I Played Shy to Dodge Her Traps Then the Impostor Snapped Chapter 04

I Played Shy to Dodge Her Traps Then the Impostor Snapped Chapter 04

My mom pulled me out of the wardrobe.

My hair was matted, my clothes filthy, my eyes empty. She tried to speak. Nothing came out at first.

“What did you do to yourself? If something was wrong, you should’ve told me. Why would you just crawl into a wardrobe and hide?”

“I know I said I wanted to punish you, but I’m still your mother. I would never actually let you die.”

“You… we’re your family. All of us. Why won’t you just let us in?”

For the first time, the guilt in her eyes was impossible to miss.

I wanted to tell her the truth. I hadn’t been suffering in there. I’d actually been comfortable.

But by the time the words reached my mouth, all that came out was, “Mm.”

She went quiet for a long time. When she finally spoke again, her voice was softer than I’d ever heard it.

“I’m going to get you help. Whatever this is, we’ll find a way to fix it.”

“And for you to end up like this… someone must have hurt you. When you were little.”

“Whoever did this to you, I will find them. And I will make them pay.”

Something twisted in my chest. I shook my head fast. “No.”

“No one hurt me.”

It was the truth. Nobody did anything to me. I was just born this way. Quiet, scared, small.

But my mom had already made up her mind. The gentleness in her voice only deepened.

“Sweetheart, it’s okay. You don’t have to tell me now. Whenever you’re ready. There’s no rush.”

After that, my mom and Lucas made it their mission to get me out of the house. Every day, they tried something new to coax me into the outside world.

Funny enough, Hazel wanted the same thing. Just not for the same reasons.

Her latest accusation was that I’d tried to hit her with a car.

But it turned out I hadn’t set foot outside at all. And I didn’t even know how to drive.

Lucas stared at her, looking exhausted. “Can you stop going after Chloe? She’s not well.”

Hazel’s voice rose, sharp and shrill. “Being sick isn’t an excuse! She’s deranged. That’s not an illness—it’s just pure evil.”

Then, right on cue, her bottom lip trembled. “Lucas, you don’t even trust me anymore?”

“I knew it. She’s your biological sister, so she’s the only one who matters.”

Lucas rubbed his face. “Hazel, all I care about is the truth.”

“We have security cameras, Hazel. The footage shows Chloe never even left the house. So how exactly did she try to run you over?”

The tears stopped. Hazel’s face went blank.

After that, something in her shifted. She stopped trying to frame me. Her new goal was simpler: get me outside and make sure I never came back.

But I wouldn’t budge. Not one step past the door.

Then one afternoon, I overheard her on the phone.

“If Chloe won’t leave the house, fine. Then she dies in it.”

“One fire takes care of everything. Her, and…”

That afternoon, the Ashford estate caught fire. Seemingly out of nowhere.

In front of the crowd gathered outside, Hazel collapsed to her knees.

“Mom, Dad, Lucas… Chloe… you can’t be gone! How could this happen?!”

“Especially Chloe. You only just came home. You barely had a chance to be part of this family, and now you’ve been taken from us!”

“If I’d known this would happen, I never would have let you come back. At least you’d be safe…”

“Wow. You really do care about me.”

Hazel’s wailing stopped like someone had flipped a switch.

She whipped around, eyes blown wide.