the military. 

She meant to give herself to her boyfriend of two years, Clayton Brown, another cadet, one year older than her. 

Drunk and intoxicated, Samantha did not realize how she easily fell into her stepsister's trap. She woke up the next day in another man's arms. 

Samantha meant to forget about that horrific night, but in the end, she fell pregnant.

"Stay out of this, Annie! You are not at fault! It was Samantha's decision to sleep with a man!" With his voice raised further, Winfield screamed at the top of his lungs, "With an unknown man!"

"Daddy, please! I - I thought it was. I thought it was Clayton!" Samantha reasoned while gasping for air. She meant to say more, but Winfield Davis thrust back his fist, suggesting he might hit on his own daughter. 

Her father's actions made her take a step back, retreating from defending herself. 

"Regardless if it was Clayton or not! I never wanted you to be with Clayton anyhow! They are family rivals to the military rank!" Her father reproached. 

"What do we do now? Hah, Sam? How do we find a man whom we do not know at all? You can't even remember the hotel room you came into! You acted negligibly, and you got yourself pregnant!"

"Who is this man you slept with? Who?!!!" The General repeated.

"Darling, please! Let us stop the search for this man! We'd never know! The man whom Sam slept with maybe a married man - worse, a drug lord or a pimp!" The suggestion came from Catherine Jones-Davis, Annie's mother and Samantha's stepmother.

With a disgusted look on her face, Catherine added, "We certainly don't want the entire city to know who the father is - "

"Shut up, Catherine! I did not ask for your opinion!" Winfield shot back at his wife. "You and Annie, go up to your rooms now!"

Returning his attention to Samantha, the General asked one last time, "Samantha, please tell me... who is the father?"

While still wrapped in her grandmother's arms, Samantha answered with a trembling voice, "Dad, I'm sorry! I - I really do not know! I left him asleep on the bed as soon as I realized it wasn't Clayton!"

With tears streaming down her face, she pleaded, "Dad, please. Please forgive me! I'm sorry!"

"Get out! Get out and never come back to this household!" Her father ordered while pointing to the door. 

"Winfield! It's raining outside! Your daughter is pregnant - "

"I don't care, mother! She needs to learn her lesson! She should have agreed to have an abortion when she had the chance! Now, everybody knows!" Retorted Winfield Davis. 

"She has tainted the name of the Davis family, and now my name has been mocked by my own commanders!" The General cursed before revealing, "The entire military academy knows! The entire military camp knows, for God's sake!"

For the first time, Samantha saw her father shed a tear. It easily ran down his jaws. He described, "I am so ashamed of you, Samantha!"

She heard him say, "You broke my trust, my respect for you. I have always adored you, but today, you have completely broken your father's heart that I cannot! I cannot accept you into my home! Learn from your mistakes, and only then will you realize the wrong that you have done me!"

With a deafening voice, he screamed, "Leave!"

Her father grabbed her arm and dragged her out outside their mansion. He left her out in the rain, in front of their huge double doors. 

Just like that, her beloved father abandoned her for her mistake. Her grandmother was powerless to stop the great General. 

Samantha lingered by the door for two hours, waiting for her father to open it for her, but that never happened. She got drenched in the rain, crying her heart out and calling for her father's forgiveness. 

Looking up to the rooms, she saw how her stepmother and stepsister relished in her misery. 

Oh, how wrong it was for her to trust them, especially Annie. 

After two long hours of asking for her father, the old driver of the Davis family approached her and took her away. Her grandmother asked the same old man to help Samantha find a more protective environment for her to continue with her pregnancy. 

Samantha flew out to Monroe City the very next day. She only had a day of rest in a hotel before finally leaving the city which gave her the greatest pain of her life.