Responses
Like they said, it's called grooming. Normally done with people starting from a young age so that they can be blindly obedient as adults.
Unfortunately it's not an unusual thing
I recommend reading the novel. You can easily pick up around chapter 30 ish and it'll be right where the webtoon is about now. It is more clear about what happened to her when he was abusing her. i guess this is a spoiler so see below.
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the novel describes the abuse as an attempt to force her into stockholm syndrome. He was trying to psychologically brain wash her through a cycle of abuse and kindness. it's crazy and i might have missed something in the webtoon because i had no idea that he was purposefully traumatizing her for the goal of stockholm syndrome. but it all adds up.
https://boxnovel.com/novel/a-star-reborn-the-queens-return/