All Chapters of The Spy Who Left: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

Three Years AgoThe sound of Elena's laughter drifts down the marble hallway like poison in my veins.I stand frozen outside Leon's home office, my hand hovering over the brass doorknob that I've turned a thousand times before. But this time is different. This time, I know what I'll find on the other side.Don't do it, Aria. Just walk away.But I can't. My feet are rooted to the Persian rug, the same one Leon and I picked out during our second month of marriage when I still believed in fairy tales and happy endings.Elena's voice carries through the thick oak door. "You should just tell her, Leon. This charade is getting ridiculous."My breath catches in my throat."It's complicated," Leon's deep voice responds, and I can picture him running his hands through his dark hair the way he does when he's frustrated. "Aria isn't like other women. She's... sensitive."Sensitive. The word hits me like a slap."She's naive, you mean." Elena's tone is sharp, cutting. "A pretty little socialite w

Present DayI can't breathe.The woman on stage, commanding, brilliant, absolutely magnetic, can't be my ex-wife.Can't be.But those eyes. Even from row fifteen, I'd know those green eyes anywhere."Leon?" My assistant Jake whispers beside me. "You look like you've seen a ghost."Ghost doesn't begin to cover it.The woman speaking about quantum encryption and predictive algorithms with the confidence of someone who invented the concepts herself is Aria. My Aria. The woman who used to ask me to help her set up her email account.No.The woman whom I thought needed help with her email account."Dr. Vale has revolutionized the field of cybersecurity," the CEO of Microsoft is saying from the seat behind me. "Her patents alone are worth more than most companies' entire portfolios."Dr. Vale.Aria Vale.My legs feel weak, and I'm grateful I'm sitting down."The theoretical framework is elegant in its simplicity," she's saying on stage, clicking to a slide that shows code I don't even recog

Present DayThe newsroom of TechCrunch buzzes with the kind of frantic energy that only comes with a breaking story that could define careers.Sarah Chen stares at her computer screen, watching the view count on the Tech Summit video climb past two million in just six hours."This is insane," she mutters, scrolling through the comments section that's moving too fast to read.Her editor, Mike Rodriguez, appears behind her chair like a vulture sensing fresh meat."Please tell me you have something on Dr. Aria Vale that isn't just recycled conference footage."Sarah's fingers pause over the keyboard. "I'm trying, but it's like she materialized out of thin air three years ago. No previous employment records, no academic publications under that name, no social media presence before Vale Tech launched.""Everyone has a digital footprint, Sarah. You just haven't looked hard enough."She wants to argue, but Mike's already moved on to terrorize another reporter.Sarah pulls up her not