Chap­ter 50 of If These Wings Could Fly por­trays a piv­otal moment in the pro­tag­o­nist Leighton’s emo­tion­al jour­ney as she faces the dis­com­fort of attend­ing a high school art show where her own work is on dis­play. Leighton stands beside her piece, Por­trait of an Old Crow, feel­ing the crush­ing weight of embar­rass­ment and self-doubt that so often accom­pa­nies high school events. The eyes of her peers, the judg­ment she imag­ines, and the real­i­ty of pre­sent­ing her per­son­al work push her fur­ther into a state of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. Although Liam encour­ages her to con­tin­ue with her art by sug­gest­ing she take Art II next spring, she remains skep­ti­cal of his praise, com­par­ing her­self to an old house that needs restora­tion. This inter­nal com­par­i­son reflects her low self-esteem and inabil­i­ty to accept the sup­port being offered. The jux­ta­po­si­tion between Liam’s gen­uine encour­age­ment and Leighton’s inner doubts high­lights the com­plex­i­ty of their dynam­ic, where Leighton is still strug­gling to believe in her­self despite exter­nal val­i­da­tion.

As the evening stretch­es on, time seems to drag painful­ly for Leighton, height­en­ing her dis­com­fort in the social set­ting. At 7:30, des­per­ate to escape the tense atmos­phere sur­round­ing her, she hur­ries away from her dis­play and seeks out Liam, hop­ing to find some sense of solace. But instead of sim­ply seek­ing him out for com­fort, she unex­pect­ed­ly dis­cov­ers his art­work, which cap­ti­vates her in a way she hadn’t antic­i­pat­ed. His draw­ings depict three girls, with one notably resem­bling Leighton in both her fea­tures and expres­sion, con­vey­ing deep feel­ings of iso­la­tion and heart­break. The piece is titled THESE BROKEN WINGS: AN ORIGIN STORY, a title that adds weight to her real­iza­tion. The art deeply unset­tles her, and she con­fronts Liam, demand­ing to under­stand why he would choose to depict her in such a way. As their eyes meet, Leighton’s inter­nal world col­lides with the raw­ness of her feel­ings, leav­ing her ques­tion­ing whether Liam sees her as bro­ken, as depict­ed in his art.

The emo­tion­al inten­si­ty of the moment dri­ves Leighton to retreat to the girls’ lock­er room, seek­ing a place of refuge away from the charged atmos­phere. Liam, con­cerned but not under­stand­ing the depth of her hurt, fol­lows her, gen­tly remind­ing her that he is her ride and that she is stay­ing at his house. The cold air out­side does lit­tle to soothe the dis­com­fort between them, and as they dri­ve in silence, Leighton strug­gles to process her emo­tions, feel­ing the weight of her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and the hurt that lingers. Upon reach­ing Liam’s home, Leighton is still emo­tion­al­ly raw, need­ing to express her­self despite the silence that has set­tled between them. She states firm­ly, “I am not bro­ken,” sig­nal­ing her defi­ance against the por­tray­al of her inner strug­gles. Liam, rec­og­niz­ing the pain he’s caused, apol­o­gizes, assur­ing her that the depic­tion was acci­den­tal and express­ing regret for not fore­warn­ing her about the nature of his work. His apol­o­gy does lit­tle to ease the emo­tion­al rift between them, leav­ing Leighton grap­pling with her feel­ings of expo­sure and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty.

After the heavy exchange, Liam invites Leighton to see more of his art­work, specif­i­cal­ly a com­ic that tells the trans­for­ma­tive sto­ry of a female char­ac­ter who begins as frag­ile and vul­ner­a­ble but grows into a pow­er­ful hero. As Leighton exam­ines the draw­ings, she begins to under­stand the under­ly­ing mes­sage of strength and resilience, see­ing the char­ac­ter evolve from a place of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty into some­one who can stand tall and fear­less. This rev­e­la­tion shifts her per­spec­tive on Liam’s inten­tions, reveal­ing that his work was not meant to harm her, but to explore themes of per­son­al growth and empow­er­ment. As they share this qui­et moment togeth­er, with their laugh­ter and the ease that fol­lows, a deep­ened bond forms between them. This moment of con­nec­tion offers Leighton a glimpse into Liam’s cre­ative vision, one that reflects themes of trans­for­ma­tion and hope. By the end of the chap­ter, Leighton decides to release the anger she had ini­tial­ly felt, under­stand­ing that mov­ing for­ward in their rela­tion­ship requires embrac­ing vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and let­ting go of mis­con­cep­tions. This deci­sion marks a turn­ing point for Leighton, as she acknowl­edges the impor­tance of mutu­al under­stand­ing and con­nec­tion in build­ing a rela­tion­ship.