Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) may have finally seen the truth about her husband Tom King (James Chase)’s abusive behaviour on Emmerdale, but her ordeal is far from over as Tom continues to manipulate everyone around him.

When Charity (Emma Atkins) and Cain (Jeff Hordley) headed to the remote cottage where Tom had taken Belle, apparently on holiday but in reality he aimed to make it a permanent move, they found that Belle had gone.

Viewers had seen Belle’s terror escalate as Tom’s behaviour got more abusive, and she managed to escape and make her way back to the safety of her family at Wishing Well. But Tom spun another story, saying she wasn’t taking her medication, and completely distorting the fact that Belle had had an abortion which she claimed was a miscarriage.

It seems his story has gained a lot of traction in the village as almost everyone thinks he’s just a nice, loving husband who wants the best for his somewhat difficult wife.

Meanwhile Belle herself is so far standing firm on insisting their marriage is over and she doesn’t want to be with him, though she hasn’t really opened up to anyone about exactly what went on. Vinny (Bradley Johnson) is trying to get her to talk, but his slip-up after revealing the abortion in a huge argument with Tom at the Woolpack has meant that Belle is wary of confiding in him.

Tom has always been jealous of Belle and Vinny’s friendship and in Monday (July 29)’s episode he used the fact that he saw them together as ammunition as he set his sights on another target – his aunt Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler).

He told Nicola how sad he was that Belle had apparently moved on so quickly to a relationship with Vinny. Nicola can always be relied on the distribute gossip without running it through a fact-check first, and she was soon passing on this nugget to Laurel (Charlotte Bellamy).

Tom also had another reason for spinning a sob story to Nicola. He told her he was lonely in the empty house without Belle and Piper and Nicola said he was always welcome at the Kings.’ She meant for a bit of lunch or something, but Tom grabbed the opportunity and said thank you very much – he’d love to move in.

Nicola looked like she wasn’t happy with the idea at all but she had no way of retracting the offer, so Tom is set to move in with her and his Uncle Jimmy (Nick Miles).

He told Belle that she was welcome to move back into their house now that he’d gone, so she and Piper would have their own space again. She agreed, but wanted the locks changing.

This was a very sensible move, but what was less sensible was to have Tom there while this was going on. She probably had no choice, given that Tom also controls her money, as she was reminded when she went to buy food for her dog and her card was declined. But Tom being in the house while the locksmith was there gave him the opportunity to secretly obtain a key for himself.

So far from being safe and able to finally relax, Belle faces even more danger. And with Tom having successfully convinced most people that it’s Belle whose behaviour is unpredictable and violent, where will she turn for help when she needs it?