Chapter 2: The Solemn Vow

"She needs absolute bed rest."

"I do not care about the medical cost. Put everything on my private account. Make sure she gets the best care available."

Alec stood at the edge of the white curtain in the field medical tent, his forehead covered with clean white bandages. His chest was sore, but his eyes were sharp, dark, and fixed entirely on the small hospital bed.

Sienna looked tiny under the heavy blankets. Her face was pale as paper, her lips dry and cracked. The baggy work clothes she always wore on the site had been cut away, replaced by a simple hospital gown that rested loosely on her shoulders.

Alec walked closer, his boots clicking softly on the floor. The three surviving workers she had dragged out before going back for Alec stood near the end of the bed, their faces bruised, their hands shaking with nervous energy.

"You saved every single one of us, young lady," Miller, the oldest worker, said, his voice cracking with emotion. "The doctors told us you pulled three of us out before you ran back into the fire to drag the boss out. All four of us would be dead in that basement right now."

Sienna moved slowly, opening her eyes. She looked at the workers, then looked at Alec standing beside her bed. She tried to say something, but a violent, dry cough shook her whole frame instead.

"Do not speak yet," Alec said, his voice firm and steady. "You put your life on the line. You completely ruined your health for four men you did not even know. Name your price. Money, houses, a full business setup in any city you choose. My family will ensure you never have to work a single day for the rest of your life."

Sienna swallowed hard, shaking her head against the white pillow.

"I do not want money."

"Then tell me what you want," Alec said, leaning down slightly. "Ask for anything. We owe you our lives. I owe you my life."

Sienna turned her face toward the plain fabric wall of the tent. A single tear rolled down her cheek, leaving a clean line through the dried dust on her skin.

"I am completely alone in this world," she whispered, her voice rough and barely audible. "I have no mother. No father. No family anywhere. If I had died in that explosion yesterday, nobody would have come to identify my body at the morgue."

The tent went completely silent. The workers looked down at the floor, their faces filled with guilt and sadness.

"I do not care about riches," Sienna whispered, her fingers clutching the hospital blanket tight. "I just want a reason to live. I want a child. A baby to love, to care for, to build a real home with. That is the only thing I have ever wanted in my life."

Alec froze. His whole body went rigid

Ten minutes later, the four rescued workers stood behind the heavy steel shipping containers in the site yard, completely away from the hospital tent.

"Are you insane, Miller?" Alec said, his voice low, cold, and hard. "I am an engaged man. My wedding with Genevieve is scheduled for next month on our private estate. My family is already printing the invitations. I am not agreeing to this nonsense."

"Two of us here are legally married with children waiting at home," Miller said, pulling an old silver coin from his pocket. "We cannot take another woman into our homes. But you, Alec? An engagement is not a marriage contract yet. You are not bound by the law, and you were the last man she nearly died dragging out of the flames."

"I am a Sterling," Alec said, his jaw tightening as he stepped into Miller's space. "I settle my debts with wire transfers and properties. I do not gamble away my future."

"She refused your money, boss," another worker said, stepping forward. "She destroyed her lungs so four of us could walk out alive. None of us can look our families in the eye if we leave that girl with nothing. It is a matter of pure honor. The unmarried men join the toss. You are in."

Alec stood completely still under the harsh site floodlights. His mind raced back to his high-society life, his reputation, and the plans he had made for his future. But his strict family honor held him in place like a steel cage. A Sterling never ran away from an unpaid debt of life.

"Flip it," Alec said, his tone turning completely flat.

Miller tossed the silver coin high into the night air. It spun under the floodlights before landing with a sharp slap on the back of Miller's hand.

Miller slowly lifted his palm.

Tails.

A dead silence fell over the container yard. The workers looked down at the silver face of the coin, then raised their eyes to Alec.

"It is you, boss," Miller said in a low whisper.

Alec stared at the coin, completely stunned. His stomach dropped into a cold, empty pit. In ten seconds, his engagement, his social standing, and his entire future had been wiped out by a coin toss. He felt sick with disbelief and completely miserable, but his face remained a hard, unreadable stone mask.

"Call the city magistrate," Alec said, his voice entirely devoid of life. "We get married at sunrise. But tell her this; she gets her child, but she will never get my heart, and the moment that baby is born, this marriage dies.”