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

contained more helpful details,” I explained,

just wants you to stay out of the matter to protect you? Sending a vague message would be the best way to ensure you have nothing to work

but she would have called

rarely sends text messages; she’s more of a phone person,” I explained before Sebastien

enemy and needs to secretly

her no choice but to send a text message, Li,” he argued, and many others seemed to

believe the

to establish communication with me while pretending to

without any word from her, making

her, it would have been sent to

more details about her well-being before asking me to stop

put my

was back when we were

off, as if we’ve been in

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

a line that might still be switched

have been entirely clear, but I had a gut feeling that I

message doesn’t provide much information,” Charlotte acknowledged,

the other hand, had a different

receiving this message, a line of communication has been

propose we continue to interact with ‘Sophia’ and see where it leads us,” she suggested, using air quotes when saying ‘Sophia,’ which elicited a

as Sophia must have a

should engage in conversation and share specific details that only

we can wait for

might cleverly mislead her captors

for her, and her captors might have

answers to help us uncover what’s really

nodded, looking at her, and she smiled in

have to worry about my feelings when it comes

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

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

I managed to keep

was our inside joke, and the others remained

alive and safe,” Marvin expressed, echoing my

won’t dispose of

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

until they accomplish whatever they have planned,” Oliver pointed out, and his assessment

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

her safety and prayed that we could resolve this

after seeing the Gamma and the Beta off,

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

was a smart

the questioning and making it a casual

us of treating