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 underlying

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

to stay out of the matter to protect you? Sending a vague message would be

called me if it were really

of a phone person,” I

the enemy and needs to secretly communicate with

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

theory if I didn’t believe

establish communication with me while pretending

word from her,

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

also contained more details about

to put my mind at ease,”

time we spoke was back when we were in

off, as if

isn’t aware that I’ve recovered my line, so she would likely have sent the message to Charlotte’s phone to

risk sending a message to a line that might still be

been entirely clear, but I had a gut feeling

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

on the other hand,

this message, a line of communication

us,” she suggested, using air quotes when saying ‘Sophia,’

posing as Sophia must have

should engage in conversation and share specific details that only

we can wait for

she might cleverly mislead her captors and provide us

searching for her, and her

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

at her, and

about my feelings when

just your friend, nothing

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

to keep

unease, but it was our

alive and safe,” Marvin expressed, echoing my

won’t dispose of

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

she’ll likely remain alive until they accomplish whatever they have planned,”

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

deeply concerned about her safety and prayed that we could

the Beta off, and we

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

smart move

making it a casual conversation,

accuse us of treating