The Illegitimate Flame: Bride of Ashes-Chapter 129- Don’t tie me up

She had never looked at him with such a gaze full of hatred. Those delicate, sparkling eyes were still so beautiful and bright—clearly harmless—but now, in Charles’s eyes, they caused an unbearable ache in his heart.

"Janet..." Charles didn’t know how to begin telling her the truth he had hidden—just like she had once hidden her own origins from him. Both had hoped to protect the other from pain. He had long expected this reaction when she found out the truth, but he still found it hard to accept.

"You investigated me?" Janet wiped her tears with the back of her hand, her voice trembling slightly. "You’ve known all along, haven’t you? Charles, how deep is your scheming? How foolish I’ve been to love you—knowing everything you did was for me, yet I deserved to know the truth! I refuse to be a fool to be deceived!"

Though she understood his motives and plans were all because of her, she still found it hard to accept.

"Yes, I knew long ago. I even thought about hiding it from you forever! Janet, the facts are set in stone. Please just forget about it, okay?" Charles was not good at lying, nor at hiding things from her. Now that she knew, he wanted to make his feelings clear and give her a safer sense of security.

"How can I forget? That mother and daughter destroyed my mom..." Janet recalled that life-or-death moment ten years ago. If not for Cornelia, maybe Janet wouldn’t be here today. She couldn’t forget her mother’s tragic final moments and the injuries she suffered. Those days were mostly spent in hospitals.

"I will take back from them tenfold, a hundredfold the price. So don’t cry anymore. Don’t think about anything. Leave it all to me, okay?" Charles gently wiped her tears. His soft words whispered in her ear like a lullaby. Janet’s dry tears on her cheeks, whether from pain or relief, soon overflowed anew. Instinctively, Charles bent down and kissed away her hot tears—those tears falling on her face pierced his heart.

Charles held her weakened body, feeling as if his heart was stabbed. Then he carefully carried her and laid her down on the large bed in the resting room. The room was dimly lit, mirroring Janet’s dark mood. She didn’t know what to do; she never imagined Anila and her daughter would want to kill them both.

But why?

Her mother never wanted to fight with her. Why wouldn’t she just let her go?

Janet’s mind recalled Cornelia’s beautiful and gentle face, which gradually blurred...

At the Louis family villa, piercing screams of a woman echoed at night, harsh and grating against the sky, making the darkness feel even colder.

"I don’t want this! Don’t tie me up! I want to go out! Mom, please! If you keep locking me up, I’ll die! I want to find him!" Elvira’s body was covered in scratch marks. She looked withered, unable to survive a single day without that lip-ringed man.

"Elvira, stop this nonsense! Look at what you’ve become!" Ternence looked at his sister throwing a tantrum like a shrew, headache pounding. If she weren’t a Louis, he would have packed her off long ago.

"What kind of curse is this? How did she become like this?" Anila stepped forward, painfully holding her sister’s flailing arms. Her once flushed face was now pale as a sheet, muttering constantly about finding a man.

"Mom, this can’t go on! We need to send her to a rehab center!" Ternence tugged irritably at his loosened tie, messy strands of hair hanging over his forehead. His voice carried an exhausted frustration.

"Ternence, I don’t want to go! I’ll die in there! Just give me the powder, and I won’t feel this pain anymore. Mom, I’m begging you... please..." Elvira’s pitiful screams echoed through the villa, causing the servants to whisper anxiously among themselves.

"Where’s your father?" Anila looked at the utterly unhinged Elvira, and could only resort to tying her up again. If she kept screaming like this, the police might be called.

"He’s still at the company." Ternence sighed deeply. Lately, the company had been under relentless pressure. The funding they had gathered was suddenly withdrawn by the bank without warning. Their regular development projects had been repeatedly halted due to issues with land or personnel. Now, internal shareholders were growing restless. To make matters worse, ZT Group had also pulled out.

Louis Corp was in a crisis far worse than before, and this time, there was no benefactor to save them.

This was clearly a deliberate suppression—and the mastermind behind it all was Black Rock Co.

Ternence never expected Charles to be so ruthless, leaving them no way out at all.

While Harold was already exhausted trying to manage the company’s chaos, Elvira’s breakdown had added more strain. Even their grandfather had been dragged into the mess, something Anila was well aware of.

"What does Charles want from us?" Anila felt a sudden chill rise through her body. That cold-blooded man—he was fine as long as you didn’t provoke him. But once you did, the consequences would be devastating. Was it all because of that little brat Janet? freēwēbnovel.com

"If we had known Janet would come this far, you shouldn’t have treated her like that back then!" Ternence couldn’t help but resent how his mother had mistreated Janet in the past. Everything happening to the Louis family now was of their own making.

Janet slept deeply through the night. Even after Charles carried her home, she hadn’t stirred. Perhaps, deep down, she just wanted to sleep and escape everything. She had no idea what to do next. In this world, besides Charles, her mother had been the only one closest to her. She couldn’t let her mother die in vain!

"Are you feeling okay? Are you hungry? You didn’t eat dinner last night." When she opened her eyes, Charles’s concerned gaze was the first thing she saw, filled with so much worry that Janet’s eyes welled up again.

"I’m fine." Janet sat up from the bed, but either she moved too fast or had been asleep too long—her vision blurred, and it took a while for her to regain clarity.

"Why aren’t you at work?" Janet glanced at the clock on the wall—it was already past nine. Her eyes, still puffy and tinged with moisture, gave her a misty allure and an extra layer of soft beauty.

"It’s okay. I’m staying with you today. Let’s eat something warm." Janet noticed he was wearing a beige loungewear set. Had he stayed home especially for her?

The thought made her heart ache slightly. She nodded and got out of bed, heading toward the bathroom.

After washing her face, Janet stared at her own reflection in the mirror—so pale and tired. Was this really her? How had she changed so much in just one day? Yesterday, she was still basking in the joy of becoming a mother. Today, she was drowning in the pain of her mother’s death. Her thoughts were a tangled mess, impossible to sort out.

She shook her head, cold droplets sliding from her cheeks down her neck. Suddenly, as she stared at her pale face in the mirror, she realized—

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t see herself clearly anymore...

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