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 an underlying

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

protect you? Sending a vague message would be the

would have called me if it were

of a phone person,”

surrounded by the enemy and needs to secretly communicate with

a text message, Li,” he argued, and many others

I didn’t believe the message was from Sophia,

to establish communication with me while pretending to

too long without any word from her, making

were genuinely from her, it

would have also contained more details about her well-being before asking

my mind

last time we spoke was back when we

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

she would likely have sent the message to Charlotte’s phone to ensure I

might still be switched off,”

might not have been entirely clear, but I had a gut feeling that I

this message doesn’t provide much

other hand, had

line of communication

propose we continue to interact with ‘Sophia’ and see where it leads us,” she suggested, using air quotes when saying ‘Sophia,’

Sophia

engage in conversation and share specific details that only she would

wait for

captive, she might cleverly mislead her

certain she knows we’re searching for her, and her captors might have informed her

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

at her, and

about my feelings when it comes

friend, nothing more,” she assured

I could

to keep my

was our inside joke,

hope she’s still alive and safe,” Marvin expressed, echoing my biggest

won’t dispose

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

she’ll likely remain alive until they accomplish whatever

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

safety and prayed that we could resolve this situation as quickly as

seeing the Gamma and the Beta off, and we

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

smart

conducting the questioning and making it a casual

us of treating them as