After the Wave

Sometimes the wave isn't water. It's the phone call. The moment everything changes. When tragedy strikes a quiet Irish coastal town, Niamh O'Connell's carefully ordered life fractures in a single breath. One call. One crisis. One return to a place she thought she'd escaped for good. Ciarán Doyle never planned to see her again. They were young when they loved each other. Too young. Before responsibility. Before loss carved its permanent lines. Now he's rooted to the town they both came from — tied by family, history, and a promise he never learned how to break. Thrown back into each other's orbit, they navigate a landscape shaped by grief and memory. Old wounds reopen. Long-buried feelings surface. And the town — the same streets, the same sea, the same watchful neighbours — remembers everything. But this time is different. There's a child at the centre of it all. A fragile future. A reason to be braver than they've ever been before. As aftershocks ripple through their lives, Niamh and Ciarán must decide if love is something you survive… or something you choose. Again. And again. And again. After the Wave is a story about rebuilding when the worst has already happened. About choosing tenderness when it would be easier to run. About the quiet heroism of staying when leaving feels safer. It's about: • second chances that come with consequences • small towns that never forget • family you're born into — and the family you create • grief that doesn't disappear, but changes shape • love that isn't loud… just unshakeable Because sometimes the storm passes. And what's left… is everything that matters.