Chapter 255:

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I opened the door, and he handed me the portfolio. It was heavy.

“Ms. Sargent,” he said formally, “this is an unconditional stipulation of settlement from Mr. Carlisle, withdrawing his custody challenge and settling all pending asset claims. He asked that you review it as soon as possible.”

I took the portfolio, the leather cool against my skin, and saw the signature. It was Blake’s.

The paralegal added one more thing. “Mr. Carlisle has instructed us that he’s prepared to concede full asset allocations and grant you sole legal and physical custody of Lily. His primary conditions are an expedited execution and strict confidentiality regarding family holdings.”

I stood in the doorway, holding the thick portfolio. While the press fawned over Dayna’s staged heroism, Blake was suddenly offering to surrender custody and pay an extraordinary sum to clear his domestic slate. It was an unprecedented concession, and that alone made it immediately suspicious.

Corinne POV

I shut the door and leaned against it, taking a slow, deep breath. The dull throb in my arm was a physical reminder of how absurd this day had been. I walked to the sofa and set the heavy portfolio on the coffee table, but I didn’t open it right away.

My eyes drifted to the television. The news was still caught in a relentless cycle of Dayna’s “heroism.” Pundits analyzed the attacker’s motives. Fans held a vigil outside the hospital. Blake’s teammate, Aidan Sterling, appeared on screen, praising Dayna’s bravery and hinting that her bond with Blake was unbreakable.

I looked at Aidan’s earnest, clueless face and felt a bitter laugh rise in my throat. He had been on the yacht that night, laughing at me while Blake paraded Dayna around. He had stood beside Blake and watched me with contempt. And now he was on television, praising the woman who had made me invisible.

Finally, I looked away and tore open the portfolio’s seal.

𝗪𝗁𝘢t 𝗲𝗏𝘦𝘳yoո𝖾 𝗶𝗌 𝗋𝘦𝗮𝖽𝘪ո𝗀 𝗼n 𝘨𝖺𝗹ո𝗈v𝘦𝗅𝘀.𝖼o𝗺

I pulled out the thick stack of paper. The first page was stark: GLOBAL SETTLEMENT STIPULATION: PERMANENT CUSTODY CONCESSION AND IRREVOCABLE ASSET CONVEYANCE.

My eyes moved quickly across the pages. I stopped at the section listing Blake’s assets: properties, stocks, investment funds, an art collection. I read the numbers slowly, letting them sink in, then did the mental arithmetic once, and again, to make sure I hadn’t misread.

He was giving up everything. All rights to our remaining contested assets. His properties, his stocks, his investment funds, his art collection, all of it transferred to me with no conditions attached.

He had even set up a complex trust granting me the earnings from his non-voting shares in the Carlisle Group for the next thirty years.

This wasn’t generosity. This was a bloodletting. The estimated total value was astronomical, enough to secure my family for generations.

And he was personally shouldering every future risk. If the stocks plummeted, if a company failed, the losses would be his. I would receive only pure, unencumbered profit.

I turned to the last page, to the section about our daughter.

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