Valerie was born in a California hospital sometime in January in the early 1990s to teenage mother Kate Argent. Before the newborn ever had the chance to belong to anyone, she was taken from the maternity ward by her grandfather Gerard Argent. For reasons Valerie would only partially understand years later, Gerard placed the child into the foster system and erased her connection to the Argent family entirely. The baby had never even been named. A nurse working that night found the infant resting in the small hospital chapel and wrote a name onto the paperwork: Valerie Hart.For the first six years of her life, Valerie lived in a foster home with three other foundling children who had also been abandoned or removed from their families. The oldest was Lucas Ward, a protective boy who often acted like an older brother. Beneath him was Sophie Caldwell, thoughtful and quiet. Valerie was the second youngest, followed by the baby of the group, Daniel “Danny” Ruiz. For six years they grew up believing they were a strange but permanent little family. Then the foster parents became too old to continue caring for children, and the state separated them all. The four siblings were sent to different homes across the system. For Valerie, it was the first time she learned that stability was temporary.From that point forward her childhood became a series of placements. She moved between homes throughout several states before eventually being placed in group homes by the time she was eleven. At twelve, another traumatic event marked her permanently. Her foster father—an alcoholic—caused a car crash while driving drunk. Valerie survived but was left with a scar across her abdomen.At thirteen she was living in a group home with a girl named Beatrice, who was slightly older and often treated Valerie like a younger sister. One night the two girls snuck alcohol out to the swimming pool behind the facility. Drunk and laughing, Valerie playfully pushed Beatrice into the water. She didn’t know Beatrice couldn’t swim. By the time anyone realized what had happened, the girl had drowned. Valerie was charged with manslaughter and sent to juvenile detention for twelve months before the charges were eventually dropped. The guilt followed her long after the court case ended.Her teenage years after that were chaotic. Valerie drifted through group homes, abandoned placements, and long nights on the streets. She lived mostly in and around New York and New Jersey, surviving through petty theft, dealing small amounts of drugs, and drinking whenever she could find alcohol. Police encounters were common.Everything changed when she was seventeen.After another arrest in New York City, someone unexpected posted her bail: her biological mother, Kate Argent. Kate took Valerie back to California and introduced her to the family she had never known existed. Valerie learned the truth about the Argents and the complicated legacy surrounding them. She met her cousin Connor and moved in with him in Beacon Hills while she got to know the extended family. At the time, Arielle—Kate’s first daughter with Derek Hale—was only nine years old. Valerie enrolled briefly at Beacon Hills High School for her final year of education, though she rarely attended. Valerie was intelligent, but classrooms had never suited her.During that time Kate had two more children with Derek Hale: Erica and Drake, born about eighteen months apart.Eventually Valerie left Beacon Hills with Connor and returned to New York. Her early twenties were unstable. She drank heavily, drifted through short-lived relationships, and struggled to maintain steady employment. During that time she began researching her family history and learned more about Gerard Argent and the family’s French heritage. Somewhere in the middle of that chaotic period she adopted a dark grey cat with silky fur that seemed to subtly change color depending on the light. She named the cat Turtle.Connor eventually moved out to live with his boyfriend, leaving Valerie alone. With no real ties left in New York, Valerie sold the apartment and moved to Maine.In her mid-twenties she arrived in Storybrooke and found work at Granny’s diner. Turtle came with her. Life there was unstable but quieter. Valerie struggled with alcohol and cycled through several messy relationships, including brief romances with China Potts and Ruby Lucas. Eventually her drinking cost her the job at the diner, and the relationships collapsed as well. Valerie returned to New York with Turtle and finally attempted sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous.That was where she met Lauren Kearney.Their relationship was volatile and passionate but ultimately destructive. When it ended, Valerie spiraled again. Shortly afterward she began a brief relationship with a man named Fang—an incubus living in New York whose supernatural nature fascinated Valerie. The relationship was short-lived but resulted in an unexpected pregnancy.Seeking stability, Valerie returned to Storybrooke. She left Turtle with friends in New York and tried to rebuild her life there. Emma Swan supported her through the pregnancy and became one of the few people Valerie trusted. When her son was born, she named him Boston, after the city where she and Emma had briefly lived in the same foster placement as children.Boston was diagnosed Deaf when he was six months old. Valerie and China learned American Sign Language together and built a home around visual communication. They adopted a Deaf dog named Angus, who quickly became Boston’s best companion.For the first time in her life, Valerie had stability.She rekindled her relationship with China and together they bought a beautiful house on the hill overlooking Storybrooke. Valerie began working as a private investigator while China opened a bakery. They planned a future together and even talked about having more children.Then their work took them overseas for a year in France.While waiting at a train station there, Boston was struck by an incoming train. The train Valerie herself was riding. Boston died at the scene. China disappeared during the chaos and was never found, though she had been twelve weeks pregnant at the time.Valerie left France soon after, rehoming Angus with neighbors and returning to California.The years following Boston’s death were defined by grief and alcoholism. Back in Beacon Hills she helped support Arielle’s daughter Matilda, particularly after Arielle abandoned her when Matilda became pregnant. Valerie stepped into the role of guardian.In the present day Valerie lives in Seattle. A lead in a private investigation brought her there years earlier—evidence suggesting that a baby had once been born in the city to a woman matching China’s description. The trail eventually went cold. Hoping for better access to information, Valerie retrained as a social worker.Her alcoholism nearly killed her. After drinking herself into liver failure, Valerie received a transplant at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.Today Valerie owns a small apartment in Seattle where Matilda and Matilda’s daughter Mavis now live with her. Valerie remains fiercely protective of them both. Mavis attends a school for Deaf students, while Matilda studies science at a local college.Valerie’s life has been shaped by loss, survival, and the constant search for belonging. The girl once named by a hospital nurse has spent decades building her own version of family—piece by fragile piece.