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.

vagueness of the message suggests

it would have contained more helpful details,” I explained, and Noah voiced a

a vague

have called me if it were really

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

by the enemy and needs to secretly

her no choice but to send a text message, Li,”

my theory if I didn’t believe the message was

is trying to establish communication with me while pretending

long without any word from her, making

it were genuinely from her, it would have

more details about her well-being before asking me to

put my mind at ease,” I

spoke was back when we were in

this message seems off, as if we’ve been

my line, so she would likely have sent

sending a message to a line that might still be

have been entirely clear, but I had a gut feeling that I was

Li, but you’re right; this message doesn’t

other hand, had a different

communication has

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

as Sophia

you should engage in conversation and share

we can wait for her

if she’s being held captive, she might cleverly mislead her captors and provide us with

knows we’re searching for her, and her captors

for her to mislead them in her answers to help us uncover what’s really going on,” Josephine explained, perfectly echoing

looking at her, and she smiled in

about my feelings

just your friend,

male friends too,” she added, but I could sense that Alex

to

but it was our inside joke, and the others remained oblivious

and safe,” Marvin

dispose of

harm her, and if they have some ulterior motive

accomplish whatever they have planned,” Oliver

me some sense of comfort, but the idea that

concerned about her safety and prayed that we could resolve

came back after seeing the Gamma and the Beta off, and we remained on

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

a smart move

not directly conducting the questioning and making it a

couldn’t accuse us of