Starting From Absolute Zero

Outside the courthouse steps, Julian Vance shoved the divorce settlement across the table to me. "You keep the house. You keep the savings. You keep the car." His voice was dead calm, as if he were haggling over useless scrap metal. I stared at the very last clause: "Astra Tech remains solely in the possession of the Husband. The Wife voluntarily surrenders all equity." Six years ago, Julian and I were cramming into a run-down studio apartment, typing out our very first lines of code. Back then, he told me this company was our baby. Now, he was claiming he birthed it all by himself. Julian held out the pen. "Sign it, Evelyn. Let me have the company, and you take everything else. You're not losing out here." I almost laughed out loud. The house, the car, and the cash in the bank amounted to maybe two million dollars at best. My equity in Astra Tech was worth at least a hundred and fifty million. And I wasn’t losing out?! I locked eyes with him. He hesitated for a second, then looked away. "You don't know how to run a business anyway. Leaving it in your hands would only run it into the ground. I have to think about our employees." I gave a faint smile, didn't say a word, and signed my name on the dotted line. Since you're so unwilling to share the empire we built together... Then nobody gets to keep it. The moment I finished signing, the woman beside Julian let out a quiet sigh of relief. Chloe Reed. Our former head of administrative services. Or rather, the new lady of Astra Tech. She tugged gently at Julian’s sleeve, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. "Julian, hurry up. We still have that executive meeting back at the office." Julian stood up, took his copy of the agreement, and walked straight out without looking back once. I stayed seated, watching them slide into that shiny black Porsche. It was the first luxury toy he bought right after the company went public last year. As Chloe bent down into the passenger seat, she glanced back at me. Her eyes were filled with smug triumph—and pity. The door slammed shut. The engine roared to life. I pulled my phone from my bag. Three unread notifications: Anonymous Investor: "Evelyn, the funding and the term sheet are locked and loaded. When can you come sign?" Liam: "Boss, the servers for the new company are deployed. Ready to fire up whenever you are." Joe: "Evelyn, the product launch is locked in for next Wednesday. Media invites have gone out to every major tech outlet." I replied to them one by one. Julian really thought that snatching the corporate brand meant he’d won. Too bad for him. The real Astra Tech was locked inside my head. News of our divorce leaked much faster than I anticipated. By that evening, social media was buzzing. First, Wendy, an old colleague who loved kissing up to management, posted on Ins: [Congratulations to Julian on escaping that toxic trap! Here’s to fresh beginnings!] The photo showed Julian and Chloe in the corporate lounge, holding coffee cups and beaming ear-to-ear. Chloe commented underneath: [Thanks Wendy! I'll take good care of Julian.] Such a devoted little trophy. Even Marcus Sterling, one of our earliest angel investors, posted a status: [Business is war. Some people can only survive the trenches together, but they aren't meant to share the glory. Can’t wait for Astra Tech’s next chapter.] Julian liked the post. I dialed Liam. "How’s the office?" "Not great," Liam answered, sounding exhausted. "Julian called an all-hands meeting this afternoon. He announced you stepped down due to 'health reasons.' Then he restructured the entire org chart. I... I got demoted." My grip tightened around the phone. "What else?" "Leo from Core R&D got banished to a dead-end maintenance team just for daring to ask when you were coming back.” “Chloe’s newly hired HR director has been pulling old employees into private rooms all day, basically forcing people to swear loyalty." Outside my window, city lights flickered against the night sky. The June breeze swept across the balcony, but all I felt was cold. "Liam, how much longer can you take it?" "Me?" He gave a dry chuckle. "I already drafted my two-week notice. They can't wait to push me out anyway. Oh, by the way, Boss—all the evidence and records you asked me to back up? Done." "When can you join the new company?" "Tomorrow." "Good." I turned around, looking at the half-packed cardboard boxes in my living room. "Three days from now, we hold our first official product sprint." After hanging up, my phone pinged with a new Snap request. The note read: [Evelyn, it's Chloe. Add me back. There are a few things I really think we should talk about.] I approved it. Instantly, a wall of texts flooded my screen. [Evelyn, I've kept this inside for so long. Julian has been so exhausted these past two years. You never understood him, and you never supported him.] [A CEO needs to network, socialize, and bring in capital. And you?] [You spent every single day locked in the lab coding, completely detached from everything else.] [He needs a supportive partner, not a robot programmer.] [This divorce isn't his fault. You were just way too stubborn and aggressive.] [If you were actually a good wife, would he ever have left you? I just gave him the warmth he desperately needed when he was down.] [We did nothing wrong.] I read it over three times, screenshotted every word, and saved it to the cloud. I didn't bother typing a reply. Before I could even put my phone down, Julian called. "Evelyn, did Chloe message you?" His tone was sharp with irritation. "Can you stop giving her a hard time? She's young and naive. If you have a problem, take it out on me!""I gave her a hard time?" I forwarded the screenshots of Chloe’s messages and friend request straight to his phone. "If you're not using your eyes, feel free to donate them to science." Silence dragged on the other end for three seconds. "Just... stay away from her," Julian muttered, pausing before adding, "And don't bother showing up at the Global Tech Summit next week. Astra Tech is headlining. Don't make things awkward for everyone." "Are you scared of seeing me there?" "I'm trying to save you the humiliation. Without Astra Tech, you don't have any resources left. Showing up empty-handed will only make a fool out of yourself." I let out a soft laugh. "Julian, do you own the summit?" "You—" "Whatever you say. If anyone's going to be humiliated, it won't be me. Don't say I didn't warn you." I hung up. The next day, I asked Marcus Sterling out for coffee. He was our lead angel investor from the seed round, and nowadays, Julian’s buddy. Yet back then, I was the one who drafted the pitch deck and staked him out three times at this exact cafe just to secure our initial check. Marcus showed up thirty minutes late. "Evelyn, long time no see." "Yeah. Long time." He skipped the pleasantries. "Julian filled me in. Evelyn, to be frank, your technical chops are undeniable, but managing a corporate machine has never been your strong suit.” “Leaving it to Julian lets the right person do the right job. It keeps things dignified for everyone." "Staying out of office politics equals incompetence? Dignified?" "I know you feel wronged," Marcus sighed. "But be realistic. Without Julian handling the public eye, courting investors, and carrying the brand, could code alone take Astra to an IPO?” “ He’s the face of the company. As a woman, what more do you really need?" I set down my coffee cup. "Marcus, do you remember what I told you when I first sat across from you six years ago?" He blinked. "I said I was going to build an autonomous driving system that would completely turn this industry upside down. You laughed." Marcus kept quiet. "I'm here to tell you: I built it." A subtle twitch shifted across his face. "What do you mean?" I stood up, pulled an envelope from my tote bag, and laid it on the table. "Our new product launch is next Wednesday. Here's your invite. Come or don't. Your choice." Without waiting for his response, I turned and walked out. Behind me came the sharp rustle of paper unfolding. I didn't look back. Outside, the midday sun was blinding. I slipped on my sunglasses just as my phone buzzed with an Ins notification. [Your close contact @Julian Vance_ Astra Tech shared a new post! Check it out~] I tapped in. It was a photo of Julian and Chloe sitting side-by-side in his corner office, the massive Astra Tech logo glowing behind them. The caption read: [A new journey begins. So grateful to have you by my side. @ChloeReed] The comments were already flying: [Congrats Julian! The new girl is ten times hotter than your ex!] [Lmao official announcement! Bet the ex-wife is sobbing into her pillow right now.] [Heard the ex was just an awkward lab nerd. She was never on Julian's level anyway.] [Just bought three more call options on Astra! Let's go!] I closed the app. Then, I dialed a number I hadn't reached out to in a very long time. "Hey, Victoria. It's Evelyn. I need a favor. I'm hosting a product launch next Wednesday, and I want your media team on it." Victoria’s voice turned dead serious. "Evelyn, I can run the coverage for you. But you know as well as I do that Julian has deep roots in this town. Unless you're holding an absolute royal flush, you won't survive him." I took a breath. "Victoria, I just redefined Level 4 autonomous driving."A sharp intake of breath crackled through the speaker. "Evelyn... are you serious?" "We'll have live road tests during the keynote. I achieved true vehicle-to-everything synchronization—completely ditching high-definition pre-mapped data." "Damn," Victoria breathed, excitement trembling in her voice. "If you really pulled that off, this entire market is about to get flipped on its head. I'll handle the press. We're going to make this massive." I hung up and headed toward my car. Passing a convenience store, a TV near the counter caught my eye. A financial news broadcast was playing. Julian was on screen. Dressed in an immaculate bespoke suit, he smiled effortlessly under the studio lights. "Astra Tech will aggressively focus on smart mobility, aiming to achieve full commercial deployment of Level 4 autonomous driving within three years." The reporter chimed in, "Rumor has it that your former co-founder, Evelyn Clark, was the core brain behind this initiative. Will her departure impact your R&D timeline?" Julian’s smile didn't waver. "Evelyn is a fine engineer. But Astra Tech is a team, not a one-man show." "Do you have any words for her future endeavors?" "I wish her the best in finding where she truly belongs." His charm was utterly flawless. I stood glued to the sidewalk, staring at that familiar yet repulsive face. The Julian from six years ago—the boy who pulled all-nighters coding in a freezing room, who swore we were going to build something that changed the world, whose lips were chapped but whose eyes shone like stars... That boy was dead. Murdered by the man on the screen. Two days before the launch. Liam, Leo, and I were running on fumes at our new workspace. Our new company was named "Skye AI." We rented a modest three-story brick building in the old industrial district. Rent was forty-five hundred a month—laughably pathetic compared to Astra Tech’s towering glass headquarters. Yet the servers humming inside this little building were running the most advanced self-driving algorithms on the planet. "Boss, the real-vehicle test results are in!" Leo kicked the office door open, dark circles hanging under his eyes like bruises, but practically bouncing on his heels. "Urban scenario success rate: 99.3%. Highway scenario: 100%. We just curb-stomped every single competitor on the market." "Cut the telemetry footage into clips. We'll run them during the keynote." "On it," he plugged a flash drive into his laptop. "Oh, by the way, Boss... one thing." "Go ahead." "A headhunter hit me up this morning offering double my salary to jump back to Astra. Julian is desperately poaching everyone who walked out. He's throwing blank checks around." Liam looked up from his monitor. "He's terrified." "Damn right he is," Leo sneered. "He's terrified we'll drop something groundbreaking, but he's too arrogant to beg us back. So he's throwing money at the wall to lock people down and keep his investors pacified." "Then why are you two still here?" I asked quietly. Leo grinned broadly. "Because sticking with you means we actually change the world." Liam smiled, too. "You gave me my first shot right out of grad school, Evelyn. Nobody has enough money to buy me away from you." Looking at them, a warm ache bloomed in my chest. At three in the afternoon, Victoria arrived. With over a decade in tech media, her word carried serious weight. She brought an entire camera crew to shoot an exclusive interview. "Evelyn, you have to claim the narrative right now," she urged, sitting across from me as the lights were rigged. "Astra received your press invitation.” “Julian's PR machine is already seeding articles. If you don't strike first, the moment you unveil your prototype, they'll frame you as a disgruntled ex stealing company IP." "I know," I smoothed my blazer. "Roll it." The red recording light flashed on. Victoria leaned in. "Evelyn, tell our viewers: why launch a brand-new startup so immediately after leaving Astra Tech?" I stared directly into the lens. "Because I couldn't let it go." "Let what go?" "The code. The blueprints. The hundreds of nights spent debugging in the lab." I paused. "Every foundational algorithm and neural network at Astra Tech was written by my own hands. The day I walked out, their technical soul died. This industry deserves better than marketing hype. That's why I'm back." "Julian claims Astra's engineering team remains intact and their Level 4 timeline is on track. What's your response?" "I wish them luck." Once the interview wrapped, Victoria’s team hurried to edit the cut. She pulled me aside, lowering her voice. "Evelyn, I just got a tip. Julian called a sudden press conference of his own. Set for tomorrow afternoon. The day right before your launch." Liam frowned. "He's trying to hijack our news cycle." "Worse," Victoria warned. "He invited top venture capitalists. Marcus Sterling will be sitting front and center." I stayed silent for a beat. "Let him talk. A real product doesn't lie." Except the next morning, disaster struck. The testing track facility we booked for our live demonstration abruptly cancelled our contract.The track manager called me, stammering excuses before finally spilling the truth. "Look, Ms. Clark, I'm truly sorry. Astra Tech just signed an exclusive annual retainer with us. One of their strict conditions was that we terminate any business with your entity. Our hands are tied..." "Understood." Barely a second after I hung up, Liam bolted into the room. "Boss! Server breach attempt!" "Someone’s trying to punch through our firewall," Liam’s fingers blurred across his keyboard. "It’s a sophisticated attack, but our core servers are holding. Their target seems to be our demo telemetry datasets." My stomach dropped. "Execute emergency protocol. Air-gap the master repository right now. Trace the origin IP." "Got it." Liam’s voice turned deadly cold. "IP traced. It's coming straight out of Astra Tech's corporate R&D network." Leo slammed his fist onto the desk. "Are you kidding me?! Those shameless bastards!" I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down." I grabbed my phone and dialed our legal counsel. "Counselor Campbell, I need an immediate preservation of evidence filing against Astra Tech. They just attempted an intrusion into our private servers. We have the originating IP logged. Serve them a cease-and-desist right now." Hanging up, I leaned back against my chair. My mind drifted back six years. We had just closed our first funding round. Julian was over the moon, treating the whole squad to a celebratory dinner. Someone at the table had asked what we'd do if competitors started playing dirty. Julian had raised his glass high and announced, "We let our tech do the talking. We never stoop to cheap tricks." Later that night, tipsy and flushed, he whispered to me, "Evelyn, don't worry. No matter what happens in this life, I will always be the person who has your back." Always. Six years. Turns out, his "always" had an expiration date of six years. "Boss," Liam's voice snapped me back to reality. "What do we do about the track?" I rubbed my temples. Just then, my desk phone rang from an unknown landline. "Hello, is this Evelyn Clark?" "Speaking." "Hello, Ms. Clark. This is David Miller from the City Department of Transportation's Tech Division. We noticed your public launch is scheduled for the day after tomorrow. Are you still looking for a closed-course demonstration facility?" I froze. "Excuse me?" "The Transportation Department just completed safety certification on a smart-grid test track on the south side of town. It hasn't opened to the public yet.” “Our leadership is very keen on cutting-edge autonomous mobility and wants to back genuine innovators. If you need it, the facility is yours to use. Free of charge." My throat tightened. "Thank you, Mr. Miller." "Don't mention it, Evelyn. We're betting on your talent. Send your team over for logistics. Let's make it happen." As I hung up, Liam and Leo looked at me with bated breath. "We have our track," I said. The room erupted into cheers. I turned to look out the window. Maybe, just maybe, integrity still counted for something. Maybe when you build something truly magnificent, the right eyes will see it. At two in the afternoon, Julian held his media briefing at Astra Tech headquarters. Leo attended undercover, live-texting me updates. [Boss, more than half of Astra’s presentation deck is based on our old technical roadmaps! He's literally projecting the unreleased Level 4 architecture you drafted!] My knuckles whitened around my phone. [Press Q&A started. A reporter asked what he thinks of emerging startups.] [He said he welcomes healthy competition, but warned that 'desperate people hyping unfinished lab experiments' are a disgrace to the industry.] [He heavily implied your name. He didn't say it outright, but everyone knows he means you.] The texts kept rolling in. The AC hummed in the room, but my spine felt like it was on fire. "Boss, you okay?" Liam asked cautiously. "I'm fine," I replied calmly. "Pull every single archived technical document from my time at Astra. Every timestamped commit, every git history log, every email thread, and every meeting transcript." "What are you planning?" "We're adding an extra segment to our keynote." "What kind of segment?" I met his gaze. "I'm going to show the entire world who the real liar is."Launch day. I arrived at the test track at five in the morning. The Department of Transportation’s proving grounds were massive: standard urban road layouts, functioning traffic signals, simulated tunnels, and overpasses. Our team was running the final diagnostic checks. Our test vehicle was an ordinary rented white SUV without any flashy decals. The real revolution was completely invisible to the naked eye. The sensor suite on the roof was custom-engineered by us, fusing solid-state LiDAR, millimeter-wave radar, and industrial vision cameras. Inside the trunk sat our proprietary computing platform. It delivered three times the processing power of anything on the market. At half the cost. "Boss, media seating is fully packed," Leo jogged over. "Victoria said every invited outlet checked in." "The interview you dropped last night just crossed three million views online." I nodded. Victoria walked up to me. "Evelyn, Julian just walked in." My hands didn't shake. "He was on the guest list. I expected him." I straightened the collar of my blazer. It was the only expensive suit I owned, purchased three years ago for Astra's annual gala. That night, Julian stood on stage declaring our future lay among the stars. Later that same night, he got wasted, and Chloe was the one who escorted him back to his hotel suite. The bitter irony was, I only found out through office gossip the next day. "Ms. Clark, two minutes to showtime," a stage manager signaled. I took a slow, grounding breath. "Let's begin." At ten sharp, the lights dimmed. The press gallery was a sea of flashing lenses. Standing in the wings, I peeked through the curtain. Julian sat in the third row near the aisle, arms crossed over his chest, a condescending smirk playing on his lips. Chloe clung to his arm, whispering into his ear every few seconds. Marcus Sterling was seated a row ahead of them, legs crossed, flipping carelessly through our program guide. Victoria’s voice resonated over the PA. "Welcome, members of the press and industry partners, to Skye AI’s inaugural launch. Please welcome our Founder and CEO, Evelyn Clark." I stepped out under the spotlight. "Good morning, everyone. I'm Evelyn Clark." "Today, I'm here to unveil a technology that will rewrite the blueprint of autonomous mobility." "For the past decade, this industry has sold the exact same fairy tale: that full driverless mobility is right around the corner. Yet nobody has successfully crossed the chasm from Level 3 to Level 4." "It wasn't a lack of compute. It wasn't flawed sensors." "It was flawed architecture." I clicked the remote. The massive screen roared to life. For the next twenty minutes, there was no teleprompter and no fluffy marketing buzzwords. The murmurs in the crowd completely vanished. "Talk is cheap," I said smoothly. "Let's see it on the tarmac." The feed shifted to a live broadcast. A white SUV sat idling at the start line. Zero passengers. Completely autonomous. The screen split into three feeds: real-time road conditions, dynamic neural-network decision rendering, and interior cabin views. "Today’s test track stretches 7.5 miles, simulating dense urban traffic, expressways, blind tunnels, and active construction zones." "Engage." Scenario One: An unprotected left turn. Heavy oncoming traffic. The vehicle had a two-second window to assess gaps and execute. The SUV paused at the intersection. One second. Two seconds. The moment a semi-truck rumbled past, the car pivoted. A clean, decisive steer directly through the opening. Flawless. Scenario Two: The tunnel. Entering the dark tunnel, GPS signal dropped to zero. Visibility plummeted. The car didn't flinch. Speed remained rock-steady; lane-centering didn't drift a single millimeter. Scenario Three: Construction maze. Three lanes pinched down to one with randomly scattered traffic cones. Eight hundred yards out, the car seamlessly initiated its lane merge without hesitation. Passing the barriers, its speed dialed down smoothly below the posted limit. Scenario Four: A robotic pedestrian dummy launched from behind an obstacle less than thirty feet ahead. The system responded instantaneously. No violent lock-up. A calculated brake tap paired with a micro-swerve, carving an elegant arc around the hazard. It drove like a seasoned professional with twenty years behind the wheel. 7.5 miles. Zero disengagements. Time: 17 minutes flat. Zero infractions. Zero safety interventions. The live feed froze on the finished dashboard. Dead, stunned silence swept across the auditorium. Victoria was the first to stand and clap.My eyes swept over the front rows. The smirk on Marcus Sterling's face had completely frozen. Chloe’s face was drained of color, her fingers crushing a plastic water bottle. Julian stared blankly at the screen, his expression fracturing into disbelief. "Now that you've seen the capability, let's talk commercial reality." A new slide populated the screen. On the left: performance benchmarks of current industry leaders. On the right: ours. Every single metric eclipsed the competition by at least thirty percent. The fatal blow was the unit economics. The leading industry suite cost $18,000 per vehicle. Ours cost $5,200. The room erupted into frantic whispers. "True engineering isn't about bragging rights; it's about accessibility," I said firmly. "Skye AI’s mission is to put full autonomous safety into everyday family sedans. It shouldn't be a luxury tax for the ultra-rich." "To date, we have signed Letters of Intent with three major automotive manufacturers." The logos hit the display: Ford, GM, and Rivian. Audible gasps rippled through the hall. Marcus Sterling bolted upright in his seat. His phone buzzed. He glanced down, and his complexion turned sickly pale. I didn't need to guess. Astra Tech’s stock was crashing. "Before we close," I took a steadying breath, "I have a question for Mr. Julian Vance." Every camera swung around. "At your press briefing yesterday, you told the media that unproven startups hyping lab projects are an insult to the industry. You claimed real technology requires institutional accumulation that cannot simply be recreated outside a corporate platform." "So tell me, Julian... who actually accumulated the technology behind Astra Tech?" A low hum of excitement swept through the reporters as lenses zoomed onto Julian's face. His neck flushed crimson. "Evelyn—" "This is the complete version commit history of Astra Tech’s autonomous system from 2018 to 2023." The screen transformed into an intricate, timestamped timeline. Behind every breakthrough release, behind every architecture patch, sat the primary contributor’s name: Evelyn Clark. Evelyn Clark. Evelyn Clark. I clicked through the slides, page after page. With every slide, the uproar in the audience swelled. "So tell me—who left whom behind to call it 'leaving the platform'?" The auditorium descended into utter chaos. Julian jumped out of his chair. "Evelyn, whatever personal issues we have can be discussed in private—!" "We don't need privacy," I cut him off cleanly. "Right here. Right now. In front of every camera in this room." His mouth opened and closed, entirely speechless. Beside him, Chloe suddenly shrieked. "Enough! Evelyn, that is enough!" Her voice went shrill. "This is nothing but petty revenge! You're just lashing out because Julian dumped you!" Tears spilled from her eyes as she pointed an accusing finger at me. "Your divorce was a private relationship issue! What does that have to do with the company?! Do you have any idea how much Julian bled for Astra?!” “He was the one flying across the country closing deals! He was the one drinking himself sick at client dinners! You think typing a few lines of code makes you a god?! Without him, Astra would have never gone public!" I looked at her coldly. "You're right about one thing. Julian does have skills." "His skills are sales, spin, and glad-handing. Not engineering." "And the statements he made to the press yesterday were bold-faced lies." "Since when does a liar get to represent this industry?"Once the keynote wrapped, I declined all media interviews. Liam walked up and handed me a cold bottle of water. "Boss, after today, our names are going to blow up." I took a sip. "Yeah." "The automakers already expedited their draft contracts. Faster than we ever projected." "Yeah." "Boss... aren't you happy?" I looked down at the bottle in my hands. Happy? I honestly didn't know. All I felt was a bone-deep exhaustion. The kind of weariness that hollows out your chest. My phone rang from an unknown number. I answered. "Hello?" "Evelyn, it's Marcus." It was Marcus Sterling. "Incredible showcase today." "Thanks." "I want to discuss an investment round. For Skye AI." "Marcus, aren't you firmly in Astra's corner anymore?" The line went silent for a moment. "Evelyn, business is business. Personal ties are personal ties," he said evenly. "Skye needs growth capital. Think about it." "I'll think about it." I hung up. Liam glared at me. "Marcus wants in?! Boss, you can't possibly say yes!" I looked at him. "Why not?" "He's Julian's guy! He—" "He's a venture capitalist," I interrupted gently. "Investors don't pick sides. They pick returns. Today our product is superior, so he comes knocking. Tomorrow someone beats us, and he'll run to them." Liam paused. "Boss, what’s our next move?" "The launch was just step one. Now comes hardware validation, assembly line deployment, and a thousand other hurdles." "That's not what I meant," he smiled faintly. "What are you going to do about Julian? He got humiliated today. Knowing his ego, he won't take this lying down." I gazed out at the sunset. "Liam, do you know why I founded Astra six years ago?" "Why?" "Because I genuinely believed code could make the world safer." "And now?" "I still believe that," I turned back toward him. "So whatever Julian throws at me, it won't stop us. He doesn't have the power to stop us." Out on the track, the white SUV rested quietly, the Skye AI logo catching the amber glow of dusk. Just then, Liam's phone pinged. He checked it, and his face instantly darkened. "Boss... Astra Tech just released a legal press release. They're suing us for trade secret theft. They filed an emergency injunction to freeze our patents and halt product distribution." His voice shook. "The court summons is already on its way." Victoria pinged me on Ins: [Evelyn, check Twitter and Ins right now.] I opened the app. Trending Topic #1: #Skye AI Trade Secret Theft# Trending Topic #2: #Julian Vance Responds# Trending Topic #3: # Astra Tech Sues Ex-Wife# A tsunami of vitriol hit the feeds: [So she stole the tech? No wonder she launched a product five minutes after getting divorced!] [Figures. The scorned ex-wife didn't invent crap, she just walked out the door with her husband's proprietary data.]