Reborn to Love Mr. Right – Episode 38
Future Ivy’s warning ended before Arianna could ask a question. The isolated terminal retained only sixteen seconds of video, but the connection altered every folder in the Mirror Archive. Graduation files multiplied across the screen.
Each version showed a different outcome. In one, Hayden remained outside beneath the false report of his death. In another, Donald collapsed in the audience. A third showed the gym empty after an evacuation, with Victor standing alone onstage. No version looked inevitable once displayed beside the others.
The files were possibilities rather than fixed predictions. Arianna finally understood why the warnings changed after every choice. Future Ivy was not sending a single history backward; she was watching unstable outcomes form around the decisions they made. Her messages narrowed danger without possessing the power to decide who survived it.
Hayden asked technicians to compare the images for details that never changed. Every version contained the graduation stage, the original master key, and a silver case hidden beneath the podium. Victor needed all three elements regardless of who lived or died.
The principal confirmed the ceremony was months away and offered to cancel it. Arianna suspected the date no longer mattered. Victor had already moved the school fire forward, and he could stage a false graduation whenever the setup suited him.
A maintenance request revealed that someone had ordered the gym decorated for a scholarship rehearsal the following evening. The authorization carried Donald’s forged signature and included delivery of a ceremonial podium identical to the future images.
Police replaced the delivery crew and inspected the silver case beneath the podium. It contained an electromagnetic device designed to overload the archive servers below the court. With the master key connected, the surge would broadcast every stored packet before destroying the system. The ceremony was camouflage for an act of digital arson.
Victor wanted a final release large enough to bury truth beneath thousands of altered futures, private recordings, and forged confessions. The scandal would compromise victims and investigators alike while erasing the machine that could authenticate the files.
Because Victor remained in custody, someone else had prepared the device. Jeff denied involvement after the courthouse and offered his movements for verification. Evelyn’s remaining accounts were frozen, and Leonard’s network had begun cooperating.
The copied master key provided the answer. Its access log showed a connection from Derek’s federal detention system after his interview. He had used their conversation to keep Arianna occupied while a corrupted guard uploaded the copied credentials.
Federal officers searched Derek’s cell and found no device. He smiled when questioned, claiming memory alone could not violate prison rules. Yet a legal pad contained sketches of the gym circuit and the precise load needed to ignite the archive.
Derek had given the plan to his attorney under the protection of legal correspondence. The attorney disappeared before officers reached his office, taking a flight booked under one of Evelyn’s shell companies. Victor and Derek were still competing, but destruction served them both.
Arianna proposed allowing the rehearsal to proceed as a controlled trap. The archive room would be emptied, students kept away, and the silver case replaced with an inert copy. Whoever arrived to activate it could lead police to the remaining network.
Hayden objected to Arianna standing on the stage. The future connection appeared centered on her regret, making her presence the most dangerous variable. Arianna replied that hiding her would alert the attacker before evidence could be gathered. They spoke privately so concern would not become a performance for the officers around them.
Their disagreement carried fear without becoming a battle for control. Hayden asked what precautions would make the risk acceptable, and Arianna listed them: remote security, protective glass, no loaded weapons, and a withdrawal signal only she could give.
Current Ivy volunteered to stand beside her. Future Ivy’s scar suggested she had been attacked during one version of the rehearsal. Avoiding the room might protect her, but it could also remove the witness who knew the system best.
At sunset the next day, the empty gym glittered with premature graduation decorations. Arianna wore her school uniform rather than a ceremonial gown, refusing to let Victor transform the scene into fate before it happened.
Hayden waited inside the security room with Donald and his father, monitoring every entrance. Ivy stood behind the podium, holding the original master key inside a signal-blocking case. Police occupied the darkened bleachers.
The lights dimmed on schedule. A figure in a delivery uniform entered carrying the activation remote. When officers illuminated the court, the person removed a cap and revealed Jeff’s face.
Jeff dropped the remote and raised his hands. “I came to warn you,” he said. Before anyone could move, the silver case beneath the podium began counting down on its own, and Derek’s voice filled the gym: “This time, Arianna, you get to watch everyone lose.”