Name: Twisted Love
Rating: 3.88 (16 reviews)

42 reviews

August 31, 2026

Ava Chen is in her senior year at Thayer University. She is a 22-year-old optimistic, trusting, hopeless romantic who tries to see the good in both people and the world. Ava has a lot to learn about the real world and should protect her soft heart. Aside from being a student, Ava works at a gallery and does photography on the side whenever she gets booked to shoot events. She gets stranded at an engagement shoot and when she calls her brother to save her from the middle of nowhere during a storm, he sends his best friend Alex Volkov. Her brother Josh and Alex have been best friends since their freshman year at Thayer which was eight years ago. Although Alex has spent every Thanksgiving holiday with her and her family, she barely knows the guy. He is brooding, rude, cold and standoffish, albeit handsome. Ava and her brother Josh live next door to each other. They have a close relationship despite a difficult childhood. Their mother overdosed when Ava was young. An incident occurred that left Ava with no memory of her childhood prior to that incident. Her parents were going through a difficult divorce at the time and Ava remembers playing on the dock that extended into the lake, when her mother left her unattended to go into the house to look for sunscreen. Ava recalls that she was skipping rocks in the water when she smelled her mother's perfume from behind her and the next thing she knows, she has been pushed into the lake. Ava did not know how to swim and despite yelling for her mother as she flailed and sunk farther down into the lake, she was eventually saved by her father Michael Chen. Michael won custody of Ava and Josh after that, and they believed that the guilt and the sadness of it all resulted in the overdose of their mother. From this incident, Ava naturally developed aquaphobia and had severe fear of all bodies of water. Josh was in med school and had accepted a yearlong program in Central America. Josh had asked Alex to look after Ava while he was away, he was concerned that Liam, Ava's ex-boyfriend, was going to be a problem. Liam got caught cheating and Ava ended it immediately, but Liam did not want to believe that was the end of them. Alex was technically a genius. He created a financial model when he was 14 and sold it for a nice sum of money. He also was a successful businessman who created Archer Group where he was the COO and his uncle was the CEO. Alex didn't really have the time to watch over Ava, he was business all the time, but Josh was his best friend, so he came to live in Josh's house while Josh moved away for the year. Ava's best friends were Bridget (Eldorran princess), Jules (pre-law student), and Stella (social media influencer). Ava lived with Jules in the house next door to Alex Volkov. It seems like they all had the same opinion of Alex, in that he was an emotionless creature, almost robot like. They came up with "Operation Emotion", a quest for Ava to try and get Alex to evoke feelings of sadness, disgust, happiness, fear, and jealousy which all turned out to be an epic failure. Despite Ava's attempts she could not get Alex to feel any of these things. He was stoic throughout the whole operation. What made Alex so cold? Alex also had a rough childhood. When he was a young boy, he witnessed a home invasion that resulted in his mother, father and sister all being killed right before his eyes. He was young and helpless, which only sparked a lifetime plan of revenge against his family's assassins. It was a developing plan that was years in the works. So, while Operation Emotion didn't quite work, what it did was allow Ava and Alex to spend lots of time together. That cold ice exterior around Alex's heart was slowly chipping away and he was starting to get real genuine feelings for Ava. Alex had a reputation for liking certain types of women. His preference was submissive women and no kissing, no face-to-face interaction, no cuddling or staying the night, and what Alex says goes type of sexual encounters. Any woman he was involved with knew that and thus why he only kept a few women in the rotation that knew this about him. He was becoming increasingly more attracted to Ava however, and she was slowly healing his cold-hearted ways. Ava threw a surprise party for Alex for his birthday which included her friends and his Krav Maga academy acquaintances at his friend Ralph's house. Ralph had been his Krav Maga instructor for years and their bond was close. Alex hadn't had a birthday party since his childhood, when his parents passed away and their connection deepened when Alex confided in her about what happened to his family. They shared their first kiss at the party and the flames ignited from there. Prior to the birthday party Ava saw Alex conversing with Madeline at the Thayer alumni party and had a twinge of jealousy. Ava later ended up at a party with Bridget which just so happened to be the home of Madeline and her family. Once Ava ventured into the pool room of the mansion, they recognized each other and Madeline tells Ava about the kinky things Alex is in too. She basically implies that Ava wouldn't be able to keep up with him before she pushes Ava into the pool. Ava has a fear of water and once someone streams the altercation on social media, Alex flees to the house and checks on her. After the kiss at the birthday party, Ava tells Alex about the conversation between her and Madeline, and this is where they both realize that they want to take things further and their relationship progresses. Once they have sex Alex becomes possessive and basically tells Ava that she is his and they become boyfriend and girlfriend. They decide to hold off on telling Josh until Christmas and Ava asks Alex to help her learn to swim. She is finally ready to conquer her fears of the water. Her fears are holding her back from living her life abundantly. Ava wants nothing more than to travel the world but taking a plane over the ocean is highly unlikely given her aquaphobia. Alex devises a plan to help her overcome this fear in steps and exhibits nothing but patience and kindness during this process. It is safe to say that Ava is in love and although Alex doesn't want to admit it his heart has softened and he is smitten. With Josh still in Central America Ava invites Alex to her father's house for Thanksgiving. Alex has spent the last 8 years with the Chen's for Thanksgiving anyway; and they hope that it doesn't seem awkward that Alex still comes to dinner even without Josh being there. Michael Chen lives on a lake and during the weekend home, Ava awakens the morning after Thanksgiving and decides to spend an early morning at the lake edge, but a strange thing happens when she is outside. Her dad comes
outside, supposedly like he does every morning and seeing him there elicits a memory from age 5 that her dad was the one who pushed her into the lake. It also unlocked another memory of 9-year-old Ava writing an essay at school about her dad being the most admirable person in her life. When she told her father she got an A on the paper, instead of being pleased he tried to strangle her with a pillow until Josh came back into the house and called for him. Alex and Ava confronted Michael about these resurfaced memories. Michael and Alex's father were hostile business rivals and thus Alex always suspected that Michael was the one who initiated the hit on his parents and sister and he had been planning for years his vengeance plan against Michael Chen as well as slowly deteriorating his business. Michael came into the confrontation denying the allegations Ava presented him with from her memories, but when Alex calls his bluff and forces him to come clean, Ava finds out the truth that she is not his biological daughter. Michael and Ava's mother were going through a divorce and because of infidelity Ava was not his biological daughter, but Josh was his biological son. Ava and Michael never had a close relationship. Michael confessed that the day of the near drowning, he went over to frame Ava's mom for the drowning, and when he got to the house, Ava was left outside and he pushed her into the lake. He wanted to win custody of the children from the divorce, so his intention was to plant drugs inside the house, but Ava being outside by herself created a better opportunity. He was going to let Ava die but decided that she was just a child, so he pulled her from the lake. After this confession from Michael at the Archer Group, Michael was escorted by the FBI into custody. Michael thought that Josh would be upset by this, but he was notified of the situation and was extremely upset that he would treat Ava that way and severed ties with his real father. Alex's uncle Ivan had been inquiring about Alex's time at the office, and it seems suspicious to Alex, and he goes to visit his uncle. At the house he decides to use a jammer to disengage his cameras and do some snooping around. He discovers some letters in the library between his mom and uncle that suggest that his uncle was in love with his mother, but she would not leave Alex's father. The revelation in this, is that the uncle was the one who put the hit out on his family then raised Alex from a boy as if he was his son. Alex has a way of serving consequences to anybody who crosses him and so he gets the board to oust his uncle as CEO. Once Ivan met Ava in person and seen the way that Alex looked at her, he instantly knew that Alex was in love so he decided to kidnap Ava and her friend Bridget in an attempt to get Alex to give him back the CEO position and a large sum of money. Alex knew that to protect Ava he had to deny his feelings for her to keep her safe. He basically told his uncle that he used her, and she was a means to an end. If his enemies knew his true feelings for her, they would go after her every time. He didn't want the guilt of seeing her hurt; however, he had warned her early on that she didn't know the type of man he was. Despite Bridget having a personal bodyguard as a royal princess, they were still kidnapped. Not to be disrespected, tried or bribed, Alex shot four shots to his uncle's body and killed him as well as issued an agonizing death to the actual kidnapper hired by Ivan. Ava and Bridget were free, but Ava would most likely never speak to him again. They were both heartbroken without each other, but they went without contact for months. Josh came back from Central America after learning about the kidnapping for moral support and Alex secretly had Ava followed for protection since he physically couldn't do it himself. Once Ava graduates, she plans to head to New York for a prestigious photography fellowship but now that she has worked to overcome her aquaphobia she decides to switch locations with a student and heads to London for a fresh start. She's finally focused on her new chapter and has slowly started to bounce back after the wrath of Alex when he mysteriously shows up in London. He has resigned from his CEO position and has moved to London to be her personal bodyguard and to persuade her to give him a second chance. He's persistent and showers her with gifts constantly. He meets her at her flat in the mornings and walks her home after the workshops. He's doing all the things, yet she won't let him touch her or cave to his advances. Determined not to give up on their love, during the exhibition at the end of the London fellowship Alex serenades Ava in front of the entire art gallery and it's a grand gesture of his vulnerability and true emotions. That wins Ava over and she fully begins trusting him again. As fearful as she is that one day Alex may break her heart again, she would rather be the sunshine to his darkness then wait for another betrayal that may never come.

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Twisted Love

Ana Huang

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