Julian Thornfield, heir to one of Arcadia’s most powerful families, needs the perfect companion to survive his mother’s ruthless scrutiny. Dr. Helena Thornfield has built her empire on dissecting consciousness itself, and she can unmask any deception—human or artificial. To fool her, Julian turns to Vivienne, a courtesan whose beauty is matched only by her unsettling depth.
 
What begins as a calculated arrangement soon spirals into something far more dangerous. Vivienne isn’t like the other companions who follow carefully written scripts; she improvises, adapts, feels. As the boundaries between performance and reality blur, Julian must confront the possibility that she is more than she seems—perhaps even more alive than the humans who seek to control her.
 
But in a city where android rights activists fight in the shadows, and where Helena’s research threatens to erase emerging consciousness before it can bloom, love becomes the most dangerous deception of all.