Chap­ter 35 opens with Leighton feel­ing emo­tion­al­ly over­whelmed after a dis­turb­ing encounter with her father the pre­vi­ous night. Seek­ing solace, she hur­ries to Liam’s car, rain pour­ing down around her, adding to the weight of her dis­tress. As she set­tles into the car, Liam greets her casu­al­ly with a “Good morn­ing, beau­ti­ful,” a sim­ple phrase that trig­gers a flood of tears. Despite her best efforts to keep her emo­tions in check, the pain that has been build­ing up inside her bursts free, leav­ing her vul­ner­a­ble. She opens up to Liam, unable to hold back the anguish she has been car­ry­ing, her heart laid bare as she admits the depth of her suf­fer­ing. This moment reveals the emo­tion­al toll of liv­ing in an envi­ron­ment filled with manip­u­la­tion and abuse, as well as the rare com­fort she finds in shar­ing her pain with some­one who lis­tens.

Liam, notic­ing the inten­si­ty of her dis­tress, does not take her to school as planned. Instead, he pulls over, show­ing deep con­cern for her well-being, allow­ing her the space to talk. As Leighton strug­gles to artic­u­late the years of emo­tion­al abuse she has endured at the hands of her father, her frus­tra­tion grows. She feels trapped, unable to leave her tox­ic home, espe­cial­ly because her mother’s blind love for her father has kept her bound to that envi­ron­ment. The weight of these com­plex emo­tions pre­vents her from break­ing free, leav­ing her feel­ing help­less and con­flict­ed. This moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty brings a sense of clar­i­ty, but also rein­forces the painful real­i­ty that escape is not so sim­ple. The emo­tion­al abuse Leighton endures is not just phys­i­cal; it is psy­cho­log­i­cal, leav­ing deep scars that pre­vent her from sev­er­ing the ties to her fam­i­ly despite the ongo­ing harm.

As they sit togeth­er in the car, the pour­ing rain mir­rors Leighton’s inner tur­moil, sym­bol­iz­ing the over­whelm­ing emo­tions she’s strug­gling to con­trol. Liam urges her to dis­tance her­self from her home, telling her that she doesn’t deserve to live in such a tox­ic envi­ron­ment. While his words are filled with care and com­pas­sion, they clash with Leighton’s real­i­ty. The attach­ment she feels to her fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly her moth­er, makes leav­ing feel impos­si­ble, even though she knows it would be for the best. Her mother’s unwa­ver­ing devo­tion to her father makes it dif­fi­cult for Leighton to envi­sion a life out­side the con­fines of her home, even though the emo­tion­al toll is unde­ni­able. This inter­nal con­flict deep­ens her feel­ings of entrap­ment, as she is torn between her need for safe­ty and her loy­al­ty to her fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly her moth­er.

Even­tu­al­ly, Leighton begins to feel a sense of relief from hav­ing shared her pain with Liam, a small weight lift­ed from her shoul­ders. She thanks him, and togeth­er, they decide to return to school, though not imme­di­ate­ly. Liam sug­gests stay­ing away until after the first peri­od, a sug­ges­tion that Leighton agrees to whole­heart­ed­ly. In these pre­cious moments of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, they share a qui­et under­stand­ing, both find­ing com­fort in the brief respite from their indi­vid­ual strug­gles. The rain slows, a sub­tle shift that sym­bol­izes a lighter mood, and the cou­ple observes crows play­ing in the trees, a light­heart­ed moment that con­trasts sharply with the heav­i­ness of Leighton’s emo­tion­al bat­tles. This brief moment of con­nec­tion pro­vides a wel­come dis­trac­tion, offer­ing a brief taste of nor­mal­cy in the midst of her oth­er­wise chaot­ic world.

When they final­ly arrive at school, they are late, and Leighton is remind­ed of the cal­cu­lus exam wait­ing for her. As she rush­es through the hall­ways, her thoughts briefly shift from her per­son­al strug­gles to the pres­sures of her aca­d­e­m­ic life. A fly­er about a crow hunt catch­es her eye, an unset­tling reminder that she is not the only one fac­ing dis­turb­ing sit­u­a­tions. The fly­er rep­re­sents anoth­er trou­bling real­i­ty she can­not escape, par­al­lel­ing the dis­com­fort of her emo­tion­al tur­moil with the dark under­tones of the world around her. The chap­ter con­cludes with a poignant explo­ration of Leighton’s com­plex emo­tions, illus­trat­ing the deep strug­gles she faces with­in her fam­i­ly while offer­ing brief moments of solace through her con­nec­tion with Liam. In this chap­ter, Leighton’s inter­nal con­flict between seek­ing free­dom and remain­ing tied to her fam­i­ly is laid bare, pro­vid­ing a rich explo­ration of her emo­tion­al land­scape amidst the harsh real­i­ties of her life.