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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

After a simple bow before the ancestral tablets, Janet stepped quietly aside.

From Charles's solemn expression alone, she could tell just how deeply he felt for Sienna. The atmosphere was heavy, almost sacred, and even she could feel an unfamiliar emotion stirring in her chest—a ripple in still waters.

Unchanged. Calm. As if neither grief nor scandal had touched him.

"Janet, help me push Philip back to the North Courtyard."

Charles spoke without looking at her, his voice composed, his eyes only pausing briefly on Philip. A small gesture, a flicker in his gaze, and Janet understood—he needed her to leave.

She didn't want to, but she obeyed anyway.

From where she stood, she caught the curve of Derrick's lips—a smirk, sharp and mocking. He was enjoying this.

Chapter 95- Only Philip