In Chap­ter Six­ty-Eight of “If These Wings Could Fly,” the pro­tag­o­nist finds her­self reflect­ing on her rela­tion­ship with Liam as he dri­ves away into the night. Stand­ing on the edge of a side­walk, she imag­ines a hope­ful future filled with promis­es, con­trast­ing sharply with the tense real­i­ty await­ing her. The sight of Liam’s red tail­lights dis­ap­pear­ing into dark­ness brings a smile, but is soon inter­rupt­ed by the explo­sion of fire­works mark­ing the New Year. This moment of joy quick­ly shifts as she notices the unex­pect­ed dark­ness of her home; no lights are on, despite it being a fes­tive night.

As she approach­es the house, the dread sets in—she real­izes all the win­dows are open. When she stands at the front step, her heart sinks upon sens­ing anoth­er pres­ence in the house. A man’s shad­ow looms in the foy­er, a fig­ure lurk­ing in the dark. The pro­tag­o­nist rec­og­nizes this fig­ure as some­one who has bro­ken a pro­tec­tion order. Pan­ic and fear inter­twine as she ques­tions the safe­ty of her sit­u­a­tion, con­cerned for the girls inside. The thought of run­ning away flits through her mind, but the ter­ror of pos­si­bly leav­ing them vul­ner­a­ble weighs heav­i­ly on her.

Open­ing the door reveals a fig­ure that embod­ies all her fears, the dark­ness around him exac­er­bat­ing the sense of dread. The fleet­ing moment of opti­mism she had—imagining a wel­com­ing home filled with safe­ty and love—turns into a haunt­ing reminder of what she has to con­front. This chap­ter illus­trates a poignant strug­gle between hope and fear, reflect­ing the pro­tag­o­nist’s desire for a brighter future along­side the harsh real­i­ties of her present cir­cum­stances. As the mem­o­ries of poten­tial hap­pi­ness fade away, she grap­ples with the intense feel­ing of anx­i­ety that her imag­ined future is slip­ping fur­ther out of reach.