Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins) is being eaten alive by the knowledge that she killed her own brother, and that she and Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley) are not the only ones who know.
Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) is also privy to this key information and is blackmailing the siblings into selling him their farm.
Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) has become a casualty of Joe’s terrible business warfare, after Joe had Robert plant incriminating evidence on Moira’s farm so that she would be arrested for people trafficking – and ultimately for the murders of Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) and Anya Berisha (Alia Al-Shabibi).
Victoria committed her crime on the night of the huge Corriedale crash.
She’d followed Robert and Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) into the woods, where she came face to face with John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth). John begged her to let him go, but when she refused, a scuffle ensued and to save her own life, Vic grabbed one of John’s syringes and used it against him, stabbing him in the neck so that she could escape.
In a tragic mirroring of fate – John had previously injected Nate and accidentally killed him – Victoria had accidentally murdered her brother with the needle.
Since then, Victoria has been battling her guilt demon over killing John, struggling to tell her son Harry that his uncle is dead.
There’s news that should bring her relief – John’s death is ruled a suicide. But this only makes her feel worse. To ease her own suffering, she begins to consider coming clean to Cain, but Robert is quick to rubbish this idea, knowing that he’s the reason Moira is behind bars.
With all this going on, Joe is still there in the background turning the screws, summoning Robert to his lair to fill him in on the latest and to pressure him into speeding up the sale. He blackmails Robert that he’ll plant evidence if he doesn’t behave like a good boy and do as he’s told.
But Joe hasn’t counted on Vic listening in to their chinwag.
She confronts Robert who confesses that he did hide the ID documents at the farm and the pieces slot into place for Vic, who realises the video has been Joe’s bargaining chip. It’s enough for Victoria to decide she’s going to come clean.
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Before she goes ahead with this plan, Joe starts pressuring her to sign the documents. Savvy Vic refuses, stating that she needs to read them first. Victoria Sugden will not be intimidated, even when Joe threatens the exposure of the video.
But Joe is no rookie at this game and shows up at her house giving her six hours to get the documents signed by Moira, or he’ll release the video. Victoria has met her match.
With no choice, Vic heads to the prison to talk to Moira about selling the farm. Moira is saddened by the decision, but after a chat can see that it’s the right thing for Victoria to do. She raises the pen to the paper, but then Vic reveals who the buyers are. Moira signing the papers will have terrible consequences for Vic as her exit from the village looms, but will knowing Joe is behind it make Moira stop in her tracks?
