Emmerdale’s Laurel Thomas confides in her best friend Nicola King tonight – as she’s haunted by guilt over her violent outburst. Can she get her family life back on track after a traumatic few weeks?

Last week’s flashback episodes revealed what Laurel has been hiding since the day that Ray Walters was killed – she got into a nasty row with her teenage son Arthur and slapped him across the face. Laurel instantly regretted her actions, especially as a ring on her finger caught Arthur’s face and left him bleeding.

In tonight’s episode, tormented Laurel tries to ease the burden by telling Nicola what happened.

“Arthur stole drugs,” Laurel explains. “Off Ray. I found them before he could do anything with them. He claims that he didn’t know the drugs were in the bag.

“He was trying to be helpful. He wanted to grab Ray’s passport before he vanished.”

She adds: “It gets worse. We had a really bad argument and I hit him.”

After hearing the details, Nicola tries to spin the situation by claiming that Laurel’s unacceptable actions weren’t entirely unprovoked.

However, Laurel isn’t willing to let herself off the hook so easily – pointing out all of the mistakes she has made recently: trusting Ray, hiding evidence and turning nasty with Arthur.

When Laurel next sits down with Arthur, can she make amends for what happened between them?

Meanwhile, episodes later this week will see Arthur face a big decision over what to do about Ray’s money.

Arthur is secretly spending a stash of dirty cash that he found in Ray’s bag, although he’s given food for thought when his friend April Windsor points out some harsh home truths over the drug trade.

“Stealing Ray’s profits felt like the perfect revenge at first,” our Emmerdale source recently explained. “But immature Arthur hadn’t considered that it came at a bleak cost – victims like April and Dylan. Now he’s loaded, but full of guilt…”