In the land of soap, baddies always get their comeuppance in the end – it’s the law.
But there could be a long wait before Pierce is brought to justice for his brutal attack on bride Rhona.
Yesterday we reported how she will return to the village next week after escaping with son Leo in an attempt to clear her head following the rape.
She tells ex-husband Paddy that her marriage to Pierce is over, but doesn’t explain why – beyond telling him that the evil solicitor knew about their drunken kiss.
Worried Paddy tells Vanessa what’s happened, who rushes to be by her best friend’s side.
She is shocked by what she sees at the vet’s cottage.
Rhona has smashed up all of the wedding presents and the house is a mess.
Vanessa implores her friend to open up about why her marriage has ended so suddenly.
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But it seems Rhona may struggle to talk about exactly what’s gone on.
“Rhona has been in a state of panic after what happened. She’s been to Cornwall, not Scotland as planned,” Zoe Henry, who plays her, has revealed to Digital Spy.
“She’s genuinely terrified about what she’s coming back to, and her state of mind is fragile and alone.
“Rhona is absolutely terrified that Pierce might come back. She doesn’t know where he is and that’s part of the terror: is he going to be in her house?
“Is he going to have told everybody what happened? Is he going to have made up a pack of lies? She’s really unsure of what to expect and that really frightens her.
“It’s very difficult for Rhona to step into the house, let alone the lounge where it happened. She makes herself go in with Leo, but she makes sure everything is locked up – the doors are bolted and the windows are locked.
“She’s a woman on the edge, but stepping into that lounge is the hardest thing she’s ever done.
“Rhona has kept it all together for Leo’s sake, but coming back to the house opens that can of worms again. When she gets to the lounge, she decides to deal with the wedding presents, but there’s a gift there from Pierce.
“When Rhona sees that, she snaps and she loses it. She sees that he bought her a wedding night gift, so the wheels come off and she loses it big time.
“Rhona would love to share all of this with someone, namely Vanessa, but their relationship has broken down because of Pierce – to the point where Rhona feels almost responsible.
“It’s not that the attack was Rhona’s fault, but she feels somehow she brought it on and she could have stopped it. There’s a lot of guilt involved with how she’s treated Vanessa and she feels very alone.
“I think this is the beginning of Rhona’s nightmare. As much as this was an awful ordeal, in some ways it’s going to be awful to re-live it – if other people find out, if she tells the police, or if she goes to court.
“I wonder if Rhona might put it all back into a box and forget about it.”
Don’t worry, she will eventually speak up, though – Emmerdale boss Iain MacLeod has promised.
Speaking at a recent press event, he revealed that “Rhona will ultimately see through the course of action she started” and “we will follow the story through the due legal process”.