Chapter 174

For the next few days, Valerie obediently stayed at Azure Bay to recover. Online, however, the rumors about her multiplied—ten versions and counting—each one painting her in a more pathetic or scandalous light. In one version, she was said to be the illegitimate daughter of the Woodward Group's patriarch, born to a mistress who threw herself from a building after failing to secure her place. 20 years later, Valerie returned, consumed by vengeance and determined to destroy the Woodwards. In another, her mother was reduced to a nameless hostess who died of illness soon after giving birth. Valerie, raised in rural poverty, supposedly grew up greedy and bitter. When she learned her half-brother needed a kidney transplant, she used it as leverage to blackmail the family, exacting revenge under the guise of desperation. A third version claimed she'd used her looks to seduce a powerful man from Windmere, who sponsored her studies at Arcton University, where, coincidentally, her half-sist