Twisted Love

Ava Chen, a twenty-two-year-old college student and photographer, lives a quiet life shaped by two defining mysteries: she has no memories from before age nine, and she suffers from a paralyzing phobia of water tied to recurring drowning nightmares she suspects are real. Her older brother Josh Chen is fiercely protective of her, and when he prepares to leave for a year-long medical volunteer trip to Central America, he makes a fateful decision: he asks his best friend, Alex Volkov, to move into his house next door to Ava and watch over her while he's gone.

Alex Volkov is a self-made multimillionaire, the COO and true driving force behind Archer Group, a Fortune 500 real estate company officially run by his uncle Ivan Volkov. Orphaned as a child when his family was murdered, Alex possesses a rare condition called hyperthymesia—he remembers every detail of his life with perfect clarity, including the night he watched three family members die. Since the age of twelve, when he told his Uncle Ivan that the only thing he wanted was revenge, Alex has been singularly driven to find and destroy the person responsible for his family's deaths. His emotional walls are absolute; he regards feelings as weaknesses and conducts his life—business and personal alike—with ruthless calculation.

When Josh asks Alex to protect Ava, citing her harassing ex-boyfriend Liam and her trusting nature, Alex reluctantly agrees. His promise to Josh is total, and he moves into the house next door almost immediately. Ava is furious at being assigned a babysitter, but recognizes she can't change Josh's mind. She resolves to make the best of the situation, bringing Alex homemade red velvet cookies as a peace offering. During this visit, Alex reveals his hyperthymesia to Ava, and she is struck by the cruel irony: he remembers everything about his life, while she remembers nothing of her early childhood. This moment of unexpected vulnerability creates an undeniable connection between them.

Alex's protectiveness quickly escalates beyond what Ava considers reasonable. He upgrades her home security system, runs background checks on her photography clients, and demands she share details about her work. When Ava doesn't respond to a text for an hour, Alex's worry spirals into a full-blown panic attack rooted in his childhood trauma. He tracks her down to a friend's home where she is posing for an artistic boudoir photoshoot with a photographer named Owen. In a display of possessive fury, Alex forces the photographer to delete every photo, throws a blanket over Ava, and threatens to destroy Owen's career. Ava is livid, calling him an asshole and giving him the silent treatment on the drive home. The incident exposes the volatile dynamic at the heart of their relationship: his need for control colliding with her desire for independence.

Ava's close friends—Jules Ambrose, Stella, and Bridget von Ascheberg, a real-life princess of Eldorra attending college incognito—debrief on Alex's behavior. Jules, a sharp aspiring lawyer, argues that Alex's uncharacteristic display of rage over Ava is remarkable for someone considered emotionless by everyone who knows him. She proposes "Operation Emotion," a playful scheme to test whether Ava can provoke genuine feelings in Alex—happiness, sadness, fear, jealousy. Despite her protests, Ava agrees to participate.

Phase Sadness involves Ava arriving at Alex's house with tear-jerker movies. She's rattled to discover he has a date planned, but Alex surprises her by canceling it to spend the evening with her. He remains entirely stoic through A Walk to Remember while Ava cries freely. Afterward, their banter turns physically charged when Ava playfully pats Alex's back looking for a "control panel" and he pulls her onto his lap, warning her not to humanize him. Ava pushes back, insisting she's tired of being treated as helpless by both Alex and Josh, defending her right to see the good in people. The confrontation breaks something open: Alex calls her "Sunshine," and for the first time, he laughs—a genuine, full laugh that stuns Ava with its warmth. She falls asleep that night thinking about his smile.

Meanwhile, Alex's internal world reveals the depth of his obsession. He replays the memory of his twelfth birthday every night—his first birthday after his family's murder—as a ritual to sharpen his purpose. He orchestrates hostile corporate takeovers not merely for profit but as strategic steps in a larger revenge plan that has consumed him for fourteen years. His uncle Ivan serves as his confidant in this vendetta, reassuring Alex that their family will soon be at peace.

Despite his resistance, Alex's feelings for Ava deepen. After she falls asleep during their movie night, he carries her to his own bed. He ends his purely physical arrangement with a woman named Madeline, finding her company hollow compared to Ava's presence. When Ava suffers violent night terrors—screaming in her sleep—Alex watches over her helplessly, unable to wake her, his emotional investment in her growing far beyond the scope of a promise to a friend. He recalls meeting Ava for the first time at a Thanksgiving dinner years earlier, a bright-eyed girl whose warmth he'd assumed the world would eventually crush.

The epilogue jumps forward to reveal Alex and Ava happily together. They celebrate Thanksgiving at the Vermont farm of Ralph, Alex's former Krav Maga instructor, and his wife Missy. Alex has been reinstated as CEO of Archer Group, with the stock surging upon his return. Ava works as a junior freelance photographer for World Geographic and has moved into Alex's penthouse in Washington, D.C., filling his sterile home with art, flowers, and warmth. His chronic insomnia has improved with her beside him.

The fates of their adversaries are resolved: Ava's father Michael Chen is in prison; Madeline's family has been financially destroyed after Alex leaked damaging information about her father's company; and a figure named Camo, who apparently threatened Ava, is dead. However, Josh still refuses to forgive Alex for the relationship with his sister, maintaining only strained contact with Ava—a wound that remains open. Alex expresses quiet confidence that Josh will come around eventually.

The novel closes with breaking news: Crown Prince Nikolai of Eldorra has abdicated the throne to marry an American, making Bridget the heir apparent to the Eldorran crown. Alex notices a charged dynamic between Bridget and her bodyguard Rhys on the news footage, filing it away. The revelation sets up the next installment of the series while affirming the central theme of Twisted Love: that even the most guarded hearts can be unlocked by the right person, though the cost of love—and of the secrets that precede it—is never simple.