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

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

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

would have called me if it were really

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

the enemy and needs to

a text message, Li,” he argued, and

to share my theory if I didn’t believe the message was from Sophia, giving me

someone is trying to establish communication with me while

without any word from her, making this

genuinely from her, it would have been sent to

would have also contained more details about her

to put my mind at ease,” I

time we spoke was back

message seems off, as if we’ve been

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

a line that might still be switched off,” I concluded, and Charlotte

have been entirely clear, but I had a gut feeling

message doesn’t provide much information,”

the other hand, had a

this message, a line of communication has been opened between

leads us,” she suggested, using

is posing as Sophia must

her or not, you should engage in conversation and share specific

we can wait for

might cleverly mislead her captors and

and her

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

looking at her, and she smiled in

to worry about my feelings when it comes to

just your friend, nothing more,”

I could sense that Alex

I managed to keep my

she noticed my momentary unease, but it was our inside joke, and the others

still alive and safe,” Marvin expressed, echoing my

dispose of

and if they have some ulterior motive involving her, they won’t dare

alive until they accomplish whatever they have planned,” Oliver pointed

this gave me some sense of comfort, but the idea that Sophia couldn’t reach out to me when she wanted, troubled me

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

Gamma and the Beta

was clear that

a smart move on his

making it a casual

couldn’t accuse us of