C read file line by line

I wrote this function to read a line from a file:

const char *readLine(FILE *file) {

    if (file == NULL) {
        printf("Error: file pointer is null.");
        exit(1);
    }

    int maximumLineLength = 128;
    char *lineBuffer = (char *)malloc(sizeof(char) * maximumLineLength);

    if (lineBuffer == NULL) {
        printf("Error allocating memory for line buffer.");
        exit(1);
    }

    char ch = getc(file);
    int count = 0;

    while ((ch != '\n') && (ch != EOF)) {
        if (count == maximumLineLength) {
            maximumLineLength += 128;
            lineBuffer = realloc(lineBuffer, maximumLineLength);
            if (lineBuffer == NULL) {
                printf("Error reallocating space for line buffer.");
                exit(1);
            }
        }
        lineBuffer[count] = ch;
        count++;

        ch = getc(file);
    }

    lineBuffer[count] = '\0';
    char line[count + 1];
    strncpy(line, lineBuffer, (count + 1));
    free(lineBuffer);
    const char *constLine = line;
    return constLine;
}

The function reads the file correctly, and using printf I see that the constLine string did get read correctly as well.

However, if I use the function e.g. like this:

while (!feof(myFile)) {
    const char *line = readLine(myFile);
    printf("%s\n", line);
}

printf outputs gibberish. Why?

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