The Silence Beneath the Lake

When a historic drought drains a man-made lake in rural Wales, it exposes the stone streets of a submerged village—and the silence that has hidden the truth for years. Mara Ellis returns to the valley she fled after her sister Nia vanished beneath the lake's dark surface. Officially, she's there to photograph the ruins for a documentary. Privately, she's searching for proof that Nia didn't simply drown—that her disappearance was never an accident. As the waterline recedes, secrets surface. Etched warnings on chapel walls. A locket preserved in stone. A list written in her sister's unmistakable hand. Each discovery pulls Mara deeper into a past the town worked hard to forget. Standing between Mara and the truth is Rowan Hale, the lake's quiet caretaker—steady, guarded, and bound to the land by inheritance and guilt. Rowan knows the rules of the valley: where to walk, what to protect, and what questions are dangerous. But as Mara's search intensifies, his silence becomes a burden he can no longer carry. Together, they uncover a pattern of restricted access, enforced closure, and deliberate forgetting—led by powerful men who believed some truths would drown the town if allowed to surface. As the lake begins to refill, time turns ruthless. Evidence disappears. Threats close in. And Rowan must choose between loyalty to the past and love for a woman who refuses to be silenced. The Silence Beneath the Lake is a haunting, slow-burn tragic romance about grief that won't stay buried, love that forms in restraint and trust, and the courage it takes to tell the truth when silence has been the rule for generations.