CORRUPTING 7, [ The Ballylaggin Chronicles ]

"SHE CORRUPTED HIM-"
"-AND HE LET HER BECAUSE LOVING HER WAS THE ONLY TRUTH, HE'D EVER WANTED."

CIARA LYNCH was born angry-raised by an alcoholic father, abandoned by a mother who left long before she was gone. From Wild Orchid Manor in Ballylaggin's upper northwest, she'd spent her life surviving in silence. To the town, she was the fierce sapphire-eyed girl who had it all. But behind the mask lay everything she fought to hide: the bipolar disorder she never asked for, the bruises she couldn't explain, and the family secrets that kept her trapped. By fifteen, her body carried scars no child should have. All she wanted was to stay invisible, to keep the truth buried where no one could find it. But secrets don't stay hidden forever. And when Ciara's disorder-and her parents' abuse-were dragged into the light, the world she built collapsed, forcing her to face the one thing she feared most: being truly seen.

GERARD GIBSON was the joker of Tommen College-the loud, laughing boy everyone in Ballylaggin swore had the perfect life. And for years, he believed it too, especially with the girl he'd loved since childhood. What he never realised was that his entire world was built on lies. He didn't know Ciara was bipolar. He didn't know the bruises on her pale skin weren't accidents. He didn't know she was being hurt in her own home in the Cork countryside. Every excuse she gave, every story she told, he believed-because it never crossed his mind that she lied just to survive. At seventeen, Gerard had his own shadows-old tragedies and nightmares that still rattled his bones-but none of it prepared him for the truth about Ciara Lynch. He thought he knew her better than anyone. In reality, he knew nothing at all.

Could love like theirs endure the mess of truth and trauma, or were they always meant to ruin one another?

( Book One Of The Ballylaggin Chronicles
The Boys of Tommen Series By Chloe Walsh
Gerard Gibson X Oc (Ciara Lynch) )