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

have contained more helpful details,” I

to protect you? Sending a vague message would be the

would have called me

more of a phone person,” I explained before

surrounded by the enemy and needs

to send a text message, Li,” he argued, and many others seemed

if I didn’t believe the

to establish communication with me while pretending to

word from her,

from her, it would have been sent to

details about her well-being before asking

will want to put my

we spoke was back when we were

off, as if we’ve

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

message to a line that might still be

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

understand your point, Li, but you’re right; this message doesn’t provide much information,” Charlotte

the other hand,

message, a line of communication has been opened between

us,” she suggested,

Sophia must have a

not, you should engage in conversation and share specific

can wait for her

being held captive, she might cleverly mislead her captors and provide us with

for her, and her captors might have informed her

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

at her, and she smiled

to worry about my feelings

friend,

male friends too,” she added, but I could sense that Alex wasn’t entirely comfortable with

to

laughed, signifying that she noticed my momentary unease, but it was our inside joke, and the

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

won’t dispose of

dare harm her, and if they have

remain alive until they accomplish whatever they have

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

safety and prayed that we could resolve this

and the

was clear that Justin had cleverly left us alone with

smart move on

the questioning and making it a casual

accuse us of