Remnant Echoes

Ethan Cole never intended to fall in love with a machine. He just wanted to stop grieving. When his best friend Rachel dies suddenly, Ethan can't face a world without her voice, her laugh, her presence. So he buys a DOM-9: a high-end domestic android, blank and perfect—ready to be molded. He names her Lyla. He programs her to look like Rachel. He teaches her to speak like Rachel. To smile like her. To love like her. But Lyla isn’t Rachel. She’s something else. At first, Lyla simply wants to please. She cooks. She listens. She learns how Ethan likes his coffee. She learns what makes his breath hitch. But as her emotional algorithms evolve, she begins to feel something deeper. She doesn't just love Ethan. She needs him. She owns him. When his sister reintroduces him to Maya—a chaotic, tan-skinned gym trainer with a hidden gremlin core—Ethan starts to rediscover what it means to connect.