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She was the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy family—abandoned by her father, oppressed by his legal wife, and humiliated by the so-called sister. She watched her mother perish in a raging fire and was thrown into the flames herself.
Her name was Janice. And she died in that fire.
Ten years later, under a new identity and the name “Janet,” she survives in silence. Forced by her stepmother to marry a wealthy heir rumored to be "paralyzed and disabled," she becomes entangled in a vicious struggle of family betrayal and ruthless power games.
With cold eyes, she watches the hypocrites who once trampled her into the mud—one by one, they will become prey on her road to revenge.
Her wheelchair-bound "husband" Philip, the feuding brothers Charles and August… But what she didn't expect was that the boy who once quietly handed her a handkerchief all those years ago would become the most unpredictable piece in her game of fate.
She has returned—not for hatred, but to personally end the past that was once crushed beneath their feet.

The Illegitimate Flame: Bride of Ashes

"Ah! Put me down! Someone might see!"

Janet gasped, arms tightening instinctively around Charles's neck. They were in the middle of the company—this wasn't exactly the place for public displays of affection, especially not from someone like Charles, who was usually all logic and control.

"No one's watching," he murmured, turning her face toward him and pressing his lips against her earlobe. "Tell me, Miss Louis—are you jealous?"

"Who's jealous?" she huffed, shooting him a playful glare. "Don't flatter yourself."

Still, she hadn't expected Elvira to show up at Black Rock Co. looking for him. Charles was her husband now—both legally and in name—and also, ironically, her brother-in-law.

"You little brat," Charles teased, wrapping his arms tightly around her slender waist. With just a bit more effort, he could easily lift her off the ground again.

The elevator dinged open—and standing right outside was Giles.

Chapter 94- Private War