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

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

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 with,”

have called

sends text messages; she’s more of a phone person,” I

if she’s surrounded by the enemy and needs to

but to send a text message, Li,” he argued, and

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

establish communication with me while pretending to

too long without any word

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

contained more details about her well-being before

want to put my mind

spoke was back when

tone of this message seems off, as if we’ve been in frequent

she would likely

a message to a line that might

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

your point, Li, but you’re right; this message

other hand, had a

of communication has been opened between

with ‘Sophia’ and see where it leads us,” she suggested, using air quotes when saying ‘Sophia,’

posing as Sophia must

not, you should engage in conversation and share specific details that only she

can wait for her

captive, she might cleverly mislead her captors and provide us

certain she knows we’re searching for her, and

to mislead them in her answers to help us uncover what’s really going

her,

have to worry about my feelings when

friend, nothing

I could sense that Alex wasn’t entirely comfortable with that

to keep my

signifying that she noticed my momentary unease, but it was our inside joke, and the others remained oblivious to our

and safe,” Marvin expressed,

dispose

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

they accomplish whatever they have

that Sophia

her safety and prayed that we could resolve this situation

the Gamma and the Beta off, and we remained on high

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

a smart move on his

conducting the questioning and making it a casual conversation, it wouldn’t

accuse us of treating them