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All Chapters of Their Game of Family: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

My younger sister, Raina Kirk, finally stopped laughing and picked up a lock of hair from the floor, holding it under her chin."Mom, look! Don't I look like some caveman?"My mother, Kyla Kirk, laughed so hard she nearly spilled her soup. "Throw that away! That's disgusting."Raina pulled out her phone and snapped several pictures of me.I raised a hand to cover my face. "Don't take pictures.""Too late." She edited the photos as she giggled. "A Thanksgiving special! I've already got the caption: One Snip Took My Sister from Princess to Escaped Convict."I reached for her phone, but my boyfriend, Zayne Herring, stepped in front of her to shield her from me. "Hey, what are you doing? She hasn't even posted an ugly picture of you."The next second, a message popped up in the family group chat.Raina had sent everyone a picture of me with red, teary eyes and hair that was long on one side and chopped short on the other.The chat immediately filled with laughing emojis.My aunt

Chapter 2

The next morning, I went to the hair salon downstairs.The stylist studied the jagged, uneven mess on one side of my head for a long time."There's no way to blend this in. Whoever cut it was pretty brutal. The hair underneath is damaged, too. We'll have to cut the whole thing short."I nodded. "Go ahead."The scissors began snipping away.In the mirror, I watched the hair I'd spent seven years growing get shorter and shorter. It wasn't that I'd never had my hair cut before.Seven years ago, when I'd just started working, I barely made enough money to get by. Every day, I spent more than an hour packed into the subway.During the hardest times, Zayne would sit with me outside my tiny rental apartment and eat microwaved mac and cheese. Back then, he loved twirling the ends of my hair around his fingers. "Don't cut it. Long hair looks beautiful on you. Keep it that way when we get married."I'd listened to him and kept it long for seven whole years.As the stylist draped a cape

Chapter 3

The next morning, Zayne showed up with breakfast.I was taking the pictures off my bedroom wall. He leaned against the doorway and watched me for a while."Still mad? Come on, let it go already. Raina told me she was so scared last night she couldn't sleep."My hands stopped moving. "Why was she scared?""She thought you might actually fall out with her." He said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "She's got a big mouth, but she's not a bad person. You're her older sister. You can't hold every little thing against her forever."I put the last picture into my suitcase. It was one of Zayne and me from our first year together.He suddenly noticed my hair. "You cut it that short?""Yeah."He stared at it for two seconds. Then, to my surprise, he laughed. "Actually, it looks pretty good. My mom's been saying for ages that your old hair was too long and made you look unkempt."I looked up at him. "Your mom?""Yeah." Zayne stuck a straw into the soy milk and h

Chapter 4

The day I left, the house was even livelier than usual.Raina had set up her phone in the living room first thing that morning. When I walked past, she immediately turned the screen face down. "No peeking! We've got another round of fun tonight."Mom came out carrying a plate of fruit. "Don't go too far this time. You really upset Blakely yesterday." She said it, but she was already laughing herself.Raina was full of confidence. "Relax! Blakely never stays mad for more than two days."Dad sat on the couch reading the newspaper. "She's always been like that. When she was little, she'd threaten to run away, make it all the way to the entrance of the complex, get hungry, and come right back."Zayne leaned against the dining table, drinking coffee. He laughed when he heard that. "She's still the same. Where could she possibly go?"None of them bothered to lower their voices around me. They'd never imagined I might actually leave.When Mom noticed my suitcase by the front door, she

Chapter 5

By seven that evening, the fondue at home had already come to a boil twice.Raina clutched her phone, glancing at the time and then at the front door. "You're going to lose, Zayne. You bet she'd be back by seven."Zayne slid another plate of beef into the pot, looking perfectly relaxed. "What's the rush? When has she ever managed to stay mad for an entire night?"Dad nodded along. "Exactly. When she was little, she'd run away with her backpack packed like she was fleeing a war zone. Then she'd sit downstairs feeding mosquitoes for half an hour before coming back on her own."Mom burst out laughing. "And she'd still pretend she'd meant to come back, saying she'd forgotten her water bottle."The three of them laughed together.Raina laughed along, too, but she didn't forget to nudge the cardboard box she'd hidden beside the dining cabinet farther out of sight.Inside was the surprise she'd prepared for the second round of her prank: a bald cap, a bottle of temporary hair dye spray

Chapter 6

By the time Zayne reached my old office, only the security guards were left on the entire floor.Unwilling to give up, he called Cameron.The moment Cameron understood why he was calling, he sounded a little surprised. "Blakely Kirk? She finished handing over her work yesterday."Zayne tightened his grip on the phone. "When did she apply for the transfer?""She first asked about it at the beginning of the month." Cameron paused. "She’d been hesitating for a while, but the night before last, she suddenly confirmed she was going. Said the sooner, the better."Zayne’s Adam’s apple bobbed. "Did she say why?""I didn’t feel comfortable asking about her personal reasons." Cameron remained polite. "But if you need to reach her, you should contact her directly. She’s pretty busy now that she’s in Port Sterling."The call ended.Zayne stood outside the building, motionless for a long time.Meanwhile, I’d just arrived at my new place in Port Sterling. The apartment the company had arran

Chapter 7

On the third day, I officially started my new job.The new project had just launched, and we were so busy that I even had to schedule water breaks.During my lunch break, a colleague held out her phone to me. "Is this you?"I looked down.In the video, I was sitting at the dining table at home. Half my long hair had been chopped off.Behind the camera, Raina was laughing so hard she could barely breathe. Mom called me a banshee, and Dad said I was the easiest person in the world to tease.And then there was Zayne’s voice. "You really know how to make me look bad."The video’s caption read: "Thanksgiving prank on my own sister. She lost it in three seconds."Raina had posted it the night before. She’d probably only meant to keep making fun of me.But one of our relatives had shared it, and within a single night, it had racked up more than a hundred thousand views.The comments, however, were nothing like she’d expected."This isn’t a prank. It’s a complete lack of boundaries.

Chapter 8

A week later, Mom and Dad came to Port Sterling anyway. They hadn't told me in advance.At noon, just after I'd finished a meeting with my project team, I saw Mom sitting in the lobby lounge on the first floor of my office building. Dad stood beside her. They looked exhausted from the trip, and a bag of snacks I used to love sat at their feet.The moment Mom saw me, she stood up. "Blakely."Her eyes immediately welled up. "Why haven't you been answering your phone?"I paused for two seconds. "Did you need something?"The question clearly caught her off guard. In the past, I'd never been so formal with my own parents.Dad cleared his throat. "Let's go back and talk.""Go where?""Your place."I shook my head. "That won't work."Dad looked embarrassed. "We're your parents. Why can't we visit where you live?"A colleague passed nearby.Dad lowered his voice. "Don't let people make a spectacle of us."I suddenly realized how familiar those words were.When I was little and Ra

Chapter 9

The day after my parents left, Zayne came to see me. He looked more worn out than I’d expected.No flowers.No ring.He was carrying only the paper bag. The things I’d returned to him were still inside, untouched."Blakely, can we talk for ten minutes?"I glanced at the time. "Eight. I have a meeting at two."He gave a bitter smile. "You won’t even give me ten minutes now."I didn’t answer. He’d stood outside my office building for a long time before finally swallowing his pride and apologizing."What happened with your hair was my fault. And the dress, too. Back then, I honestly thought we were just having fun."I nodded. "I know."He froze, probably surprised by how calm I was. "Then why can’t you give me one more chance?"I looked at him. "Zayne, do you know what hurt me the most?"His Adam’s apple bobbed. "I was part of it.""No." I shook my head. "It’s that you knew I wouldn’t leave."His whole body stiffened.I continued, "That’s why you dared to do it. You knew ho

Chapter 10

The following Thanksgiving, I got my hair cut again.No one had forced me into a chair, and I wasn't trying to fix an uneven mess.I was sitting in a hair salon by choice, telling the stylist, "A little shorter."She smiled. "You sure you're ready?"I ran my fingers over the ends of my hair, which had grown to my shoulders. "I am."That year, I stayed in Port Sterling and took charge of two projects.I was promoted at the beginning of the year. My salary hadn't quite doubled the way they'd promised at first, but I could afford a small apartment with beautiful natural light.On weekends, I could sleep as late as I wanted.I bought a white dress, and no one smeared lipstick on the back of it.I got a finicky houseplant. It died once. Then I managed to bring it back to life.My family contacted me less and less. Mom occasionally sent me weather updates.Dad had learned to add to his texts, "If you're busy, you don't have to reply."At first, Raina refused to accept the situati

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