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All Chapters of I Stopped Turning Around: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

My phone buzzed while everyone at the table was still laughing.It was my manager, Paul.I stared at the screen for two seconds before answering."Leah, where are you?"The client waited twenty minutes and left."I opened my mouth, then closed it."Something came up with my family."There was a pause."Is everyone okay?"I looked at my family in front of me, laughing so hard they could barely sit upright."They're fine.""Good."He sighed."But you've been working this client for four months, and he flies back to Germany tomorrow. There's a good chance we just lost the contract. Just so you're prepared."The call ended.My younger sister, Chloe, leaned across the table."Wow. You actually messed up work this time?"Her eyes were bright with amusement."If I'd known your boss would call, I would've bet fifty minutes instead. Then we could've heard him yell at you too."Mom lightly smacked her arm."Enough. Don't push it."Before I could even breathe out, she turned

Chapter 2

Around noon the next day, Chloe suddenly grabbed her stomach and crouched down."Mom, my stomach hurts."Mom dropped the vegetables she was washing."Where? Right side or left?"Dad turned off the TV and grabbed his car keys."Stop asking questions. We're going to the hospital."Grant knelt in front of Chloe and helped her into her shoes, his face tight with worry."Was it the hot wings last night?"Chloe had gone pale."I don't know. It hurts."Nobody laughed.Nobody started a timer.Mom was so frantic she put on two different shoes.I stood in the entryway watching the chaos, and suddenly the whole thing felt absurd.At the hospital, the doctor said it was acute gastroenteritis.Mom finally exhaled."You scared me half to death."Dad wiped his forehead."As long as she's okay."Grant ran around filling the preion and getting Chloe a cup of hot tea.On the drive home, Chloe was already feeling much better and scrolling through videos on her phone.I sat in the bac

Chapter 3

On the third day, my company asked me to print and sign the transfer documents.The printer at home was broken.I picked up the family tablet from the living room so I could send the forms to a copy shop.The moment I unlocked it, a message appeared.THANKSGIVING SQUAD.Chloe had posted a crying emoji.[Leah barely reacts anymore. This isn't fun.]Dad replied, [Give her a couple days. Don't actually make her furious.]Mom added, [Yeah. Last year with Grandma, she really did miss work.]I stared at the screen.So they knew.I scrolled upward.Last year, the day Grandma supposedly fell, Chloe had asked, [What time should I call her?]Grant had replied, [Her promotion interview is at two. Call at 1:40. She'll run out without even closing her laptop.]He'd added a smirking emoji.My hand stopped moving.After I missed that interview, I sat in the parking garage and cried for two hours.Grant came to find me.He hugged me.He said there would be other opportunities.He e

Chapter 4

The morning I left, Mom was awake unusually early.She was making oatmeal when I rolled my suitcase out of my room.She paused when she saw it."Business trip?"I nodded."Yeah."She didn't ask much else."How long?""A while."With her back to me, she stirred the pot twice."Work is fine, but don't forget you have a family."Aren't you and Grant going shopping for outfits for the courthouse next week?""Mm-hm."She didn't hear anything strange in my voice.Chloe slept late.When I was putting on my shoes, she poked her head out of her room with her hair everywhere."Leah, come back early tonight."I bought that pistachio cake you like."I paused.She immediately became defensive."I'm serious this time. No prank."I swear."Dad laughed from the breakfast table."You've fooled her so many times she doesn't believe anything now."Chloe snorted."Not my fault she's so easy to trick."They laughed.Grant came in at the same moment.He saw my suitcase and barely

Chapter 5

Fifteen minutes passed.The laughter at home slowly died.Chloe stared at her phone, still unconvinced."Okay. Leah's getting better at this."Fifteen minutes and she still hasn't turned around."Grant frowned and called again.The phone was off.Dad remained calm."She's probably on a plane. It's just a work trip."Then Mom remembered the suitcase."That thing she rolled out this morning looked pretty big."She went toward my room.When she opened the door, all four of them froze.Half the closet was empty.My passport, documents, and bank cards were gone.Even my company badge was missing from the desk.A card lay face down beside the lamp.Grant picked it up.It was the refund confirmation from our canceled engagement photo session, dated yesterday.His face drained of color.Chloe tried to laugh it off."She's just trying to scare us."Where would she even go?"Nobody answered.Grant opened the drawer where he kept a few things at my place.His spare key, o

Chapter 6

It was almost eleven at night when I landed in Vancouver.The colleague who picked me up was Sophie Delaney, a woman with a short haircut.She took one of my suitcases and started walking."Hungry? There's a chowder place downstairs from your apartment that's still open."I answered on reflex."No, it's fine. Don't go to any trouble."Sophie looked back at me."Trouble? We're grabbing a bite."You're going to be working late with us starting tomorrow. You get one day of being polite. After that, cut it out."I blinked, then laughed."Okay."It was such an ordinary thing to say.Yet something inside me loosened.Nobody asked why I'd moved so far away.Nobody made a bet on how I'd react.Sophie handed me the menu without asking questions."Mushrooms? Yes or no?"And just so you know, I'm not picking them out for you."I went with the shrimp.When the chowder arrived, she ladled out a bowl for me and immediately went back to answering work messages.She wasn't going ou

Chapter 7

After Grant returned to Toronto, my parents couldn't stay away either.Three days later, they came to Vancouver without warning me.I walked downstairs after a meeting and found Mom sitting in the lobby with a box of butter tarts in her lap.Dad stood beside her looking uncomfortable.Mom teared up the moment she saw me."You've lost weight."I didn't respond to that."Why are you here?"Dad cleared his throat."Let's talk at your place.""I'm in company housing. I can't bring visitors up."It wasn't true.The company had given me a private one-bedroom apartment.I just didn't want them inside it.Dad's face stiffened.Eventually, we went to a coffee shop downstairs.As soon as we sat, Mom pushed the box of tarts toward me."Didn't you love these when you were little?"I looked at it."Chloe did."Mom's hand froze.The silence lasted two seconds.She slowly pulled the box back."Did she?"I must've mixed you up."I said nothing.Dad spoke first."We were wron

Chapter 8

After my parents went home, Chloe's messages piled up in my requests folder for three straight days.The first said, [I'm sorry, okay?]The second said, [Are you seriously never talking to me again?]The third was the shortest: [I need to say something.]I didn't accept any of them.On the fourth day, Mom sent me a video.Chloe had recorded it herself.She was sitting in my old room with her so-called scorebook spread out in front of her.Dad's car accident.Grandma's fall.Mom dying.Page after page.She wasn't laughing."Leah."I watched the old videos today."She stopped for several seconds."They're kind of disgusting."My thumb froze over the screen.Chloe lowered her head."Not you."Me."She played an old clip.I was fifteen, still in my school uniform.Someone had called saying Dad was in a car accident.My face went white.I ran while crying so hard I didn't even notice my shoelace had come undone.Behind the camera, my whole family was laughing.Chl

Chapter 9

Three months later, a project brought me back to Toronto.I didn't tell my family.On the day my meetings ended, Grant somehow found out I was in town. He was waiting outside my hotel.This time, he didn't block my path.He simply asked, "Can we talk for five minutes?"I checked the time."Sure."He was much calmer than the last time I saw him."Chloe deleted the group chat."Your parents stopped the pranks too."I nodded."Good."Grant smiled without humor."I used to think that if your family liked me, married life would be easier for you."My mom told me I had it backward."My first job was making sure you were okay."I said nothing.He took a small box from his coat.It wasn't a ring.Inside was the fountain pen he gave me before my first promotion interview years ago."You left it at my place."I took it."Thanks."Grant looked at me."I'm not trying to restart anything."I just wanted to return what belongs to you."For once, he didn't ask for another ch

Chapter 10

The next Thanksgiving, I didn't go home.Not because I was angry.A project simply hit a critical deadline.Mom asked three days in advance.[Are you coming home this year?]I answered, [Can't make it.]She replied almost immediately.[Okay. Don't buy a ticket. It's too much trouble for one weekend.]Half an hour later, Dad e-transferred me some money. The note said, [Buy yourself a good dinner.]Chloe was the most dramatic.She shipped an entire box of snacks across the country.A note sat on top.[Relax. I didn't hide bugs in anything.]Under it, she had added another line.[That sentence isn't a prank either. There are really no bugs.]I laughed for a long time.That evening, several coworkers who weren't traveling home decided to eat barbecue by the waterfront.Sophie held up a chicken wing."Your family isn't guilt-tripping you?"I thought about it."They used to."Not much anymore."She groaned."Lucky you."I had barely sat down when my manager messaged m

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