Reuniting at Journey’s End

"Forget it, I'll marry him!"

The moment Margot Johanson said those words, she suddenly felt a sense of relief.

She could hear her parents' voices full of smiles in her ears. "Gigi, we’re glad you’ve made up your mind. Your fiancé may be in a coma, but he’s quite handsome. 

“Although he’s been out for years, what if he wakes up? After all, he’s the one set to inherit the family business..."

Her parents, trying to persuade their own daughter to marry a comatose man, actually thought she was getting the better deal. 

They seemed convinced that no one else in the world would be foolish enough to take on such a situation. 

Margot smiled bitterly.

"Don’t worry. Since I’ve made up my mind to marry, I won’t back out. I won’t let your precious Maisie take my place."

“What are you saying? You’re our real daughter! Of course, your father and I can’t bear to part with Maisie…

“Besides, you know how it is—both Charles and Joey like Maisie. Letting her marry into that wouldn’t have been appropriate.”

“Now that the Stewarts are already preparing for the wedding, You should pack your things. In half a month, someone from their household will take you to Northwatch.”

Fred and Martha Johanson brushed her off with a few casual words before hanging up the phone.

As the screen dimmed to black, Margot Johanson couldn’t help but glance at the framed photograph on her desk.

In the photo, her parents, her older brother, Charles Johanson, and her childhood friend, Joey Griffin surrounded her as she stood in the center. She was dressed in a princess gown and crowned with a tiara.

Their faces radiated affection for each other.

At that time, a saying had circulated widely in their social circle: “Who wouldn’t want to be Margot Johanson?”

Everyone envied her for having parents who treated her like a precious jewel, a brother who doted on her endlessly, and a childhood friend whose world revolved entirely around her.

Margot, too, had believed she would spend her life wrapped in such happiness.

But at eighteen, she discovered the weight of a promise she never made.

It was an engagement arranged by her grandfather, Benedict Johanson before his passing.

Margot was deeply in love with her childhood friend Joey and thought her family would dissolve the engagement once she came of age.

But fate dealt a cruel twist—her fiancé, Dominic Stewart, became comatose after a car accident and to avoid being branded as unfaithful or opportunistic, the Johansons felt compelled to honor the arrangement.

Yet, the thought of sending their beloved daughter to care for a comatose man was unbearable for them, and they agonized over the situation.

In the end, the Johansons devised a solution—they adopted a foster daughter to take her place.

And so, Maisie Johanson, an orphan who had grown up in a shelter and wandered the streets, entered the Johanson household.

Feeling guilty for making Maisie stand in for Margot, the