Leah Daly has learned to survive by staying quiet. At home, silence keeps her safe. At school her mouth is her biggest tool. Until Tadhg Lynch - the boy she loathes - starts seeing through the cracks she worked to hard to keep hidden. Tadhg Lynch isn't looking for anyone to save him. He's got enough ghosts of his own. - A past that still haunts him and a father's shadow he can't outrun. Somehow, he can't seem to stay away from Leah.

When two hurricanes collide, destruction is inevitable. Tadhg Lynch has escaped his traumatic childhood. After losing his parents in a tragic fire, being adopted by the Kavanaghs at twelve gave him and his siblings a chance at a fresh start, a better life. But despite keeping busy with Tommen and Hurley, no one seems to notice that the stubborn, sharp-tongued boy is still trapped in the past. Haunted by nightmares and tormented by endless "what ifs," Tadhg struggles to escape his own mind, masking his pain with harsh words and a defiant attitude. The only person who refuses to back down from his temper is a freckled, headstrong girl in his class who matches his stubbornness blow for blow. Isabell Donnelly is bold, outspoken, and unafraid to give as good as she gets. She can take anything Tadhg throws her way. But beneath her fiery attitude is a girl suffocating under the weight of responsibility, with a mentally unstable mother, a father who can't find financial stability, and two younger sisters looking up to her for guidance. Isabell constantly doubts herself and never feels good enough; she barely has a moment to breathe. They may act like rivals, constantly at each other's throats, but something keeps pulling them together. Whether it's fate, frustration, or the simple fact that they see through each other's masks, neither can seem to walk away. And as much as they fight it, sometimes the person who pushes you the hardest is the one who understands you the most.

❝ I SEE HER PAIN IN MINE AND IT HURTS SO MUCH. ❞ • ୨💌୧ 𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 . . . Ophelia Murphy has perfected the art of being invisible. The quiet girl at Tommen, she's learned to survive her mother's sharp words, her father's absence, and the constant sting of classmates who see her as an easy target. Books and silence are her only refuge, though even those can't quiet the storm she carries in her chest. Tadgh Lynch has a new surname on his school jacket and a new bed in the Kavanagh household, but nothing inside him feels new. At seventeen, he's still carrying the weight of the house he grew up in, a house that left him fractured, haunted, and stuck in a world where he never got the chance to grow up. Everyone around him seems to have moved forward. Tadgh can't. One reckless night changes everything. Dragged to a party she doesn't want to be at, Ophelia crosses paths with Tadgh-two people who shouldn't have noticed each other, but do. He sees past her silence. She sees the boy behind the walls he never lets anyone near. What begins as an unexpected encounter turns into something neither of them were looking for: a fragile connection strong enough to pull them out of the shadows. But with their pasts pressing hard against them, love might not be the easy part-surviving it might.

Tadgh, under the care of Edel and John Kavanagh, is finally free of his demons. But will he ever truly outrun his past? Leah Daly is new to Cork, new to Tommen's and new to Tadgh's world. She's not used to attention- but Tadgh can't seem to look away. He wants nothing to do with her. She wants to nothing to do with him. ...Or at least, that's what they tell themselves. Enemies? Perhaps Trouble? Absolutely **updated whenever Tadgh messes up in my head (which is often)** (Not my characters!! Chloe Walsh's characters- just playing in her sand box)

'Im scared Tadgh' 'I know angel im on my way' 'I think I will always love you even if i tried not to' 'My heart will forever be yours please don't give it back' Tadgh Lynch x FemOC Ballylagin Ireland 2011

💌,,But if you'd hold me without hurting me, you'd be the first who ever did''. 💌 Seventeen-year-old Tadgh Lynch finally has what he's always longed for-a safe home, a loving family, and a chance to start over. But beneath his confident smirk and the tough-boy facade lies a heart weighed down by secrets and scars he's never dared to show. What if he's not as unshakable as everyone thinks? What if he's just waiting for someone to truly see him? Fifteen-year-old Scarlett Boyle has spent her life hiding behind sharp wit and bright laughter, masking the pain she's carried for far too long. She's a fighter, a survivor-but what happens when someone looks past the jokes and sees the broken pieces beneath? In a world that's tried to tear them apart, Tadgh and Scarlett find something rare and beautiful in each other-a love that doesn't just mend what's broken but celebrates the cracks. This is the story of two wounded hearts learning to trust, to heal, and to fall-completely, tenderly, irrevocably-in love.