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

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

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

she would have called me if

of a phone person,” I

the enemy and needs to secretly communicate

her no choice but to send a text message, Li,” he

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

is trying to establish communication with me while pretending

without any word from her, making this

it were genuinely from her, it would have been sent to Charlotte’s

details about her well-being before asking me to

to put my mind at ease,” I

spoke was back when

message seems off, as if we’ve been in frequent

recovered my line, so she would likely have sent the message to Charlotte’s phone to

a message to a line that might still

entirely clear, but I

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

other hand, had

but by receiving this message, a line of communication has been opened between us

us,” she suggested, using air quotes when

is posing as Sophia

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

wait for

captive, she might cleverly mislead her captors and provide us

her, and her captors might have

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

at her, and she smiled

really don’t have to worry about my feelings when

know she’s just your friend, nothing more,” she assured

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

to

my momentary unease, but it was our inside

still alive and safe,”

won’t dispose of

working for them, they won’t dare harm her, and if they have some ulterior motive involving her, they won’t

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

that Sophia

prayed that we could resolve this

the Beta off, and we remained on high

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

a smart move on

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

couldn’t accuse us of