They Chose My Twin, So I Chose a Life Without Them Chapter 04

They Chose My Twin, So I Chose a Life Without Them Chapter 04

When I opened my eyes the next morning, it was already ten.

I didn’t even stop to put on shoes before rushing out.

The moment I opened the door, I ran into my parents and siblings returning from the portrait studio.

Despair emptied my legs, and I collapsed to the floor. A shard from a broken glass sliced into my foot.

Blood poured out, but I couldn’t feel the pain.

All I could think about was my regret and the way I had failed again.

Mason glanced coldly at the blood on the floor and sneered.

“You were so desperate to avoid taking a picture with us that you hurt yourself?”

“Claire Parker, every time I think you can’t get more fake or heartless, you prove me wrong.”

He walked straight to his room without looking at me again.

My parents only sighed and went back to whatever they had been doing.

Lily stayed behind, happily recounting every detail of the photo session.

Then she pretended to comfort me.

“Claire, I know you’re upset that you missed the family portrait.”

“But I found a way to make it up to you. We can edit you into the picture.”

“What do you think?” She sounded thoughtful, but mockery and triumph filled her eyes.

For some reason, I suddenly pictured the glass of milk from the night before.

I shot to my feet and grabbed Lily’s arm.

“Tell me the truth. Did you put something in my milk so I’d oversleep?”

Her eyes filled with tears instantly.

“Claire, what are you talking about? I don’t understand.”

As we struggled, I caught sight of the security camera in the corner of the living room.

Hope flashed through me.

I pushed past her, rushed into the study, and pulled up the footage from the previous night.

What I saw made my heart jolt.

Lily had hidden in the kitchen, dropped a white tablet into my milk, and carried it into my room.

My anger reached its breaking point.

All those times I had “overslept” weren’t accidents. Just like the secret group chat, Lily had arranged them so she could keep all the family’s attention for herself.

Shock made me sway, and my arm struck the mouse.

The playback bar jumped back two weeks.

Once again, Lily appeared on the screen, slipping something into my milk.

Ice spread through my veins.

Two weeks earlier had been the day of the SAT.

Keeping me out of family portraits wasn’t enough. She had tried to destroy my future too.

Thankfully, my stomach had acted up that morning, and I kept running to the bathroom after drinking the milk. The sleep aid never had time to take full effect.

That was the only reason disaster had been avoided.

I took the footage to my parents, expecting them to explode at Lily.

They didn’t even raise their voices.

They only told her lightly, “Don’t do that again.”

Then they turned on me. “Nothing happened, so why are you making such a big deal out of it?”

“You’ve terrified Lily.”

They pulled her into their arms and soothed her gently.

Mason came over to lecture me too. “We’re family. Do you really have to be this petty?”

“Even if Lily made a mistake, are you saying you had no part in it?”

I looked at the three people I had once considered the most important people in my life.

To protect Lily Parker, they had thrown away even the most basic sense of right and wrong.

Their devotion to her was truly impressive.

I started laughing.

Then tears began to fall through my laughter.

My parents looked at me with disgust.

“It’s one family portrait. We’ll take you back tomorrow and have another one done.”

I stopped laughing and answered calmly.

“Don’t bother.”

There was no need to retake the portrait. I would never return to this house either.

I went to my room in silence and pulled out my suitcase.

I packed the few belongings in that house that were actually mine.

Then I blocked every member of my family and left the group chat called Perfect Parker Family.

Without looking back, I walked out of the house and boarded a flight to Miami.

From then on, there would be endless miles between us, and I would never look back.

To keep the promise they had made the day before, and to stop me from “holding Lily’s mistake over her head,” my family woke before dawn the next morning and waited outside my room for another portrait session.

I usually got up at seven, but at nine, my door was still closed.

My parents motioned for Mason to knock. He walked over and pounded on the door.

“Claire, get up. We’re going to take the picture.”

“Come on. Mom, Dad, and I are all waiting for you.”

He called for a long time, but no one answered.

Finally he muttered, “She didn’t drink another glass of doctored milk and pass out again, did she?”

The other three immediately turned toward Lily.

She flinched and hurried to swear her innocence.

“It wasn’t me. I didn’t do anything.”

“Check the cameras if you don’t believe me.”

Although our parents had defended her in front of me the day before, they had scolded her harshly in private.

“No matter what, she’s your sister and part of this family.”

“If you pull another stunt like that, we may stop treating you as our daughter.”

Lily had already regretted being caught. The moment she heard their warning, she nodded repeatedly and promised to change.

Once they ruled out the possibility that I had been drugged again, my parents used the spare key to open my door.

The four of them froze at the sight of the empty room.

Guilt crossed my parents’ faces, then shock, and finally anger.

“We already said we’d make it up to her, and she ran away without saying a word.”

“She’s being completely unreasonable.”

“That ungrateful girl is going to be the death of me.”

My mother grew angrier with every word and called the photography studio.

“Hello. Cancel our family portrait appointment.”

“Yes. We’re not coming.”

Then she ordered Mason to call me.

Her chest heaved with fury.

“Tell that ungrateful girl to come home right now.”

“If she doesn’t, she can forget about ever coming back.”

Mason called over and over, but every attempt went straight to an unavailable message.

“Mom, Claire’s phone won’t connect. What do we do?”

My mother slammed her palm onto the coffee table so hard that a cup fell to the floor and shattered.

“How dare she ignore us?”

She scrolled frantically through her messages until she finally found the old family chat that included me.

She typed a string of messages and tried to tag me, but my profile was nowhere in the member list.

Lily spoke timidly from beside her.

“Mom, don’t bother. I think Claire left the group.”

The words struck my mother like thunder.

She repeated them under her breath.

“What did you say? She left?”

How could that be possible?

When I first returned home, I had learned they had a family chat and begged constantly to be added.

My mother had worried about Lily’s feelings and kept making excuses not to include me.

I had pleaded for days.

I even woke early every morning to make breakfast for the entire family.

When she finally grew tired of my begging, she followed Lily’s suggestion.

She added me to the original chat, then secretly created a new one without me.

And now I had abandoned the group I once worked so hard to join without a second thought.

Confusion spread through my mother, followed by a faint, growing unease.

For the first time, she realized I might not have left in a moment of anger.

She suddenly thought of something and called my high school college counselor, Rebecca Collins.

“Ms. Collins, which university did Claire finally choose?”

When she heard the answer, her vision went dark and she nearly fainted.