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 an

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

Sending a vague message would be

have called me if

she’s more of a phone person,” I explained before

enemy and needs to secretly

leave her no choice but to send a text message, Li,” he argued, and many others seemed to

didn’t believe the message was from Sophia,

someone is trying to establish communication with me while pretending to

any word from

it were genuinely from her, it would have been

about

to put my mind

we spoke was back when we

this message seems off, as if we’ve

would likely have sent the message to Charlotte’s phone to

might still be switched off,” I concluded, and

but I had a gut feeling that

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

on the other hand, had

of communication has been opened

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

Sophia must

you should engage in conversation

wait

captive, she might cleverly mislead her captors and

and her

wise for her to mislead them in her answers to help us uncover

her,

about my

know she’s just your friend,

added, but I could sense that Alex wasn’t entirely comfortable with

I managed to

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

alive and safe,” Marvin expressed, echoing my

dispose of her

and if they have some ulterior

accomplish whatever they have planned,” Oliver pointed out,

idea that

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

and the Beta off, and we

was clear that Justin had cleverly left us alone with the

was a smart move on

questioning and making it a casual conversation, it wouldn’t be considered

they couldn’t accuse us of treating them