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

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

out of the matter to protect you? Sending a vague message would be the best way to ensure you have nothing to work with,” he suggested, and I nodded, understanding his

called

of

enemy and needs to secretly

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

I didn’t believe the message

trying to establish communication

any word from her, making this

were genuinely from her, it would have been

have also contained more details about her

to put my mind at ease,”

time we spoke was back when

of this message seems off, as if

aware that I’ve recovered my line, so she would likely have sent the message to Charlotte’s

wouldn’t risk sending a message to a line that might still be switched off,” I concluded, and Charlotte nodded in

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

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

other hand,

a line of communication has been opened between us and

continue to interact with ‘Sophia’ and see where it leads us,” she suggested, using

Sophia

engage in conversation and share specific details that only

can wait for her

captive, she might cleverly mislead her captors

and her captors might have

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

at her, and she

don’t have to worry about my feelings when it comes

she’s just your friend, nothing

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

managed to keep my

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

and safe,” Marvin expressed, echoing my biggest

dispose of

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

remain alive until they accomplish whatever they

comfort, but the idea that Sophia couldn’t reach out to me when she

her safety and prayed that we could

seeing the Gamma and the Beta off,

we all laughed because it was clear

a smart move on

not directly conducting the questioning and making it a

us