Emily Wells has everything a woman could want: a beautiful home, financial security, and a husband who seems too good to be true. The problem? She can't remember choosing any of it.
After waking up from what David claims was a car accident, Emily struggles with gaps in her memory that feel less like trauma and more like theft. Her reflection looks wrong, her handwriting has changed, and her own sister has mysteriously disappeared from her life. When she discovers a diary hidden in the basement—written by a previous wife who died under suspicious circumstances—Emily realizes her perfect marriage is actually a sophisticated trap.
But the truth is even more sinister than she imagined. David isn't just controlling—he's artificial. Emily isn't recovering from an accident—she's Subject 7 in Project Phoenix, a clandestine program that erases women's identities and implants them with false memories, creating ideal candidates for relationships with synthetic partners.
Her real name is Rebecca Martinez, and she's been legally dead for two years while researchers studied how artificial personalities integrate with human consciousness. David is a Generation Two synthetic human, designed to be the perfect husband while monitoring and manipulating his subject's psychological development.
Now Emily—who chooses to call herself Eva—must escape not just an abusive relationship, but an entire network of facilities conducting illegal human experimentation. With the help of other survivors and a journalist determined to expose the truth, Eva wages war against a conspiracy that threatens to reshape human society itself.
As she fights to reclaim her stolen identity, Eva discovers that the program extends far beyond her own experience. Dozens of women are trapped in synthetic relationships, entire communities are being populated with artificial humans, and the technology that created David is evolving toward even more disturbing applications.
The Stranger You Married is a chilling exploration of identity, autonomy, and resistance in an age where technology can literally rewrite human consciousness. It poses the fundamental question: if everything you remember about yourself is a lie, what truly defines who you are?