"But why didn't she tell it in the first place?"

"Why the hell didn't you tell us in the first place?"

"Whatever possessed you to tell her about it in the first place?"

"Why couldn't you just tell me in the first place?"

Well, give credit where it was due; he had told her in the first place.

Or, perhaps, there will be more executives who may simply not tell their stories in the first place.

So why tell us about it in the first place?

What made it even more difficult was the fact that I couldn't tell her in the first place.

You're working for him, which is what he told me in the first place.

"It's what you came to tell him in the first place!"