The Illegitimate Flame: Bride of Ashes-Chapter 136- A Cruel Diagnosis

Janet changed into a simple outfit and left the house. She hailed a taxi and headed straight to the cemetery on the outskirts of the city.

It had been days since she last visited Cornelia. Somehow, the path felt colder now... more desolate.

Clutching her coat tighter around her body, Janet stepped carefully through the fallen yellow leaves, making her way up the stone steps toward the heart of the graveyard. The air was crisp, silent, and heavy with memories.

From a distance, she saw a figure standing in front of Cornelia’s grave—stooped, aged, and fragile.

Harold.

Her breath caught for a moment.

She remembered the last time she came here... the bouquet of lilies. So it had been him.

He must have loved Cornelia, after all.

Janet quietly approached and stopped just behind him. Harold seemed to sense her presence. He turned slightly, and when their eyes met, his expression faltered. His suit was wrinkled, no longer as pristine as usual, and the scratch marks across his face were unmistakable signs of Anila’s rage.

He looked like a man who had lost everything.

"Janet... you’re here," he said softly, his voice tinged with guilt.

Janet didn’t respond. She simply nodded, her gaze resting on the picture of Cornelia, whose gentle smile remained frozen in time.

Harold looked down, ashamed. "You must hate me... I was blinded by that woman for ten whole years. I failed your mother. I failed you."

His voice cracked, and tears streamed down his cheeks. There was no defense, no excuses—only regret.

"I... don’t know what I can say to make it right."

Janet listened to his apology, but her heart remained calm—eerily calm. Maybe because deep down, she knew this day would come. The guilty had been punished. The truth had come to light. But her mother... was still gone.

And nothing could change that.

"I’m not interested in blaming anyone anymore," she said quietly. "There’s no point. She’s never coming back. And now... I’m a mother too. I want to raise my child in a world without hatred. Without bitterness. Those people... they’re not worth it."

Harold lowered his head, shoulders shaking. "I know I can’t undo what I did... but Janet, I just want you to be happy. You’re all I have left now."

Only after losing everything—his wealth, his pride, and the woman who truly loved him—did he finally see clearly.

Only now did he regret it all.

"Dad..."

The word slipped from Janet’s lips, barely audible, but powerful enough to pierce both their hearts.

Her tears fell, unbidden.

How long had it been since she last called him that? Since she walked away from the Louis family? Since he turned a blind eye to her existence?

That word was no longer just a title—it was a wound that had never healed, for both of them.

Harold’s hands trembled. His eyes widened.

Even now... she still called him that.

"Whatever Charles does to the Louis family from now on," Harold muttered, defeated, "I won’t stop him. They deserve every bit of it."

Janet looked at him, her expression cool and distant. Her voice, when it came, was quiet—but sharp.

"Now you regret it? Isn’t it a little late for that?"

Janet stood silently before the tombstone, her gaze fixed solely on the smiling photo engraved in stone.

She didn’t look at Harold.

She didn’t hear his footsteps fading into the distance.

He had turned away, leaving this sacred place to the two people he had hurt most—

The woman he once loved...

And the daughter he never truly protected.

"Mom," Janet whispered softly, crouching down before the grave, "Charles has avenged us. Are you happy now?"

She reached out and gently brushed her fingers over the photo, where Cornelia’s gentle smile seemed to tell her—

She never wanted revenge.

She only ever wanted her daughter to be happy.

"Mom... you’re going to be a grandmother." Janet’s eyes shimmered with tears. "This time... I’ll protect my child, just like you protected me."

The sunlight streamed down, casting a warm glow on Cornelia’s image. Her smile never changed.

It felt like she was responding.

Telling her... My Janice has grown up.

As Janet left the cemetery, the sun hung high overhead. A dry autumn wind swept across her face, making her shiver.

She wrapped her coat tighter and stepped down the stone staircase—

Only to be struck by a sudden, searing pain in her head.

Her vision blackened.

The world spun.

And before she could reach the final step, her body crumpled to the ground.

Whispers, memories, and voices spiraled inside her mind like gnawing insects.

The pain overwhelmed her.

And then—

Darkness.

In her final flickering consciousness, three faces appeared:

Mom. Charles. The baby.

When she opened her eyes again, she was in a hospital bed.

Her vision was still blurred. Panic surged inside her. She reached up and pressed her forehead, trying to force herself to see clearly.

A nurse walked out of the room just as the door opened again—

This time, it was a man in a white coat with a solemn expression.

"Doctor... why am I in the hospital?" Janet’s voice trembled as she tried to sit up.

Her memory flashed to the moment she collapsed at the cemetery. Her heart raced.

"The baby... is the baby—?"

"The baby is fine," the doctor interrupted gently. "You fainted. The cemetery groundskeeper brought you here just in time."

He approached the bed with a few scans in his hands and paused for a moment, face grim.

"Have you been experiencing persistent headaches? Any episodes of brief blindness or dizziness?"

Janet froze.

"Yes... for a while now. The headaches have been getting worse."

She had assumed it was all just part of being pregnant. The fatigue. The disorientation.

She never thought it could be something else.

What the doctor said next shattered her world.

She didn’t remember how she walked out of the hospital.

Didn’t remember crossing the road.

Didn’t feel the chill that sank into her bones.

Only one sentence kept echoing in her mind—

The doctor’s cold diagnosis.

A warning.

A truth she couldn’t accept.

No.

No. This can’t be happening.

"It’s not true," Janet murmured, her legs giving out beneath her. She collapsed against one of the marble pillars outside the hospital, her back sliding slowly down until she sat on the pavement.

Tears burst from her eyes like a broken string of pearls.

Unstoppable.

Uncontrollable.

Cars passed.

People walked by.

But Janet sat there, completely still, like a lost child in a world that no longer made sense.

What should I do...?

And then—

A sudden flutter from her belly.

It was faint, but real.

The baby.

Her baby.

For the first time, she felt it.

The fragile yet powerful pulse of life growing inside her.

Even in her despair, even in her darkest moment...

That tiny soul fought to remind her: I’m here, Mama.

Janet’s heart clenched painfully.

"No matter what happens..." she whispered, voice hoarse, "I’ll protect you. Even if it costs me my life."

She raised her tear-streaked face to the sky.

The autumn sun still shone brightly through the crisp blue heavens.

"Mom... you’ll protect her too, won’t you?"

But as she stared at the vast, endless blue...

A question pierced her soul like ice—

How much longer would she be able to see it?

Time...

She had never feared it before.

But now, she wanted to grasp every second with both hands.

Hold it tightly.

Because she knew—

Every minute, every heartbeat, every breath she had left...

Was now borrowed time.

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