All Chapters of From Pawn to Queen: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The wedding was over, but the humiliation lingered like a muted nightmare.I woke up trapped in the lavish cage called the Caldwell mansion.My and Ethan’s “new room” was a suite on the third floor of the main house. It had a living room, study, walk-in closet, and a spacious bedroom with a massive double bed.But from the first night, I was alone.Ethan never set foot in the room. After the wedding, he changed his clothes and left without a glance. Mrs. Zhou said coldly, “Master has company matters; he will be busy for the foreseeable future.”How long was “foreseeable”? I didn’t know.A week passed. He didn’t return.I felt like a forgotten decoration, silently moving through the mansion.Mornings were spent on the oversized bed, the space beside me cold and unwrinkled. Outside, the garden was immaculate, but I had no heart to look. The servants delivered breakfast, beautifully arranged, but never spoke more than necessary. Their eyes lowered, but I sensed the thin veil of contempt

After that day, my position in the Caldwell household plummeted to rock bottom. Ethan Caldwell’s warning was like a final ultimatum, nailing me to a pillar of shame as a “jealous, malicious woman with dirty thoughts.” The servants’ stares grew more blatant; even Mrs. Zhou, when bringing my meals, showed clear disrespect behind her perfunctory manners. Vivian Caldwell seized every chance to criticize me, always comparing my inadequacy to Olivia Chen’s supposed “kindness and grace.” I grew more silent, rarely leaving my suite, drifting like a ghost in that luxurious but icy cage. The bruise on my lower back—where I had struck the coffee table—remained dark purple, aching now and then, a constant reminder of that day’s humiliation. I began seriously contemplating leaving. This marriage had always been a mistake—a transaction exchanging my dignity and freedom for my family’s survival. Now that the Lane family’s crisis was temporarily relieved thanks to the Caldwells’ money, was my valu

The aftermath of the banquet was like a stone cast into a still lake, sending invisible ripples through the Caldwell mansion. I remained in my room, yet the air felt different. When Mrs. Zhou delivered meals, her head bowed lower than usual. The faint disrespect that had always tainted her tone was gone, replaced by cautious curiosity. The servants I passed in the hall stopped, greeted me respectfully as “Madam,” and hurried away, their eyes full of confusion—and a touch of fear. I could feel countless eyes, discreetly watching me from the shadows, trying to see what lay beneath the calm exterior of the woman who had revealed such unexpected brilliance that night. Ethan Caldwell no longer ignored me. He began coming home for dinner. The atmosphere at the dining table was suffocating. He sat at the head; I, at the opposite end. He no longer pretended I didn’t exist. Instead, from time to time, his eyes fell on me. That gaze was no longer purely cold or filled with disgust. It was

The name Stellar Dawn Group swept through the Caldwell Group like a sudden storm, dragging the entire Caldwell estate into the eye of a suffocating vortex. When Ethan Caldwell returned home, it was already late at night. I hadn’t gone to bed. Instead, I sat on the sofa in the upstairs lounge, a book open under the glow of a floor lamp—or rather, I was waiting for the storm I knew would come. Heavy footsteps echoed from downstairs, weighed down with fury and—faintly—exhaustion. He didn’t come up right away but went to the bar. The sharp sound of ice hitting glass rang out—once, twice, over and over—cutting through the silence like shards of glass.I set my book aside, moved to the stairwell, and looked down.He stood with his back to me, at the bar, his suit j

I cared nothing for how the farce in the dining hall ended. I went upstairs, locked the door behind me, shutting out the crying, the shouting, and the wreckage. Silence fell instantly. I walked to the window, gazing at the heavy night beyond, my heart filled with a peace I had never known before—tinged with the thrill of rebirth. It was over. The nightmare that had once belonged to Sophia Lane—the humiliation, the disguises—was finally over. Not long after, hesitant, heavy footsteps stopped outside my door. He lingered for a long time before finally knocking softly. “Sophia.” Ethan Caldwell’s voice filtered through the door, hoarse, filled with weariness and… almost a plea. “Open the door. Let’s talk, please?” I didn’t respond. I simply stood still.