Thanks to the plagiarism shitstorm, Valeria was basically hiding out like she was in witness protection, too scared to show her face anywhere.
Even though Jasper had thrown money at getting the trending topics buried, the story had blown up so massively and stayed viral for so long that everyone and their mother knew about it.
The design world had also completely canceled Valeria.
A designer with that kind of reputation was totally fucked in the industry.
So Valeria’s only option now was maybe some behind–the–scenes work if she was lucky.
Her design career was officially over.
Whitney watched her daughter wallowing and rolled her eyes. “Jesus, look at you. What a hot mess.”
“Mom, I’m already having a mental breakdown. Can you not pile on right now?” Valeria snapped.
“One little bump in the road and you let that bitch Rachel completely wreck you? I raised you better than this,” Whitney shot back.
She’d definitely spoiled this girl way too much.
“Mom, what am I supposed to do? My career is toast,” Valeria said miserably.
“Honey, screw the design thing. You’re gonna inherit your dad’s empire eventually. Right now your number one priority is locking down that Hale marriage. You need to keep Jasper wrapped around your finger and get his mom to love you.”
Whitney was in full strategic mode now.
Valeria blinked, then sat up straighter. Right–the endgame was becoming Mrs. Hale.
Who cared about some stupid design career anyway.
Valeria immediately brightened up.
“You’re totally right, Mom. Got it.”
“There’s my girl. You’ve been holed up in here for days. The drama’s blown over, so get out there and hit the shops. You need some retail therapy.”
“Good call. Let me get ready.” Valeria was already feeling motivated again.
Valeria knew the plagiarism mess had made Jasper a little skeptical of her.
Even though he’d helped clean up the situation, she could tell he was annoyed that she’d fucked things up so badly.
So she’d been playing it super careful around him lately.
But thinking about her mom’s pep talk, she realized she couldn’t just sit around moping. She needed to get back in the game.
After some strategizing, Valeria decided to focus on winning over Megan Miller, Jasper’s mom.
She’d noticed that Jasper still really valued his mother’s opinion.
Whenever big stuff came up, he usually ran it by her first.
So the next day, after bribing one of the Hale family’s staff for intel on Megan’s schedule, Valeria got all glamned up and staked out the high–end shopping district.
Yep, she was orchestrating a totally “random” encounter.
Megan hadn’t been shopping in weeks.
Yesterday her personal stylist at Bergdorf’s had called about some new arrivals, so she’d decided to check them out.
She definitely wasn’t expecting to bump into Valeria.
“Mrs. Miller! Oh my gosh, what are the odds!” Valeria’s voice was pure sugar.
“Valeria, sweetheart! You’ve been working so hard lately–you look like you’ve lost weight.” Megan was pretty much offline when it came to social
media.
She spent most of her time at charity luncheons, bridge games, and shopping with her wealthy friends.
So she was completely clueless about Valeria’s recent internet drama.
Valeria exhaled in relief–Megan obviously had no idea about the Twitter meltdown.
She nodded innocently. “Yeah, work’s been absolutely insane lately.”
Since they’d “randomly” run into each other, shopping together made perfect sense.
They started browsing the luxury boutiques together.
