Next week on Home and Away in the UK, Lacey agrees to take the money her dad’s offering her – but she’s going to use it to hire a private investigator!
Last week, David (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor) revealed to daughter Lacey (Sophea Pennington) that he’d sold their family home, having decided he couldn’t cope with living there any longer after the death of his partner – and Jo (Maddison Brown) and Lacey’s mum – Kristina.
This week, he also revealed to Lacey that he’d planned to give her a share of the house sale, to the sum of $100,000.
However, when David confirmed that Jo was also getting a cut, Lacey rejected his offer, unwilling to accept her sister being financially rewarded for ‘killing’ her mother.
When David asked if he could do anything to win Lacey over, she told him that she longs for a way to remember her mother, and asked if she could have Kristina’s eternity ring, which she and Jo had picked out for David and Kristina’s vow renewal.
However, this left David in a tricky situation, as Jo already had the ring in her possession, carrying it on her necklace.
Jo refused when David asked if she would be willing to part with the ring, and she soon suffered a panic attack when she was overwhelmed by painful memories of the accident.
When Jo later came across Lacey in the surf club, the situation got out of control as Lacey once again accused Jo of killing their mother, leading to a full-on scrap in the middle of the surf club.
Having been summoned by Alf (Ray Meagher), David forced his daughters upstairs, telling them that they wouldn’t be leaving until they sorted things out.
Returning to the drama next week, the two sisters continue to struggle to agree on who should get their mum’s eternity ring.
Lacey insists that Jo can have “everything else,” she just wants the ring, but David tries to reason with her by explaining that Jo has had it for months so should be the one to keep it.
Of course, Lacey doesn’t take his reasoning well – “It’s good, I know whose side you’re on.”
Despite Jo not wanting to hand the ring over, she makes it clear that she still wants them to get back to the close relationship they used to have.
“What happened to us? We used to be such a great team,” Jo asks, but Lacey’s response is as cold as ever: “You drove my mum into a tree.”
Tane (Ethan Browne) arrives soon after, and immediately notices that Jo isn’t okay.
As the pair head upstairs to Salt, Jo explains that she’s wanted Lacey to be back in their family for ages – but she’d still struggle with the idea of handing over the ring.
He points out that it’s worth asking Lacey whether her having the ring would actually be a first step to fixing their rift.
As the pair continue their chat at the beach, Tane asks Jo why Lacey blames her for their mother’s death.
As Jo opens up, she reveals that she and her mum were involved in a car accident in which Jo was driving. However, Jo can’t remember what happened.
“It’s like my brain has blocked it out,” she explains. “But the police investigated and found I wasn’t at fault.”
As for why Lacey still blames her, Jo explains that her sister simply can’t accept that sometimes, bad things happen for no reason.
Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Theo (Matt Evans) tries to help Lacey through her anger as he encourages her to explain to Jo what her mother’s ring means to her and why she wants it so much.
Lacey takes Theo’s advice and invites Jo over, where she explains that their parents’ vow renewal was the last time that their family were all in one place and happy.
Jo explains that she feels the same way, and that’s why she wears the ring so close to her heart. No closer to agreeing on who should have it, Jo tells Lacey that they need to at least stop fighting about it for their dad’s sake.
Recognising that their fighting is only making David’s grief all the more difficult, the pair eventually decide that the best option is to give him the ring.
While it seems like the family is finally making progress, it’s not to be. As soon as Lacey and Jo hand over the ring at Salt, Lacey takes off, making it clear that she did what she came to do.
As she returns home to Theo, she tells him that now that the ring issue is sorted, she’s got no reason to talk to her family ever again!
Jo summons Lacey to meet up again the following morning, wanting to push their dad into getting professional help for his grief, but Lacey isn’t willing to listen.
She makes it clear that nothing has changed and she doesn’t want anything to do with them.
Jo tries to change her mind by opening up about how much the accident has affected her – she freezes whenever she thinks about it, and gets panic attacks which take her right back to the moment of the crash.
However, Lacey has no sympathy – “nothing you will say is gonna make this my problem.”
She heads home to rant to Theo about her sister’s interference, but is shocked when Theo gives her a serve – Jo likely has PTSD from the crash, and Lacey’s continued anger towards her family isn’t the behaviour of the girl he fell in love with!
What’s more, what if she’s wrong about what she believes happened the day that her mum died?
Back outside, Tane finds Jo in the middle of a panic attack. He comforts her as she explains that it was caused by her relationship with her sister, but that she doesn’t want to give him all of the details of what’s going on in her life.
He agrees not to push things, and after calling David, he sits with her at Salt until he can take over.
When David arrives, he gives Jo a hug, just as Theo and Lacey walk by downstairs.
As Lacey spots their embrace, she gets angry, as Theo does his best to point out that Jo’s PTSD doesn’t look like an act from where he’s standing.
Wondering if he’s onto something, Lacey asks her dad if they can meet.
She asks him to go over what happened with the accident – David protests, reminding her that they’ve already been through the accident report, but Lacey insists: she’s ready to hear it this time, and wants to understand why he’s so certain that it wasn’t Jo’s fault.
They go through the events of that fateful day, with David explaining that there were no skid marks, speed wasn’t an issue, and there were no drugs or alcohol in Jo’s system.
So the only theory they’ve got is that Jo swerved around an animal.
When Lacey points out how convenient it is that her sister doesn’t remember, David reminds him that it was a traumatic event and she’s simply blocked it out. There’s nothing to suggest that it was Jo’s fault.
Lacey then tells her dad that she’s changed her mind about his offer of giving her $100,000 from the house sale – it’s an extremely generous offer and she’d like to accept it.
David is delighted by her change of heart, and tells her that he’ll sort the transfer right away.
However, once David has left, Lacey tells Theo exactly why she’s changed her mind. She’s going to use the money to hire a private investigator, so they can finally figure out what happened on the day of the accident!
