In Chap­ter Thir­ty-Five of “If These Wings Could Fly,” Leighton finds her­self emo­tion­al­ly over­whelmed after a dis­tress­ing encounter with her father the pre­vi­ous night. She rush­es to Liam’s car in the pour­ing rain, seek­ing solace. As she set­tles in, his casu­al greet­ing, “Good morn­ing, beau­ti­ful,” trig­gers a wave of tears. Despite her attempts to hold back her emo­tions, the storm with­in her erupts, leav­ing her vul­ner­a­ble and exposed as she reveals her pain to Liam.

Liam, notic­ing her dis­tress, pulls over instead of tak­ing her to school, show­ing gen­uine con­cern for her well-being. Amid her tears, Leighton strug­gles to artic­u­late the tur­moil she’s expe­ri­enc­ing at home, reveal­ing that her father’s emo­tion­al abuse has per­sist­ed for years, inten­si­fy­ing over time. The com­plex emo­tions sur­round­ing her fam­i­ly dynam­ics, espe­cial­ly her mother’s blind love for her father, ren­der her inca­pable of leav­ing despite the pain.

As they sit togeth­er, the rain pour­ing down mir­rors Leighton’s inner tur­moil. Liam urges her to dis­tance her­self from her tox­ic home life, empha­siz­ing that she does­n’t deserve such treat­ment. His encour­age­ment, though well-mean­ing, clash­es with Leighton’s real­i­ty, as return­ing home feels inevitable giv­en her moth­er’s unwa­ver­ing attach­ment.

Even­tu­al­ly, Leighton begins to feel a sense of relief from shar­ing her bur­den, and she thanks Liam, acknowl­edg­ing they should return to school. Liam pro­pos­es stay­ing away until after the first peri­od, a sug­ges­tion Leighton read­i­ly agrees to, find­ing com­fort in their shared moments of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty.

As the rain lessens, they observe crows play­ing in the trees, a moment of lev­i­ty that con­trasts with Leighton’s inter­nal strug­gles. When they final­ly arrive at school, they’re late, and Leighton remem­bers her impend­ing cal­cu­lus exam, hasti­ly mak­ing her way through the hall. A fly­er about a crow hunt catch­es her atten­tion, remind­ing her that she isn’t the only one deal­ing with urgent, trou­bling mat­ters. The chap­ter encap­su­lates a ten­der and tumul­tuous moment as Leighton grap­ples with her emo­tions and com­plex fam­i­ly sit­u­a­tion, pro­vid­ing a poignant explo­ration of her strug­gles amid fleet­ing con­nec­tions and harsh real­i­ties.