Page 65 of Evermore

“The person you love is standing right here,” other Finn said, turning from the window with a sadness that looked bone-deep. “But you can't see me anymore because you're too busy trying to fix me.”

Finn felt tears streaming down his face as he watched this other version of himself speak truths he'd been afraid to voice in their own timeline. The recognition was devastating—he could see exactly how easily they could have ended up in the same place, love poisoned by the desperate need to control what couldn't be controlled.

But something else nagged at him as he watched the scene unfold. The timeline still felt wrong somehow, the pieces not quite fitting together.

“Wait,” Finn said, his voice cutting through the memory. “You said you're seventeen years older than River. If this scene is three years into your obsession, and you lost me after the final treatment...”

Future River's form flickered, becoming less stable. “I... yes.”

“You lost me fourteen years ago, not seventeen,” Finn said, understanding dawning with horrible clarity. “Which means you've been interfering with our timeline for fourteen years, not just trying to prevent your own past.”

River's arm tightened around Finn as they both realized the scope of what Future River had done. “You've been actively creating the very problems you claim to be preventing.”

The memory dissolved around them, leaving them back in their real cottage with Future River's form becoming more unstable as the truth destabilized his presence.

“It's a paradox,” River whispered. “You've been causing your own past by trying to prevent it.”

Future River's expression crumbled as the full scope of his temporal loop became clear. “Fourteen years. Fourteen years of trying to prevent a future I was actively creating.”

“Every episode you triggered,” Finn said, anger building in his chest. “Every moment of doubt you created, every time you made us question our relationship—you were writing the very story you were trying to prevent.”

“The experimental treatment,” Future River whispered, his form flickering but somehow managing to maintain coherence. “You only agreed to it because the episodes had become so severe, so frequent...”

“Because you made them severe and frequent,” River finished. “You created the crisis that led to the obsession that destroyed your timeline.”

Future River stood frozen in their cottage, the weight of his revelation settling around him like chains. His form stabilized, grief and horror warring across his features as the full scope of what he'd done became undeniable.

“I can't... I can't undo fourteen years of interference,” he said, his voice hollow. “The temporal fractures are too deep. But knowing what I've done...”

“Changes everything,” Finn said firmly. “Stop trying to control our story. Stop creating the problems you're trying to prevent.”

“But if I stop, if I let events unfold naturally...” Future River's voice carried the desperation of a man watching his last hope crumble. “You might still make the same choices. You might still lose each other.”

“Or we might not,” River said, something hardening in his voice as he looked at this broken version of himself. “Or we might make different choices. Or we might find ways to love each other that you never discovered because you were too busy trying to control outcomes.”

Finn felt clarity settling in his chest like sunlight breaking through clouds. “You've been so afraid of your story repeating that you've been forcing it to repeat. But we're not you. Our love doesn't have to become your tragedy.”

Future River's form shuddered, temporal energy crackling around him as the contradiction of his existence—preventing a future he'd spent years creating—threatened to tear him apart. “Then write your own story,” he said, his voice breaking. “Don't let fear—mine or yours—dictate your choices.”

“We will,” Finn said, anger building as the scope of Future River's manipulation became clear. “But only if you stop writing it for us.”

Future River remained standing there, solid enough to cast shadows, his presence a constant reminder of what their love could become if fear drove their choices. The cottage air still thrummed with temporal energy, charged with the weight of revelations that had changed everything.

River's arm tightened around Finn as they both stared at this broken echo of their future, understanding now that their real battle wasn't against Finn's condition or their own fears—it was against the man who'd been orchestrating their struggles from the shadows.

The lighthouse beam continued its stuttering, erratic rhythm, and Future River made no move to leave. He stood in their cottage like a specter of their potential doom, grief-worn and desperate, the living embodiment of love poisoned by the need to control what couldn't be controlled.

The confrontation that had been building for months was finally here.

Chapter 21

All is Lost

River

Fury coursed through River's veins like molten metal, burning away years of Future River's manipulative bullshit in one white-hot moment of clarity. The cottage still held the supernatural chill of temporal interference, but River's rage could have melted steel.

“You don't get to rewrite our story because you were too much of a coward to love someone whose mind works differently,” River said, his voice cutting through the cottage's charged air. He kept his arm around Finn, needing the solid reality of his partner's warmth against the ghostly presence still haunting their space.

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