distractors: lied reflected hesitated
sentence: When I first found out,I was very sad and cried a lot.She was more like a sister to me than a  pet  .But I was also angry at my stepfather,Steve,who told us the  truth  a week after it happened.He  [MASK]  because he didn't want to worry us,and he didn't want me to get depressed and fail my exams.I just thought she was  still  at the animals' hospital.