My Ex-Husband Inviting Me to His Cult Wedding to Humiliate Me Didn't Expect My Five-Year-Old Triplets to Walk Down the Aisle
Chaos erupted throughout the compound. Assembly members scrambled, some grabbing buckets of water, others simply fleeing toward the main gate, which was still secured. The air was thick with smoke, stinging my eyes and lungs.
I ran toward the guest pavilion, adrenaline coursing through me. Guards were abandoning their posts, distracted by the growing inferno.
Martha, her face streaked with soot and tears, was already there. She was hammering frantically on the heavy iron door, the same one Gideon had ordered locked hours ago.
“The key!” she cried, her voice hoarse. “He took the key! I don’t have it!”
Her usual pious composure was gone, replaced by raw terror. She understood now. Gideon had used her, used her faith, used her kindness, to trap my children.
“Get back, Martha!” I shouted, pulling at the ornate iron bars covering a ground-floor window. They were old, rusted. They wouldn’t budge.
The fire from the adjacent archive building roared, consuming wood and spitting embers. Flames now licked at the pavilion’s roofline, visible through the windows.
“Eli! Samuel! Caleb!” I screamed, pressing my face against the glass. “Can you hear me?”
A faint cry. A small, muffled cough. They were inside. And they were awake.
Martha, sobbing, pulled at the door again. “It’s bolted from the outside, Hannah! He always keeps a spare in the office, but it’s gone!”
The window was my only chance. I looked around desperately, my eyes landing on a heavy, wrought-iron garden statue of a kneeling angel. It was ornate, solid.
With a grunt, I lifted it, using every ounce of my strength. I swung it, once, twice, against the windowpane. The glass shattered, exploding inwards with a deafening crash.
Thick, black smoke immediately billowed out, stinging my eyes. The heat was intense.
“Boys!” I yelled into the smoky void. “Come to Mama! Get to the window!”
I climbed through the jagged opening, ignoring the sharp edges of glass that tore at my clothes and scraped my skin. The room inside was a hazy orange, filled with smoke. I could barely see.
“Mama!” Eli’s small voice, choked with smoke.
I saw movement in the far corner. Three small figures, huddled together, coughing.
“Stay low!” I commanded, crawling on my hands and knees. “Crawl to my voice!”
They moved, terrified, through the suffocating smoke. Eli reached me first, his face smudged, his eyes wide with fear. I grabbed him, pulling him back toward the broken window.
“Jump!” I yelled to Martha, who stood outside, weeping. “Catch him!”
She extended her arms. I pushed Eli through the opening. He tumbled into Martha’s arms.
“Samuel!” I called, my throat burning. “Come on!”
Samuel crawled to me, shaking. I scooped him up, a fierce maternal strength surging through me. I passed him through the window as well, Martha catching him gently.
“Caleb!” I choked, turning back into the room.
Caleb was still there, closer to the far wall. He had stumbled, coughing violently.
“Mama’s coming, baby!” I cried, scrambling toward him.
Suddenly, a loud groan echoed through the building. The timbers above us shrieked. A crack appeared in the ceiling, then spread.
“Get out!” Martha shrieked from outside. “It’s collapsing!”
I reached Caleb, pulling him close. His small body felt fragile against mine. I turned, pushing him ahead of me, toward the window. We were almost there.
But another, louder groan reverberated. A massive, burning ceiling beam, charred and spitting sparks, tore free from the roof. It plunged downward, directly toward us.
“No!” I screamed.
I lunged, trying to shield Caleb, trying to pull him forward through the window. But it was too late.
The beam crashed down with a deafening roar, showering us with sparks and plaster. A blinding pain shot through my leg.
I was thrown backward, my head hitting something hard. But before the darkness consumed me, I saw Caleb.
He lay beneath the beam, twisted at an unnatural angle, motionless.
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