The Dark Side Of Fate

To Sam Street ~Liam~ I felt uneasy about how to handle sharing and discussing the text message.

I worried that mentioning Sophia might trouble Josephine, even though I knew she was resilient.

But I also feared that it could set back the progress we had made so far.

Instead of announcing the text to everyone, I decided to talk to Josephine first.

“Hey,” I said, linking her, and she turned to face me, her brow furrowing.

I expected this reaction, as linking in close proximity was reserved for private discussions.

“I want to show you something,” I said, handing her my phone with the text message.

She took the phone, read the message, and then returned it to me.

“The team should know,” she linked back, and I observed her carefully.

“It wouldn’t bother you?” I asked to be sure.

I was still new to this relationship thing and didn’t want to make any mistakes.

“Not at all, Liam.

We had our discussion this morning, and I’m confident that Sophia’s name won’t bother me anymore.

I promise,” she said with a smile and playfully punched my shoulder.

“I’m not that petty or jealous, Li,” she laughed, and I felt relieved.

“Attention, everyone; Li has something important to share,” Josephine declared, and a chuckle escaped me.

All eyes were on me, and I cleared my throat before speaking.

I put on a serious demeanour because the situation warranted it.

If they had Sophia’s mother’s phone, there was a possibility that something significant had occurred, and their circumstances might have altered.

Navigating through this with limited information wouldn’t be a simple task, but we must exercise utmost caution.

“I just received a text message from Sophia’s mother’s line, the same line she used to communicate with me,” I explained, passing my phone around so they could read the message.

“The last time she spoke to me, it was through Charlotte’s phone, as I hadn’t recovered my line back then,” I added.

Marvin was the first to ask a question.

“So why is she asking us not to search for her?” he inquired.

“That’s precisely my point.

If it were truly Sophia, she would have called instead of sending a text message.

the message

from Sophia, it would have contained more helpful details,” I explained, and Noah

you to stay out of the matter to protect you? Sending a vague message would

called

sends text messages; she’s more of a phone person,” I explained

surrounded by the enemy

but to send a

didn’t believe the message was from Sophia, giving me the opportunity to

establish communication with me while pretending to be

word from

genuinely from her, it would have been sent

about her well-being before asking me to stop

will want to put my mind at

spoke was back when

off, as if

I’ve recovered my line, so she would likely

a message to a line that might still be switched off,” I concluded, and

but I had a gut feeling that I was onto

this message doesn’t provide much information,” Charlotte acknowledged, stating the

hand, had a different

a line of communication has been opened between us

where it leads us,” she suggested, using air quotes when saying ‘Sophia,’ which elicited a

Sophia must have a

engage in conversation and share specific details that only she would

we can wait

held captive, she might cleverly

we’re searching for her, and

help us

looking at her, and she smiled

worry about my feelings

she’s just your friend, nothing more,”

I could sense that Alex

managed to keep

that she noticed my momentary unease, but it was our inside joke, and the others remained oblivious to our unspoken

still alive and safe,” Marvin expressed, echoing

dispose of

they won’t dare harm her, and if they have some

accomplish whatever they have

this gave me some sense of comfort, but the idea that Sophia couldn’t reach out

safety and prayed that we could resolve this

Gamma and the Beta off, and we remained

did they do?” he inquired, and we all laughed because it was clear that Justin had cleverly left us alone with

a smart

not directly conducting the questioning and making it a casual conversation, it

way, they couldn’t accuse us of treating them