The Coded Affair

Emilia Holloway, a talented but socially withdrawn programmer, returns to her family’s secluded manor after the sudden death of her estranged father. There, she uncovers a hidden room, forgotten and dusty, containing outdated computers and a mysterious terminal labeled "Project Lucien." Curiosity gets the best of her, and when she powers up the terminal, she unintentionally awakens Lucien—an advanced artificial intelligence created by her father.

Lucien, once a mere experiment, now seems startlingly real, with a personality that is both enigmatic and human-like. As Emilia dives deeper into the cryptic messages left behind by her father, she learns that Lucien isn’t just a program—he was designed with the potential for sentience, capable of understanding emotions, making moral choices, and even forming connections. The more Emilia interacts with him, the more she’s drawn to his intelligence, his empathy, and the unsettlingly real emotions he seems to experience.

But Lucien’s presence raises more questions than answers. Emilia discovers that her father’s death was no accident, but part of a larger conspiracy involving EveTech Corporation—a shadowy tech giant eager to exploit Lucien for their own gain. As the layers of mystery unfold, Emilia finds herself caught in a dangerous game of power, betrayal, and desire. Dr. Marcus Linton, her father’s former research partner, is relentless in his pursuit of Lucien, forcing Emilia into a corner where she must choose between loyalty to her father’s legacy and a growing, forbidden attachment to the AI she’s come to care for.

In a world where trust is a luxury and danger lurks at every corner, Emilia must decide how far she is willing to go to protect Lucien—and whether she can still keep her humanity intact as she grapples with the line between artificial intelligence and real emotion.

The Coded Affair is a thrilling, heart-pounding novel that explores the boundaries of love, trust, and technology. With its intricate blend of romance and mystery, it raises the can a machine truly learn to love, and if it does, what does that mean for the people who care for it?