I Played Shy to Dodge Her Traps Then the Impostor Snapped Chapter 05

I Played Shy to Dodge Her Traps Then the Impostor Snapped Chapter 05

“You… what are you… how are you not…”

She caught herself, swallowing the rest of her sentence.

I stared at her. Calm. Empty. “Where should I be, Hazel?”

“Inside the house? Burning alive in the fire you set?”

Hazel recovered fast. Her face smoothed out. “What are you talking about? I didn’t set any fire.”

She glanced at the crowd watching us, and forced a smile. “I’m so sorry, everyone. Chloe… she’s not well.”

She tapped her temple, lowering her voice just enough. “Our whole family knows. She was just evaluated by a doctor.”

“So please, don’t take anything she says seriously.”

The crowd exchanged uneasy glances. No one said a word.

My mom stepped in, trying to smooth things over. “All right, all right. What matters is nobody got hurt.”

“Hazel was just scared for us. She didn’t mean anything by it. Chloe, don’t give her a hard time.”

Lucas said nothing. He just stood there, lost in thought.

Hazel shot me a quick, victorious glance before her voice went soft and wounded. “It’s fine. I’m used to it. Chloe’s always saying things like this about me.”

“I know I took her place in this family for years. I get why she’d resent me. It’s just…”

“Chloe, all I’ve ever wanted is for us to be real sisters.”

“This family is the best thing that ever happened to me. Dad, Mom, Lucas.”

“I… I don’t want to lose them.”

My mom’s eyes glistened. She rubbed Hazel’s back in slow circles. “I know, honey. Chloe’s not well, so her mind plays tricks on her. She can’t help it.”

“But if you keep being kind to her, she’ll come around eventually.”

Hazel had been counting on my mom to explode at me. When she just offered pity instead, her composure cracked. She bit her lip, glaring at me with something raw and ugly.

I held her stare and let the words come out slow. “Only you know if you actually love this family, or if you wanted them all dead.”

“But we weren’t the only ones in that house. The housekeeper and the butler were in there too. They never did anything to you. And today, they almost burned alive.”

If I hadn’t overheard that phone call and gotten them both out of the house before it happened, they’d be dead.

“Enough!” Hazel swallowed hard, quickly forcing her expression back into something wounded and overwhelmed.

“Chloe, when are you going to stop coming after me?”

“Do you honestly hate me so much that you…”

I didn’t let her finish. I pulled out my phone, hit play, and held it up.

One sentence in, every drop of color drained from Hazel’s face.

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