When attempting to play a card, at what point is the card no longer considered in your hand?

Specifically, say I am engaged by a Yithian Observer, and I have 5 cards in my hand.

I choose to play an asset, provoking an attack of opportunity. As part of resolving this attack, I must discard a random card from my hand. When determining the card that is discarded, is the asset I was attempting to play considered to be in my hand?

My thinking is that a card would be considered to be in your hand until step 3 of the initiation process, meaning that it is possible that the card you have paid for (in step 2) will be selected as the random discard.

It can be selected to be discarded, which means you pay the cost to play it, get attacked, have to discard it (if it is randomly chosen) and do not get the ability of the card. It's rough.

To answer the question though, it leaves your hand in step 3 of the initiation sequence.

Check out the FAQ section here: https://arkhamdb.com/card/01177

Ha, I was actually on that page to make sure I got the wording right and didn't even check to see if it had already been addressed.

Thanks, both of you, and sorry for not doing simple due diligence on this before asking.