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

contained more helpful details,”

you? Sending a vague message would be

called me if it were

of a phone person,” I explained before Sebastien

by the enemy

to send a text message, Li,”

believe the message

trying to establish communication with me while pretending to

been too long without any word from her, making this message

genuinely from her, it would have been sent to

contained more details about her well-being

my mind at

last time we spoke was back

of this message seems off,

recovered my line, so she would likely have sent

wouldn’t risk sending a message to a line that might

but I had a gut feeling that I

this message doesn’t provide much information,”

on the other hand, had a different

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

us,” she suggested, using air quotes when saying

posing as Sophia must have

should engage in conversation and share specific

wait

she’s being held captive, she might cleverly mislead her captors

we’re searching for her, and her captors

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

her, and she

don’t have to worry about my

your friend,

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

to

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

still alive and safe,” Marvin expressed, echoing

dispose of her

working for them, they won’t dare harm her, and

any case, she’ll likely remain alive until they accomplish whatever

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

her safety and prayed that we

the Gamma and the Beta off, and

he inquired, and we all laughed because it was clear that Justin had cleverly

a smart move on his

directly conducting the questioning and making it a casual conversation,

way, they couldn’t accuse us of