Straightening Affairs - 9. Chapter 9

"Hello, Mrs. Evans?"

"Yes," her voice was sharp, clipped, as though she had been waiting for this call.

"It's done. Michael is a great—"

"Spare me the details," she interrupted, her tone icy and unyielding. "I don't need to know about your... methods. Just remember what we discussed. You know what you have to do, right? Do I need to spell it out again?"

Ryan hesitated for the briefest moment, swallowing the knot in his throat. "Yes, I do, and no you don't. I know what I have to do." he replied, trying to sound confident, though his voice betrayed a hint of unease.

"Good. Don't disappoint me." And with that, she hung up, leaving Ryan staring at his phone, the weight of her words sinking in.

As Ryan walked away from Michael’s apartment, his thoughts drifted back to that chilling but short conversation. The one where she had spelled everything out with a ruthlessness that even he hadn’t expected. Michael’s mother hadn’t just suspected her son was gay; she’d known. She’d seen it early on, walking in on him with another boy more than once. The first time, she’d held back, her anger simmering as she scolded him in private. But when it happened again, she turned her rage into a weapon, publicly berating him, embedding shame and fear so deeply that Michael buried the memories, shoving them into the recesses of his mind where they festered, unseen.

To her, those memories were a means to an end. She had used every ounce of manipulation she could muster to mold Michael into her version of “normal.” And it had almost worked. He’d grown up believing in the perfect, conventional life she’d wanted for him. But now, she was losing him—losing him to Sarah, who had built a life with him that she despised. So she had devised another plan, enlisting Ryan to draw out the truth Michael couldn’t face.

“She’ll ruin him if she stays,” she’d confided to Ryan, her voice cool and calculating. “If their marriage falls apart, he’ll have nowhere to turn. He’ll be forced to come home, and I’ll be there to pick up the pieces. He’ll need someone to lean on, and I’ll be there. I’ll be the only one he can trust. And once he’s back with me, he’ll be right where he belongs.”

Ryan hadn’t anticipated the depth of her resentment. But he couldn’t deny that he felt a thrill watching the plan take shape, each piece moving closer to the outcome she’d laid out. She had provided him with everything he needed to manipulate Michael: the suppressed memories, the unspoken doubts, the desires Michael barely understood. Ryan knew how to use them all.

He smirked, recalling her instructions: keep her role hidden. She didn’t care if Michael ultimately discovered his true self, only that he did so without Sarah’s influence. Once their marriage fractured, Michael would be too distraught to see through her machinations. And as he slowly crumbled, she’d be waiting to pick up the pieces, pulling the strings once again as he unknowingly fell back into her web.

In his own way, Ryan was beginning to feel invested in this game. He had a stake in Michael now, even as his role as a pawn in her scheme became more apparent. And he knew he had to be careful; if Michael ever discovered just how far his mother was willing to go—or how deeply Ryan was entangled in her plan—the consequences would be catastrophic.

As he pocketed his phone, Ryan felt a mix of satisfaction and unease. Michael’s mother was prepared to manipulate her son’s pain to regain control. And Ryan, like it or not, was now part of that deception, part of a plot that threatened to tear apart everything Michael thought he knew.