Imagine returning to the scene of the crime, like Rhona does after her wedding day horror and 'honeymoon'. Zoe Henry has the story
Rhona comes home to Emmerdale after her nightmare wedding ordeal and Zoe Henry reveals exactly how difficult it is re-enter her home...
Rhona fled to Cornwall after being raped by her new husband Pierce on their wedding night… how does she feel about returning? “Rhona feels genuinely terrified about what she’s coming back to. Her state of mind is fragile and she feels very alone.”
Where is Pierce? “Rhona doesn’t know where he is and that’s part of the terror. Is he going to be in her house? Will he have told everybody what happened? Or has he made up a pack of lies? She’s unsure of what to expect and that frightens her.”
How does Rhona feel about being back home? “It’s very difficult for her to step into the house, let alone into the lounge where it happened. She makes herself go in with Leo and she checks that everything is locked up. Stepping into that lounge is one of the hardest things she’s ever done.”
Is the marriage over for good? “Definitely. But I suppose she’s terrified of how Pierce might manipulate her and the situation as he’s a clever man. The attack was so severe that there’s no going back in her mind.”
Will she confide in her friends? “She thinks she can deal with it on her own. She’d love to share it with Vanessa, but their relationship has broken down because of Pierce. She feels responsible… Not that it was her fault, but that somehow she brought it on and she could have stopped it. There’s a lot of guilt about how she treated Vanessa.”
What makes her trash the house? “She keeps it together for Leo’s sake, but she decides to deal with the wedding presents when he’s out of the house. She loses it big time when she sees what Pierce bought her as a wedding night gift.”
Do you think that Rhona will be able to get over this? “It’s impossible for anybody to go through an attack as violent and sustained as that without being changed. She’s a strong woman, but it remains to be seen…”
Is the nightmare over for her? “This is the beginning of it. It was an awful ordeal, but it will also be awful for Rhona to relive it in the form of other people finding out, by telling the police or going to court. I wonder if she’ll try and shut it in a box and forget about it.”
