07/09/2026
Story Time: Since My Name Got Added to the Story…
Let me start with this…
The same way I texted you personally when your child’s school was calling because you couldn’t pay her fees—even though we hadn’t spoken in over a year—you could’ve picked up the phone and simply said:
“Hey, if you’re going to use my flyer layout, can you change the phone number at the bottom?”
That would’ve been the end of it.
Instead… you chose social media.
So boom. 💥
I don’t normally entertain drama. I don’t argue with lies, lonely people, or folks who need attention from the internet to feel important. But the minute somebody writes me into a story that wasn’t supposed to be about me… now we gotta tell the whole story.
About eight or nine years ago, I called this woman my sister. Not because we shared blood, but because I genuinely loved her. We shared similar beliefs, and I had once been married to her brother, so family was family.
Back then she was going through one of the darkest seasons of her life. Every other day I’d drive across Houston just to check on her, sit with her, make sure she was okay, or simply help her escape what she was carrying.
One night she called me while sitting on the floor of her closet, crying about everything going wrong in her life and everything happening between her and her child’s father. She told me she was tired… tired of life.
The very next day I told her, “Come on. Let’s go walking.”
During that walk I reminded her that she couldn’t quit because she had a little girl depending on her. Also the best way to get over situations is to keep your mind & body busy. For as her daughter’s father, success is the best revenge.
She had a small cleaning business at the time, but it wasn’t really moving. Most of her customers were family and friends. She really wasn’t charging anything. HOMEGLOW charges more than she was making.
Meanwhile, I was working for Harris County in dental, making good money and handling my own responsibilities. But I believed in her.
So I invested my own money.
I paid for new marketing materials.
I paid for Facebook ads.
Back before AI existed, I sat on Microsoft Word and Adobe for hours creating flyers.
I’d go Live promoting the business.
I’d advertise on my personal page.
I’d promote it on my podcast.
I’d bring family and friends in as customers.
I’d work jobs with her.
Sometimes I’d work jobs alone because she’d gotten too drunk the night before and couldn’t make it.
Little by little… the business started growing.
Her page grew from a couple hundred followers to a couple thousand.
I never asked for credit.
I never asked for applause.
Because that’s what you do when you love somebody.
Then life hit me.
Around 2022–2023 I stepped away from everything to figure my own life out. During one of the hardest seasons I’d ever experienced, another friend of mine showed up for me. She poured into me, encouraged me, and reminded me who I was.
But where was “sister”?
She was consumed with her own relationship drama while letting the business slowly fall apart.
Then one day I got a random phone call.
Instead of checking on me, she unloaded years of hidden resentment.
Everything I’d ever trusted her with got thrown back in my face.
My struggles.
My relationships.
Private conversations.
Things I had only shared because I believed she was a safe place.
Then she started revealing what the real issue had always been.
“You make good money.”
“You spend more time with your other friend.”
“You…”
“You…”
“You…”
None of it had anything to do with anything.
That’s when it clicked.
The phone call wasn’t about friendship.
It was about jealousy.
That’s why I stopped confiding in you.
Because safe people don’t weaponize your pain.
I quietly walked away.
No scene.
No social media.
No campaign.
I simply let people be who they chose to become.
The same friend who stood beside me asked me one simple question:
“Val… don’t you already have people who support YOU?”
She encouraged me to build something for myself.
She designed my first logo.
She let me clean her home so I could record my first promotional video.
At the time I already had a growing massage business and a spiritual business.
Then Heaven Scent took off…
Fast.
And here’s the part that’ll probably surprise people…
Even after all of that…
I still referred clients to the woman I once called my sister.
Because hate never lived in my heart.
In May, a person contacted me looking for cleaning services.
I couldn’t take the job.
I happened to see my former “sister’s” post in a mutual Houston business group.
So I copied her flyer…
…and referred the customer directly to her.
No jealousy.
No bitterness.
Just business.
Fast forward to Cancer Season.
I was creating one of my promotional flyers.
I wanted to keep a similar four-box layout but I had too much to add to the flyer and it wasn’t clean and organized.
I asked ChatGPT to recreate the only the layout from her flyer—not the wording, colors, branding, pricing, content, NOTHING.
During one of the draft versions, the old phone number at the bottom accidentally remained.
A customer called her.
Instead of calling me…
Instead of texting me…
Instead of giving me the same grace I had extended her for years…
She ran to social media.
Then she invited other people into something that had absolutely nothing to do with them.
People who looked foolish celebrating drama they knew nothing about.
Even a person who call herself a “humanitarian” & a high school friend is stirred up in the mess.
And somehow…
The story became that I stole something.
No…
The real issue isn’t a phone number.
The real issue is that I’m doing well without you.
The same “good karma” you always preached about…
It found me.
Not because I wished bad on anyone…
But because I kept working.
I kept building.
I kept showing up.
While some people secretly prayed I’d fail…
God had different plans.
So no…
I’m not angry.
I’m disappointed.
Because I truly loved you as family once.
But after hearing everything your ex said… everything your sister’s girlfriend said…
After hearing the same patterns repeated by other former friends…
I realized something.
Sometimes people don’t lose relationships because everyone else is the problem.
Sometimes the common denominator is staring back at them in the mirror.
I sincerely hope one day you find peace.
I hope you heal.
I hope you stop looking for attention through conflict.
Because life gets a whole lot lighter when you stop carrying bitterness.
As for me…
I’m going to keep building.
Keep growing.
Keep winning.
And keep wishing you nothing but healing, success, and peace.
The chapter with us ended a long time ago.
I’m just finally correcting the record.
