Twisted

At a dinner, Yasmin Karam is irritated by the governor of New York’s wife, who comments that Yasmin’s father doesn’t look sick. Ali Karam runs a multi-billion-dollar empire that controls most of the world’s diamonds, and Yasmin knows he is dying. Also at dinner is Julian Faraci, her father’s right-hand man. Yasmin had a crush on him when she was younger, until she heard him speak disdainfully of her to her father. She finds it “rude for him to have a voice like that and a face like he does when his soul is so rotten” (7).

Julian taunts Yasmin for tuning out of the conversation. He treats her as though she doesn’t understand what her father does. Yasmin is aware of the irony of her father’s business; he sells images of love while engaging in criminal dealings. Yasmin is annoyed by Julian’s taunts; she rejects her father’s old-fashioned idea that she should only want marriage and children—what she wants is to do photography. Yasmin feels better when she gets a text from Aidan, the young man she has loved since she was a child; they make plans to meet.

Julian meets with Ali after dinner. Both men jockey for power: “It’s a tenuous game we play, being masters of the universe, but it’s one I enjoy” (11). Julian knows he is the one pulling the strings that keep Ali Karam’s empire running. Sultans has a hand in all aspects of diamond production, including the black market. Julian has invested eight years of his life in Sultans and is furious that Ali plans to leave everything to his daughter, provided she marries a man he approves of. The thought of marrying Yasmin himself makes his stomach curdle, but Julian has decided none of the suitors will win Yasmin.

Ali asks if there is any progress on finding the lamp, which Julian believes will help them enter the antiquities trade. After leaving the room, Julian overhears a moan and follows the sound to find Aidan and Yasmin having sex in a staff bedroom. He is interested in the sight and lingers. Yasmin notices Julian watching and reaches orgasm due to Julian’s attention. He leaves with a new image of her “burned into my brain” (19).

Yasmin is distressed that she felt aroused by Julian watching her and Aidan and worries that Julian will tell her father. She knows her father’s “morals are flimsy at best and nonexistent at worst” (22), but he has always been protective of her and won’t approve of her being with Aidan. Though Aidan wants her to confront her father, Yasmin doesn’t want to upset a sick man. She also doesn’t want to face the reality that her father is dying: “Saying it out loud makes it real, and I’m still trying to pretend that it’s not” (23).

When she visits her father in his home office, Julian smirks at her, and Yasmin notices his tattoos. Ali plans to leave her the business, so it will remain in the family, but he wants Yasmin to marry a man who can run Sultans for her. He wants to protect her from the unsavory side of what he does. Seeing him coughing and in pain, Yasmin can’t bring herself to mention Aidan; instead, she agrees.

Julian, angry and hurt that Ali doesn’t see him as good enough to inherit Sultans, wonders whether “There’s still time to snip the strings and rearrange them until the marionettes move to my liking” (32). After his father died, Julian sold the dry cleaning business and got a job in the mail room at Sultans when he was 18. He got his degree and worked his way into the executive suite, in part by killing his rivals. He gets a tattoo for every person he kills.

Yasmin confronts Julian in the hallway. Julian realizes it makes her uncomfortable when he touches her, and he enjoys this. He finds her “infuriating in a way that I can’t control” (37), but is also sexually attracted to her. He could marry Yasmin, let Ali die, then kill her and take control of everything. He hints that if she were smart, she would ask for his help with her situation.

Yasmin has brunch with her best friend, Riya, who has been her roommate through boarding school and college. Yasmin snaps a quick picture of Riya, feeling that photographs are a way to capture memories. Yasmin tries not to feel angry at her father’s orders; everything he does is to protect her, including not letting her learn how to drive. Riya guesses that Yasmin loves Aidan. Yasmin decides to ask Julian for help.

Julian speaks with Tinashe, the man overseeing their efforts to find the lamp. He is interrupted by his assistant, Ian, who knows all of Julian’s plans, but realizes that “He’s never above being another trophy on [Julian’s] skin” (49). Julian confides his plan to marry, then kill Yasmin.

Julian is amused when Yasmin challenges his receptionist, Ciara. He brings Yasmin into his office where they exchange barbed conversation, “enjoying this cat-and-mouse game we’re playing” (56). He likes physically intimidating and riling her, but also tells her to bring Aidan to meet him.

Waiting for Aidan, Yasmin recalls when she first met Julian and had a crush on him when she was a teenager. “It’s confusing, my fascination with him,” she thought at the time (62). Then she recalls how Aidan found her spying on Julian once, and the butterflies she feels being with Aidan. Yasmin is prone to anxiety. When he arrives, Aidan challenges her to stand up to her father, but Julian cuts in.

Julian deduces that Aidan is young and worthless, but also ambitious: “I know hunger for power when I see it” (67). He feels envy when Aidan declares he loves Yasmin and would do anything for her; Julian has “never known what it’s like to have someone willing to put you first” (68). Julian suggests that Ali will approve of Aidan as Yasmin’s future husband if Aidan finds the lamp. When Aidan agrees, Julian is satisfied that he will now have something to hold over Yasmin. Later, at Sultans offices, Julian overhears Ali’s doctor telling him he has two months to live. He is unexpectedly saddened by the news, as he has long looked up to Ali, thinking of him as a mentor and almost a father figure. Battling unwanted feelings, Julian discusses his next moves with Ian.

Yasmin is worried about what Aiden is getting into by working for Julian. She speaks with her father, who reminisces about his love for Yasmin’s mother, a strong woman who died when Yasmin was born.

In her bedroom, Yasmin is frustrated when she doesn’t hear from Aidan. Julian appears at her door and informs her that her father only has two months to live. He suggests that Yasmin could pretend to marry Julian, stopping her father from producing more suitors and giving Aidan time to locate the lamp.