Chap­ter 46 begins with Leighton wak­ing up ear­ly, feel­ing a dull stom­achache that weighs on her. Her fam­i­ly sur­rounds her—her mom and sisters—but her atten­tion is drawn out­side where the absence of her father’s truck indi­cates that he like­ly stayed at his work­place, a trail­er used by Barnes Con­struc­tion. This real­iza­tion brings with it a mix of emo­tions, as her father’s absence typ­i­cal­ly sug­gests that the oper­a­tions at the con­struc­tion site are slug­gish, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the cold­er win­ter months. Though the warmth of home and the famil­iar­i­ty of her fam­i­ly pro­vide some com­fort, a heavy sad­ness set­tles over Leighton, one that she can’t ful­ly under­stand or artic­u­late. The morning’s usu­al rhythm, though com­fort­ing, does­n’t entire­ly erase the ache she feels deep inside.

Her mom, look­ing exhaust­ed, pre­pares cof­fee with a kind of qui­et rou­tine that feels dis­tant now. The two of them engage in a game—a game they once played togeth­er with joy—mixing idioms and metaphors, an activ­i­ty that once unit­ed them but now feels hol­low. Leighton can sense the dis­tance between them, and as they speak, the real issue becomes clear: the loom­ing need for a restrain­ing order against her father, who has become a source of gen­uine fear and dan­ger. This under­ly­ing truth sparks an argu­ment, as Leighton pas­sion­ate­ly insists that action must be tak­en for the fam­i­ly’s safe­ty. Yet, her mom hes­i­tates, unwill­ing to move too quick­ly due to the long-stand­ing mar­riage that she doesn’t want to dis­rupt. Despite acknowl­edg­ing the ten­sions at home, her mom con­tin­ues to cling to the hope that things might improve, which only frus­trates Leighton fur­ther.

Feel­ing the weight of respon­si­bil­i­ty for her younger sis­ters, Leighton reach­es a break­ing point. She knows she can’t remain at home in this emo­tion­al­ly charged atmos­phere, so she decides to leave, seek­ing solace with a friend instead. Her deci­sion to dis­tance her­self is met with resis­tance, as her mom con­tin­ues to cling to the frag­ile hope of fam­i­ly uni­ty, even as it slips fur­ther away. The ten­sion between them esca­lates, leav­ing Leighton feel­ing trapped and mis­un­der­stood. With no oth­er choice, she packs her things, ful­ly aware that she needs to take a step back to pre­serve her emo­tion­al well-being. It is not an easy deci­sion, but one that Leighton knows is nec­es­sary for her peace of mind and for the safe­ty of her sis­ters.

Lat­er, Leighton meets up with her friend Liam, who offers her a place to stay over the week­end. His offer pro­vides a tem­po­rary sense of relief, as he under­stands the tur­moil she is going through. As they dri­ve to school, Leighton finds her­self open­ing up to him about the increas­ing­ly volatile sit­u­a­tion at home. Liam lis­tens with empa­thy, offer­ing sup­port, but Leighton can’t help but feel a sense of frus­tra­tion. While Liam’s under­stand­ing is com­fort­ing, she knows that he can­not ful­ly com­pre­hend the grav­i­ty of the insta­bil­i­ty she faces on a dai­ly basis. The dis­con­nect between them, though unin­ten­tion­al, high­lights the deep-root­ed issues that have plagued Leighton’s life for so long.

At school, Leighton retreats to the news­room, hop­ing to find some dis­trac­tion and solace in the famil­iar sur­round­ings. She begins research­ing pro­tec­tion orders, her mind heavy with doubt and fear as she reads about the var­i­ous legal steps involved. The more she reads, the more the weight of the sit­u­a­tion press­es down on her. She grap­ples with the fear that her father’s reputation—his well-known posi­tion in the community—might over­shad­ow her own truth. She won­ders how she could pos­si­bly nav­i­gate a sys­tem that often pro­tects the guilty and silences those who need to be heard. This real­iza­tion brings with it a deep sense of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, as Leighton faces the uncom­fort­able truth that many women in sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions have to bat­tle both per­son­al trau­ma and soci­etal judg­ment. It is a harsh, over­whelm­ing thought that stirs in her, but it is one that she must con­front as she search­es for a way to pro­tect her­self and her sis­ters.

The chap­ter delves deeply into the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty of fam­i­ly life, par­tic­u­lar­ly when trau­ma and insta­bil­i­ty become dai­ly real­i­ties. The ten­sions between Leighton and her moth­er, the need for pro­tec­tion against a dan­ger­ous fam­i­ly mem­ber, and the sense of help­less­ness that comes with try­ing to pro­tect younger sib­lings, all paint a vivid pic­ture of the tur­moil Leighton faces. Her desire for safe­ty and peace is over­shad­owed by the obsta­cles she faces in achiev­ing it, but her jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery and deter­mi­na­tion is only just begin­ning. This chap­ter cap­tures not only the over­whelm­ing bur­den of liv­ing in a chaot­ic and unsafe envi­ron­ment but also the strength required to con­front it head-on, all while try­ing to main­tain a sense of nor­mal­cy and care for those she loves most.