Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) has struggled since he was reunited with daughter April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) in Emmerdale. When she went missing at Christmas he was relentless in trying to find her, his focus entirely on bringing her home. Now she is home, but the ordeal for the family is far from over.
April had been living on the streets and then in a squat in Leeds, having run away from home partly because she was pregnant and didn’t know how her family would react to the news.
While she was living rough she gave birth to the stillborn baby in a gym toilet and was eventually found unconscious on a bench.
Since being reunited, Marlon has tried his best but has found it almost impossible to do or say anything to help his deeply traumatised daughter.
Recently we saw April sneak back to the squat that she previously shared with a boy called Dylan and a woman called Bex, who d.i.e.d after being stabbed.
Marlon soon followed and ended up creating a scene with Dylan and alienating April still further, until Dylan encouraged her to go back home with her dad.
Things seemed a little improved after that, but soon Marlon was shocked to see Dylan in the village. April revealed that it was her who’d asked Dylan to come to the village and Marlon eventually agreed to talk to Rhona (Zoe Henry) about letting the boy stay the night at Smithy.
Dylan isn’t without his own problems and is addicted to the drug spice, the horrible effects of which we saw in the squat as April attempted to help him. Ross (Mike Parr) tells April that she won’t be able to help Dylan come off the drug on his own and will need professional help.
In upcoming episodes, Rhona discovers some ketamine missing from the drugs cabinet at the vets. Suspicion immediately turns to Dylan and this seems to be confirmed when the drug is found in his pocket. April is devastated that he apparently used her to get access to drugs.
There’s a twist, though, when Marlon admits to Rhona that he planted the drugs on Dylan, wanting to be rid of him from the village. Rhona is horrified by Marlon’s move, and things get even worse when they hear that Dylan has overdosed.
Rhona persuades Marlon not to tell April what he did as it’ll only alienate her further, but he does confess to Dylan. He offers to pay for Dylan to go into rehab, and Dylan agrees not to say anything to April about Marlon’s actions.
But when Marlon goes to take Dylan to rehab, Dylan insists he wants to see April first as he has something to tell her.
Marlon is terrified that Dylan is about to reveal everything and destroy the fragile trust he’d started to build with his daughter.
What will Dylan say?
