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.

message

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

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

called me

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

if she’s surrounded by the enemy and needs to secretly communicate with

no choice but to send a text message, Li,” he argued, and many

my theory if I didn’t believe

is trying to establish communication with me while pretending

any word from her, making this

it were genuinely from her, it would have been sent to

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

will want to put my

time we spoke was back when we

off, as if we’ve been

that I’ve recovered my line, so she would likely have sent the message to

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

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

but you’re right; this message doesn’t provide much information,” Charlotte acknowledged, stating

other hand, had a different

of communication has

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

as Sophia must have

should engage in conversation and share specific details

we can wait for

if she’s being held captive, she might cleverly mislead her captors

her, and her

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

at her, and she smiled in

to worry about my

friend, nothing more,”

too,” she added, but I could sense that Alex wasn’t entirely

I managed to keep

was our inside joke, and the others remained oblivious to

alive and safe,” Marvin expressed, echoing my biggest

dispose of

they won’t dare harm her, and

whatever they

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

deeply concerned about her safety and prayed that we could resolve this situation as quickly as

the Gamma and the Beta off, and

and we all laughed because it was clear that Justin had cleverly left us alone with the

a smart

directly conducting the questioning and making it a casual

accuse us of treating