A Choose Your Own Adventure book is already written, yet the reader still has to choose. That tension is a useful way to approach free will inside divine providence.
G‑d knows the whole field of possibility. We do not. We meet one decision at a time, without access to the next page, and the choice is ours in the only sense that matters morally: we are responsible for it.
Providence does not make the choice fake. It means no choice can push us outside G‑d’s world or beyond the possibility of return. A bad decision can cause real damage. Teshuvah does not pretend otherwise. It opens a road from the page we actually chose.
The destination of creation may be held by G‑d, but the route is not trivial. Our choices shape who we become, whom we hurt, whom we help, and how much repair will be needed.
We are not co-authors equal to the Author. We are responsible characters inside His story. That is smaller than control and much larger than helplessness.