I Saw Her Goodness Too Late

Inside the tattoo studio, Seth Jones let his fingertips trace the dip of Rita Searle's waist and move slowly up her spine. With a soft rustle, her dress slipped to her ankles.

He stood over her, taking in the blood-red rose inked across her chest.

They had been married for three years, and this was the anniversary gift he'd be giving her—999 roses tattooed into her skin.

A broken sob scraped up Rita's throat. "Seth, it hurts… Please, stop…"

Her tears splashed onto the back of his hand, but he only pressed the needle deeper, dragging it along until angry red welts marked her body.

"Victor wanted those damn roses so he could give them to another woman, and that led to Tara falling off that cliff and ending up in a vegetative state. I'm just giving him what he wanted. You should be grateful."

Lying on the cold tattoo table, Rita felt the chill spreading through her. Her eyes stung, weighed down by grief churning behind them.

"Isn't it enough? You bought out Searle Group, you hung Victor over a cliff, and left him for the vultures. What else do you want from us?"

Seth grabbed her by the throat and forced her chin up. "And isn't Tara innocent in all this? Rita, you and Victor destroyed her life. Don't you owe her for that?"

He shoved her hard, and her head slammed against the cold wall. The moment he lit his cigar, the tattoo needle drove straight into her shoulder.

In his icy eyes, Rita saw how ruined she looked.

The roses spread across her skin in dense clusters, old cuts crossing over fresh ones. She had no idea how many times she'd endured this, knowing that even saying it hurt would make Seth despise her more.

For a second, she thought she'd caught a tiny tremor in his expression.

What wishful thinking.

She managed a wry smile. Seth hated her. Why would he feel anything for her?

She felt the blade open her skin again, and the thought settled in with a kind of hopeless calm. Maybe dying would be easier.

"Seth, I just came from the hospital. I was with Tara. Gary said you were here."

Rita lifted her head with effort and turned toward the voice. Winnie Anderson stood there, and a sharp ache hit Rita's chest before she pushed it down.

Winnie had a graceful figure and a soft, gentle way about her, so it wasn't hard to see why she'd always been the one Seth loved.

If Winnie hadn't left the country to get married back then, Rita doubted she ever would have ended up as Seth's wife.

Seth took Winnie's hand, his voice softening without him meaning to. "Thanks for going. How's Tara?"

At that, sorrow flickered in Winnie's eyes. "The doctor said her chances of waking up are close to zero. After what she went through..."

She trailed off, her gaze drifting toward Rita despite herself.

Seth's face went tight, his knuckles paling as he clenched his fist.

Winnie pointed at the brutal scars across Rita's skin and said she'd help put ointment on them. Her touch looked gentle, but her sharp nails dug straight into wounds that hadn't even started to scab.

Pain shot through Rita, and she pulled back. She barely moved, but Winnie still toppled backward as if shoved.

Seth rushed to catch her, anger flaring across his face. "Rita, know your place!"

Then he turned to Winnie, and his voice softened to nothing but warmth. "Are you alright?"

Winnie buried her face in his chest and gave a small, wounded nod. "Maybe Rita just hates me."

"She doesn't even have the right to hate you," he muttered.

With that, Seth scooped Winnie into his arms and walked out without sparing Rita a single glance.

Rita froze where she was. She pressed a numb hand to her chest, a crushing tightness closing in around her heart.

The brightest, boldest rose in Novarisse had withered under three years of Seth's torment, leaving her with nothing but humiliation.

That year, someone sabotaged the Jones family, pushing them to the brink of bankruptcy. Rita spent three days and nights on her knees, begging her parents to save them.

After Winnie married someone else, it was Rita who stayed by Seth's side and pulled him out of the darkness.

She remembered the day he dropped to one knee, asked her to marry him, and pressed a reverent kiss to the back of her hand. In that moment, she truly believed she had finally found a place in his heart.

People later said she'd become the one Seth spoiled above all others.

She glanced once at a Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet, and the next day boxes of them arrived as if they cost him nothing.

She fell in love with the Spirit of the Rose diamond at an auction, and he bought up every competing piece by placing the highest bid every time.

She became captivated by books about life on Avenue Orliennes, so he spent billions of dollars to secure her a private estate there.

Then, on their wedding day, an unforeseen incident involving Tara Jones shattered everything.

She'd been hopelessly in love with Rita's brother, Victor Searle.

To force her to give up on him, he made her strip in front of his girlfriend, forced her to take explicit photos, and even sent her to Highveil Cliff to pick the most expensive roses there.

That was how Tara slipped, fell off the cliff, and ended up in a vegetative state.

When Seth heard she'd broken 19 ribs and would never wake up again, his rage was unstoppable. That same night, he cut off Searle Group's funding.

He tied Victor between the cliff walls, whipped him 99 times, and left vultures to tear into him.

Rita's parents rushed out after hearing the news, but they were killed in a car crash on the way to beg for mercy.

By the time Rita was allowed to see Victor one last time, he was barely alive, his entire body soaked in blood. He could scarcely breathe, but he still forced out a weak smile.

"I owe Tara this life. I ruined her best years. I'm sorry. My mess dragged you into all of this. Stay with him for three years and call it paying off my debt.

"If he still hates you after that, take what I've set aside for you and go as far away as you can."

After Victor said those last words, Rita had no one left. In a single night, she became Seth's prisoner.

Every relative in the Searle family was dragged down with her. She was forced to kneel in the family chapel without food, treated like a toy he could humiliate whenever he wanted.

What cut even deeper was that six months ago, Winnie had returned to the country. She was Seth's true love, his first love, the one he'd never stopped holding onto in his heart.

One by one, all the regrets from their forced breakup were being erased right in front of Rita.

Whenever she thought about them waltzing under the moon or playing piano duets, her chest felt like it was splitting apart.

Now, there were only ten days left before the three years were up.

Rita ran her thumb over the diamond ring on her finger. The name that Seth had engraved inside was already fading out. Tears slipped down her cheek.

She'd finally be free in ten days.