Abi is hospitalised – then arrested!
SHE’S HOSPITALISED, THEN PUT BEHIND BARS…
Abi’s world collapses around her this week, as Tracy finally confesses that she was the one who damaged Michelle’s car – and left her friend to take the blame!
Having lost her mechanic’s job at the garage as a result of police pointing the finger at her after Michelle’s crash, Abi is convinced that her twins, who are already in care, would be better off without her. Heartbroken, she drinks herself into a hospital bed – at which point Tracy’s guilty conscience finally forces her to admit that it was her who sabotaged Michelle’s motor. Horrified by the awful admission, Abi sees red. However, her loyal son Seb is the one who ends up gunning for Tracy, landing his mum in even bigger trouble…
“Abi just can’t believe what Tracy is telling her when she admits to wrecking Michelle’s car,” sighs Sally Carman, who plays the falsely accused woman. “Abi reacts with anger – but she’s so hurt and distraught. For a few seconds she can’t actually register what Tracy is saying. It’s the very last thing that Abi would ever have expected of Tracy!”
It was on Tracy’s wedding day to Steve that – wrongly believing that Abi had slept with her husband-to-be behind her back – Tracy broke into the garage to mess with Michelle’s vehicle and land her supposed mate in serious trouble. Tracy has felt terrible ever since finding out that it was Leanne who Steve really cheated with – but it’s not until boozed-up and broken Abi is rushed to hospital that she at last finds the guts to come clean.
“Abi lost everything she had after Tracy interfered with Michelle’s car,” admits Sally. “Abi’s kids are her heart and her weakness, and she knows that she’s let them down. So it’s a mixture of her shame, her guilt, her fear and her lack of trust in herself that is always a catalyst for her spiralling out of control.
“Abi doesn’t have the strength to fight for her kids, and because she can’t deal with her head, she blocks it all out by drinking. That’s as much as she can do, because she doesn’t know any better.”
Ironically, Tracy is the person whom paralytic Abi eventually
reaches out to. However, by the time Tracy hears Abi’s voicemail begging for help, and she rushes to find her mate, Abi is unconscious.
“When Abi comes round in hospital, Tracy tells her the truth about what she did,” reveals Sally. “It’s like cold water being chucked over
Abi, and she throws Tracy out! But then Abi finds out that her contact with the twins has been suspended because of her relapse – and she’s utterly devastated.”
When Abi announces that she intends putting the twins up for adoption, her son Seb snaps. Beyond disgusted by what Tracy has put his poor mum through, he lets himself into the florists’ and sets about trashing his target’s beloved shop. Hearing the commotion, Abi wades in to stop him – just at the moment when Ken arrives! He assumes Abi is the one to blame, and she proudly refuses to put him straight…
“Abi has already decided that the best thing she can do for the twins is to give them a happy, stable life – but for Seb, all she can do is protect him from a life like hers,” explains Sally. “Not dobbing him in for vandalising Tracy’s shop is her way of doing that. She doesn’t want him to go down, because she’s been to prison herself. Although she can handle it, she doesn’t want that for her son.”
Abi can’t deal with her head – and blocks it all out by drinking…”
Consequently, when the police turn up at the florists’, Seb runs into the back room and Abi grabs cash from the till, prompting her immediate arrest. As she’s hauled away by officers, Tracy tells Abi that she won’t press charges – but it’s too late, and Abi is destined to end up in court…
“After everything that’s gone on, Abi isn’t bothered about getting arrested,” shares Sally. “She’s so down anyway, and part of her feels as if she deserves it for being such a bad mother. Yet the fact she’s saved her son from being arrested keeps her on the right side of it.”
There’s even more family trauma to come, however, as Abi is dealt a 16-week prison sentence for the crime. Meanwhile, Seb announces to social workers that he wants to adopt the twins – but when he’s informed that he’ll need to cut Abi out of his life in order to do so, will he go ahead and break his mother’s heart forever?