Emmerdale has confirmed the shocking truth in the storyline involving Arthur and Laurel Thomas, which has seen the latter exhibit signs of memory loss. The arc emerged after the pair argued, with Arthur pushing his mother and causing an injury.

Much of the tension arose from Laurel’s lingering feelings for Ray Walters, who was killed by Bear Wolf. Laurel had been dating Ray for a brief period, before she cut things off after she learned of the villain’s horrific criminal activity.

Despite that, Laurel had some sympathy for her former flame, who had a traumatic upbringing at the hands of the late Celia Daniels. As Ray’s funeral took place, Laurel was sad that nobody would mourn for him.

She elected to take Bear to the chapel as Ray’s body lay in rest, though this move was criticised by Bear’s family. Arthur also hasn’t been pleased with his mother, questioning why she still had some positive feelings for Ray after his treatment of people.

This all culminated in a terrifying incident last week, where Laurel and Arthur got into a heated argument. As Arthur grew more frustrated by the second, he pushed his mother, and she hit her head on the stairs.

Since then, Laurel has been in recovery, and today’s episode of the ITV soap began with Gabby questioning Laurel over exactly what happened that night. After she had another “dizzy spell”, Gabby said she would contact Manpreet.

The doctor came round and did some tests on Laurel, though she asked Gabby and Arthur to leave as she spoke to Laurel on her own. She bluntly asked her friend what was truly going on, and she was “uneasy” at seeing memory loss.

Laurel reasoned that she didn’t want Gabby or Arthur to worry any further, but Manpreet called her out and remarked that she was hiding something. After some pressure, Laurel concocted a story.

She said that she tripped after failing to spot Dotty’s toys, and didn’t want to tell anybody in case her daughter felt bad. Manpreet seemed to buy the excuse, but it is now apparent that Laurel is covering for Arthur…