All Chapters of I Left Before the Snow Stopped: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

01

To celebrate our sixth anniversary, I'd worked twenty-six days straight so I could take one weekend off.Early Friday morning, I flew from Chicago to Denver. Then I dragged my luggage onto a mountain shuttle and rode for more than two hours. By 11:50 a.m., I finally arrived at the North Creek park-and-ride in Colorado.Before I left, Mason had confirmed the time over the phone."Noon, right? I'll be there by eleven-forty."He was a structural engineer monitoring bridges in the mountains. I knew he could be called out at any time. So when his pickup wasn't there at 12:10, I didn't push him. I just sent him a message."I'm here, at the coffee stand."By three, the snow was getting heavier.By four, the state transportation department had issued a mountain road closure warning.By five-thirty, the coffee stand was about to close. The barista handed me one last cup of hot water. She asked when my ride was coming.I glanced at my message thread, still showing no reply, and said, "Should be

02

The next morning, I woke with sharp pain shooting through my feet.The toes that had gone numb the night before were swollen now. The skin had turned pale, and even the slightest touch felt like needles. I was about to call a rideshare to take me to the hospital when a notification from Instagram popped up. Tessa had posted a new Story.In the first clip, Mason stood in the snow, waiting in line with two cups of seasonal hot chocolate.In the next clip, Tessa sat in the passenger seat. She took a sip from her thermos, then handed it to Mason.He drank from it, the gesture so natural it looked like something they'd done many times before.The caption read:"He waited in line for an hour. The drink was nothing special. Good thing he didn't mind."I watched that seven-second clip twice.Mason was a bit of a germaphobe. In six years together, he'd never once drunk from a cup I'd used. On our first date, I accidentally took a sip of his coffee. He immediately bought himself another one.I s

03

Mason woke up the next morning acting as if last night's fight was already behind us.He was in the kitchen frying eggs. As he cooked, he asked if I wanted to have dinner at the restaurant where we'd had our first date."Let's go out for dinner," he said. "We need to work this out eventually."I sat at the dining table filling out paperwork for London. I didn't look up."Deal with what?""The blizzard, Tessa, and whatever's going on with you right now.""What's going on with me?"Mason turned off the burner and leaned against the counter."Tessa thinks you've been under too much pressure lately. She says you keep turning everything into an argument."My hands froze over the keyboard."That's what Tessa said?""I just asked her a few things." He spoke as if there was nothing strange about it. "She's known you forever. I thought she might know why you've been so wound up lately."We'd been together for six years, and now Mason needed Tessa to explain me to him.That night, he tried to pu

04

After the door closed, the only sound left in the apartment was the hum of the heater.I didn't immediately clean up the coffee cups they'd left behind. The hazelnut latte still sat on the table, condensation beading on the cup.In six years, Mason had memorized what milk Tessa drank and how many pumps of syrup she liked, but he'd forgotten that the smell of hazelnut flavoring gave me migraines.I poured the coffee down the drain and went back to packing.The London posting was only a year, and the company would provide a short-term apartment. There was no reason to keep the Chicago place. I sent building management an early-termination request and scheduled the key handover for 8:30 the next morning.At seven that evening, Jamie called on video out of the blue.She was my most trusted colleague at Northline, blunter than me, and never any good at pretending she hadn't seen something.The camera was shaking wildly, the Northline annual benefit gala in the background. She pushed through

05

The plane landed in London at dawn.A driver from Northline took me to the company's short-term apartment. It was small, and the window looked out over a row of rain-soaked brick buildings. A welcome package for new employees sat on the kitchen counter beside a card with my name on it.Naomi texted me and told me to rest for the day. I could report to the office the next morning.I finished showering and had just plugged my phone in to charge when a call came through from my Chicago apartment building's front desk."Ms. Ward, a Mr. Mason Reed is downstairs. He's been waiting for three hours and insists on seeing you."I glanced at the London time in the corner of my screen. It would be just past midnight in Chicago."Don't let him into the building.""His visitor access has already been revoked. We only wanted to confirm whether we should call the police.""Not yet. Put him on."A few seconds later, I heard Mason breathing hard on the other end."Where are you?""London."Dead silence

06

Two weeks later, I barely had time to think about Mason anymore.Mercer Yard was my first project in London. We were turning a late-nineteenth-century warehouse into a space for exhibitions, offices, and community events.But the project had hit a problem. The new fire escape plan would damage part of the original structure.On my fourteenth day in London, the contractor sent an email blaming Northline for a week-long construction delay. They claimed we'd taken too long to approve changes to the fire escape route. The client wanted all the records by the end of the day. Otherwise, they would put the local contractor in charge of coordination.In the conference room, everyone said we didn't have enough time.Before, my first thought would have been how to catch up on the lost week.This time, I turned off the projector."Who proposed the change?"The contractor's representative blinked."The site team.""Where's the formal request?""It was a verbal discussion.""When?"He couldn't answ

07

The coffee shop on the corner was mostly empty.I chose a seat near the door. Mason sat across from me and placed his phone on the table. He didn't order anything.Once the twenty-minute timer started, he began by pulling a key from his bag.It was the spare key to my Chicago apartment."The locks have been changed," he said. "But this key still belongs to you."I didn't reach for it.Mason set the key on the table and pulled out a stack of printouts.The first page was a timeline of calls from the night of the blizzard.Thirty-one missed calls, my shared location, weather warnings, and every message with the exact time it was sent."I know you don't need me to print these out."He stared at the edge of the paper and paused."I used to say I didn't see them. That I remembered it differently. That I didn't know what was happening."Now I've seen them."I didn't respond."I gave my phone to Tessa. I got the pickup spot wrong," he said. "And after I went to the wrong place, I didn't check

08

Tessa called from a new number while I was at the Mercer Yard site reviewing the steel reinforcement plan.When I picked up, she skipped the pleasantries."Ellie, I need you to confirm a few things for me."Her voice was tense. From the echo in the background, she sounded like she was in an office stairwell."My company's finance team is reviewing that Denver trip. They want to know whether you invited me, whether Mason was a Northline-invited client, and whether the gala badge allowed a personal guest."She paused, her voice dropping lower."And my expense report says 'partner-provided accommodations.' They want your confirmation."I closed my plans."None of that is true."Tessa's breath caught."You knew I was in Colorado.""I found out after I got there.""But we were still friends then." She started talking faster. "If you just write that you knew about the trip, finance won't flag it as unauthorized travel.""I can't put down something that isn't true.""It's not lying." She soun

09

A year later, Mercer Yard brought me back to Chicago.The project had been nominated for an international design award, and the ceremony was at a hotel near Northline headquarters. When the plane landed, there was no snow outside.Jamie met me at arrivals, holding a sign that read, "London's Most In-Demand Project Director."I laughed and hugged her."When did you get so dramatic?""Ever since you finally learned to stop cleaning up other people's messes."Over the past year, Mercer Yard had been completed on schedule. We'd found a way to add the new fire escape while preserving the historic structure and community spaces.In the final review, the client wrote that the project's real turning point came when we stopped relying on vague promises and started putting everything in writing.On the night of the ceremony, I arrived with the London team.Before we went in, Jamie glanced across the lobby. "Some people over there used to know you and Mason. Want to use the other entrance?""No n

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP