Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) recently got some news that turned her world upside down on Emmerdale, when she learned that her mother, Helen (Sharon Maughan) had died.
Ruby was contacted by the hospital to say that her mother wanted to see her, but unfortunately when she got there it was too late, and Helen had already died around 20 minutes earlier.
We know that Ruby became estranged from her family after she started her relationship with Caleb (William Ash).
He wasn’t deemed to be good enough for Ruby, a daughter of wealthy parents, so from then on Ruby cut off contact with her family and Caleb became her family, with their children Steph and Nicky (Lewis Cope) soon arriving.
But Helen’s death has really shaken Ruby as she realised she had so many questions to ask her mum, and not being able to see her and talk to her that one last time has robbed her of the chance of getting any answers.
What Ruby doesn’t know, and viewers do, is that Caleb intercepted an earlier call about Helen being in hospital and paid her a visit himself. The confrontation was a difficult one, with Caleb calling his mother-in-law ‘poisonous’ and accusing her of trying to pay him to leave Ruby when they were younger, an offer he turned down.
He may have refused Helen’s cash earlier, but this time he knew some money would come in useful for his business schemes and said if she transferred £100,000 into his account he would try to get Ruby to visit.
After Helen’s death he received a notification that the money had been transferred. Shocked by Ruby’s grief over her mother, he now lives with the knowledge that she could discover his visit to Helen because of the money, with potentially disastrous consequences for their marriage.
In upcoming episodes Ruby receives Helen’s ashes – and this hugely emotional moment prompts her to make an impulsive decision about how to dispose of them.
Following this, she’s drowning her sorrows at the Woolpack, again upset that she never knew what was on her mum’s mind when she asked her to visit her in the hospital. Chas (Lucy Pargeter) suggests that she could ask the staff at the hospital what Helen’s last words were, in the hope it might provide some closure.
Ruby does as Chas suggests – and learns that Helen was hoping for a deathbed reconciliation. What’s even more shocking is when she learns that Caleb paid a visit to Helen the previous day.
In the wake of this, Ruby has some serious questions for her husband…
