diff --git a/lib/internal/modules/cjs/loader.js b/lib/internal/modules/cjs/loader.js
index 8d3f59abcf5720..a8d245b10814c9 100644
--- a/lib/internal/modules/cjs/loader.js
+++ b/lib/internal/modules/cjs/loader.js
@@ -1381,7 +1381,7 @@ function loadESMFromCJS(mod, filename) {
   if (isMain) {
     require('internal/modules/run_main').runEntryPointWithESMLoader((cascadedLoader) => {
       const mainURL = pathToFileURL(filename).href;
-      cascadedLoader.import(mainURL, undefined, { __proto__: null }, true);
+      return cascadedLoader.import(mainURL, undefined, { __proto__: null }, true);
     });
     // ESM won't be accessible via process.mainModule.
     setOwnProperty(process, 'mainModule', undefined);
diff --git a/test/es-module/test-esm-detect-ambiguous.mjs b/test/es-module/test-esm-detect-ambiguous.mjs
index fce455cf18bb60..62b4fa7ef2ba0b 100644
--- a/test/es-module/test-esm-detect-ambiguous.mjs
+++ b/test/es-module/test-esm-detect-ambiguous.mjs
@@ -252,6 +252,18 @@ describe('Module syntax detection', { concurrency: !process.env.TEST_PARALLEL },
       strictEqual(signal, null);
     });
 
+    it('reports unfinished top-level `await`', async () => {
+      const { stdout, stderr, code, signal } = await spawnPromisified(process.execPath, [
+        '--no-warnings',
+        fixtures.path('es-modules/tla/unresolved.js')
+      ]);
+
+      strictEqual(stderr, '');
+      strictEqual(stdout, '');
+      strictEqual(code, 13);
+      strictEqual(signal, null);
+    });
+
     it('permits top-level `await` above import/export syntax', async () => {
       const { stdout, stderr, code, signal } = await spawnPromisified(process.execPath, [
         '--eval',