beta
All I can understand from this is that... The father wanted to be portrayed as a loving father to her daughter infront of the society & people, probably increasing her marriage prospect & value in the process as well. He maintained a facade of a man who cherishes his daughter infront of the world just so he can get the best deal out of her marriage Given the time, I bet it was for his own IMAGE & benefit, it was never for the FL ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ
Even though FL knows it herself that her purpose in life was to marry into a family that her father chose yet she had not accepted any incoming proposals & kept rejecting them because of her own worries & illness. That probably drove her father mad thinking she would refuse to be WED & he did what he did in a round about way. AT FIRST HE DIDN'T HAVE TO GET HIS HANDS DIRTY BECAUSE THE STEP MOM WAS PLOTTING AGAINST THE FL BUT WHEN HER PLANS GOT REJECTED, HE STEPPED IN.