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.

of the message suggests

contained more helpful details,” I explained, and Noah voiced a different

you? Sending a vague message would be the best way to ensure you have nothing to work with,” he suggested, and I nodded, understanding

but she would have called me if it were really

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

the enemy and needs to secretly communicate

choice but to send a text message,

believe the message was from Sophia, giving me

to establish communication with me while pretending

without any word from

her, it would

contained more details about her well-being before asking me to

want to put my mind

last time we spoke was back when

this message seems off, as if we’ve been in frequent

isn’t aware that I’ve recovered my line, so she would likely have sent the message to

wouldn’t risk sending a message to a line that might still be switched off,” I concluded, and

but I had a gut feeling that I was

you’re right; this message doesn’t provide much information,”

the other hand, had

of communication has been opened between us and

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

posing as Sophia must

it’s truly her or not, you should engage in conversation and share specific details that only she would

we can wait for

held captive, she might cleverly mislead her captors

we’re searching for her, and her captors might

mislead them in her answers to help us uncover what’s really

nodded, looking at her, and she smiled

have to worry about my feelings when it comes

your friend, nothing more,” she

male friends too,” she added, but I could sense that Alex wasn’t entirely comfortable with that

managed to

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

and safe,”

dispose of her

Mike is working for them, they won’t dare harm her, and if

likely remain alive until they accomplish whatever they have planned,” Oliver pointed out, and his assessment was

the idea that Sophia couldn’t reach out to me when she wanted, troubled

prayed that we could resolve

the Gamma and the Beta off, and we remained on

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

was a smart

directly conducting the questioning and making it a

couldn’t accuse us of