Chapter 245:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

For months, I had operated under the arrogant assumption that my corporate capital, Carlisle Media’s broadcast power, and my public status as captain of the Titans could dictate the terms of my personal life. When Dayna Nixon suffered a public academic rejection from Dr. Kensington, I had bought a twenty-million-dollar diamond necklace and launched a Catskills estate to manage the fallout, believing that financial displays could resolve any social crisis.

Yet Corinne had walked into the analysis room at Synapse Data, cleared our system buffer crash in thirty seconds, received a thirty-percent enterprise IP allocation from Alistair Kensington, and earned the personal respect of General Morrison and Senator Reed, all through the strength of her own brilliant intellect.

She had built an elite world of academic and executive authority entirely independent of the Carlisle Group, and in doing so, she had rendered my financial leverage completely useless.

My younger brother, Ethan Carlisle, came down the grand staircase holding a quantum physics textbook, looking at me with an unusual expression.

“Blake… did Corinne just leave for Nexus?” he asked softly.

“She has executive briefings in Midtown,” I answered stiffly.

Ethan shook his head, genuine admiration on his face. “Last night, she helped me solve a complex wave function problem from my textbook in two minutes flat. She used Dirac matrix mechanics like it was nothing. Do you have any idea how brilliant she actually is?”

His words landed like a physical blow. The woman I had casually dismissed during our marriage as a quiet domestic partner was, in truth, an elite mind praised by global industry leaders and revered by my own family.

𝘋ow𝘯𝗅o𝘢𝘥a𝗯𝗅𝗲 𝖯𝖣F𝗌 on 𝗴𝘢lno𝘃e𝗅s.с𝘰𝗺

The dissonance was staggering.

My phone chimed with a text from Dayna asking for a PR meeting about Carlisle Media’s broadcast schedule. I stared at the message with a cold, weary frown, filled with a deep distaste for the superficial publicity games that had consumed my attention.

I picked up the custody file, walked into my study, and called my chief legal counsel. The game had changed entirely, and I was finally forced to confront everything I had lost.

Corinne POV

I arrived at Nexus Analytics on Monday morning and threw myself into our core data launch. Casey Ferguson and I spent four productive hours reviewing predictive risk algorithms with our quantitative team, preparing the platform for institutional client onboarding.

Around two o’clock, my phone buzzed on my glass desk. It was Ethan Carlisle, Blake’s younger brother, who was studying physics at Columbia.

I tapped to answer. “Hello, Ethan.”

“Corinne! Good afternoon!” Ethan’s enthusiastic voice came through the speaker. “I just wanted to thank you again for helping me with that Dirac notation problem last night. My professor was blown away by the derivation!”

I smiled faintly. “You’re very welcome, Ethan. Quantum mechanics takes practice, but your foundational logic is strong.”

“You’re my absolute idol, Corinne,” Ethan said with genuine warmth. “Honestly, you understand data architecture better than anyone in New York.”

He paused, then added casually, “By the way, did you see Dayna Nixon’s broadcast on Carlisle Media last night? She tried to analyze the Titans’ tactical strategy on air, but even my college friends could tell her commentary was nothing but generic buzzwords.”

“Media commentary often puts entertainment ahead of technical depth, Ethan,” I observed coolly.

“She’s trying way too hard,” Ethan said with a chuckle. “Anyway, keep being amazing, Corinne!”

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