My parents texted me: “Don’t come to our wedding anniversary party. Only high-society guests will be there.”

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.