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.

the message suggests

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

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

called me if it

rarely sends text messages; she’s more of a phone

she’s surrounded by the enemy and needs to

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

theory if I didn’t believe the message was from Sophia, giving me

establish communication with me while pretending

long without any word

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

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

will want to put my mind at ease,” I

was back when we were in

message seems off, as if we’ve

likely

sending a message to a line that might still be switched off,” I concluded, and Charlotte nodded

clear, but I had a gut feeling

this message doesn’t provide much information,” Charlotte acknowledged, stating the

other hand, had a different

of communication has been opened between us and whoever sent

leads us,” she suggested, using air quotes when saying

Sophia must have

if it’s truly her or not, you should engage in conversation and share specific details that only

wait for

cleverly mislead her captors and

for her, and her captors might have informed her about

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

looking at her, and she

have to worry about my feelings when it comes

friend,

male friends too,” she added, but I could

managed to keep my

it was our inside joke,

and safe,” Marvin expressed,

dispose of

them, they won’t dare harm her, and if they have

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

that Sophia couldn’t reach out

prayed that we

Gamma and the Beta off, and we remained

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

a smart

and making it a

they couldn’t accuse us of treating them as