At 6:47 p.m., my phone rang.
Olivia.
I almost ignored it.
“Hannah,” she said when I answered. Her voice was shaking. “Why did you hide this from the family?”
“Hide what?”
Behind her, I could hear dozens of people talking at once.
“Turn on Channel Seven.”
I switched on the television.
There I was.
Not live.
A recorded interview from earlier that afternoon.
The headline beneath my face read:
NORTHSTAR MEDICAL ROBOTICS ANNOUNCES $118 MILLION PARTNERSHIP.
For nine years, I had built Northstar from a rented workshop behind a rehabilitation clinic.
Our robotic mobility system had just secured national distribution through one of the country’s largest hospital networks.
I still owned the controlling interest.
My family knew I worked there.
They did not know I founded it.
That had been intentional.
The last time I mentioned a promotion, Dad immediately asked how much I could lend Olivia for a kitchen remodel.
