This article contains spoilers for tonight’s episode of Emmerdale, which is available to watch now on ITVX and airs at 7pm on ITV1.
Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) has began to raise questions about April Windsor’s (Amelia Flanagan) disappearance.
Viewers have seen the father tormented by his daughter’s vanishing for over a month, and earlier this week we finally learnt when she had gone.
In emotional scenes, we discovered that the teen had ran away from home after finding out that she was pregnant and was terrified of the consequences.
Now homeless, she took refuge in a squat in Leeds city centre.
As she went into premature labour, she gave birth to a stillborn child in a public toilet.
April was then found doubled over in pain and still bleeding, and rushed to the hospital.
Marlon and Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) were gobsmacked to hear of the development and tried to come to terms with the news as she was rushed into theatre.
When she returned to her room, Marlon approached with caution – didn’t ask any pressing questions, and assured her that she could tell him more in her own time.
In tonight’s episode, a despondent April lay in her bed whilst a drained Marlon blamed himself for losing her.
Unfortunately, she didn’t exactly deny it.
April admitted that she felt so hurt to discover the truth concerning her mother Donna’s suicide, having been told that the fall from a multi-story carpark was accidental.
Because of the lack of honesty, she couldn’t admit to being pregnant.
She also believed that her step-brother Leo, who has Down’s syndrome, and infant half-sister Ivy took priority over her and it was because of that she turned to drinking alcohol to get attention.
April then came clean about her friend Bex’s death after being stabbed – and Marlon realised that it was her body that he identified earlier this year, after April’s purse was found amongst her belongings.
Without wanting to pry for further information, he gently raised the question of who her baby’s father is.
April told her dad who Bex was (Picture: ITV)
She explained that it was a lad she’d slept with at a party, and she didn’t know his name. April also wanted to know what happened to the child, and is under the belief that her dad was glad that it had died.
To make matters worse, she decided that too much water was under the bridge for her to make a return home.
As the villagers celebrated her being found at The Woolpack, a boy watched her from afar in the Hotten General corridors.
Is this the father of April’s baby?
Marlon soon sank into a state of despair, telling Rhona that they’d lost the April that they once knew. She was changed, and it would be hard to navigate that.
