BooksBarbecue
Back This Time Will Be Different Save as PDF
Chapters (77)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part I
  6. 3
  7. The History of My Beef with Brynn Foer-Preston
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part I
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part I
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part II
  20. 13
  21. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part II
  22. 14
  23. 15
  24. 16
  25. 17
  26. 18
  27. 19
  28. The Complicated History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Imaginary Relationship with Her Nonexistent Dad
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part III
  33. 23
  34. 24
  35. 25
  36. A Brief, Backward History of the McAllister Family, as Paraphrased from the San Jose Mercury News
  37. 26
  38. 27
  39. 28
  40. A Quick and Eerily Relevant History of Asians in America
  41. 29
  42. 30
  43. 31
  44. 32
  45. 33
  46. 34
  47. 35
  48. 36
  49. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part IV
  50. 37
  51. 38
  52. 39
  53. 40
  54. 41
  55. 42
  56. 43
  57. 44
  58. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part II (Or Maybe It’s a Prequel)
  59. 45
  60. 46
  61. 47
  62. 48
  63. 49
  64. 50
  65. 51
  66. 52
  67. 53
  68. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part III
  69. 54
  70. A Note from the Author
  71. Index of Flowers and their Meanings
  72. Acknowledgments
  73. About the Author
  74. Praise for This Time Will Be Different
  75. Books by Misa Sugiura
  76. Back Ad
  77. About the Publisher

“It’s perfectly legal, kiddo. People do stuff like this all the time. McAllister is looking to find a small urban space to incubate a couple of start-ups, and our property is perfect. I can sell it to them as a private citizen. What they do with it afterward is their business.”

“But it still doesn’t seem right,” I say. I wish I could say it in a bigger way. Somehow, the fact that I thought this secret was something else entirely makes the truth feel like even more of a betrayal.

“That’s right, CJ,” says Hannah. “Mimi, we’re not talking about the legality of the process, and you know it.”

“Hannah.” Mom sets her wineglass down, and the wine sloshes back and forth inside. “What happened in the past happened. It’s over. The only person who’s still upset about it is you. Move on.”

“What?” She can’t possibly mean that. “Don’t you even care a little bit about what happened? Or about what Heart’s Desire means to us?”

“Frankly, CJ, not as much as I care about three million dollars.”

I gape at her. She really doesn’t care at all. “How can you say that?”

“Because money is all she cares about,” Hannah says, sneering. Normally I would wince at how nasty she sounds, but right now, it feels fair.

“Well, someone in this family has to care about money,” Mom says pointedly.

Something in Hannah seems to snap, and she stands up and starts shouting, her eyes wild and chest heaving. It’s hard to even look at her. “How dare you do this to us? How dare you? If Dad were alive today—”

“He’d probably want to sell it, too.” Mom, on the other hand, has become icy cold and calm. She leans back in her chair and takes another sip of wine, and once again I can barely believe how she can be this cruel.

“You know he wouldn’t. You’ve always put money ahead of family. That’s what killed him, you know. When you went to work for them. You betrayed him. You betrayed all of us. And now you’re going to do it again.”

“I am trying to do what’s best for our family,” says Mom. “So you can just take a seat.” What’s best for our family. The phrase spins in my mind like a coin on a table, a blurry, unstable illusion.

Hannah looks daggers at Mom and says quietly, her voice full of righteous fury, “How dare you say that. You traitor.”