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 suggests an

more helpful details,”

of the matter to protect you? Sending a vague message would be the best way to ensure you have nothing to

have called me if it were

more of a phone person,” I explained before Sebastien

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

situation might leave her no choice but to send a text

me to share my theory if I didn’t believe the message was

someone is trying to establish communication with me while pretending

any word

were genuinely from her, it would

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

will want to put my

last time we spoke was back when we were in

this message seems off, as

she would likely have

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

have been entirely clear, but I had a gut feeling that I

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

on the other hand, had a different

line of communication has been opened between us and whoever

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

posing as Sophia must have

should engage in conversation and share specific details that only

we can wait for her

cleverly mislead her captors

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

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

nodded, looking at her, and she smiled

don’t have to worry about my feelings when

friend, nothing more,” she

I could sense that Alex wasn’t

managed to keep my

noticed my momentary unease, but it was our inside

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

won’t dispose of

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

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

idea that Sophia

her safety and prayed that

came back after seeing the Gamma and the Beta off, and we remained on

they do?” he inquired, and we all laughed because it was clear that Justin had cleverly left

a smart move on his

directly conducting the questioning and making it a

couldn’t accuse us of treating them as