Viewers watching Coronation Street’s Bethany Platt growing closer to older man Nathan Curtis have been desperate for her to stay away from him.
Will Bethany be saved from his clutches when her mum, Sarah, finds out she spent the night with the older man?
Nathan has spent a lot of time grooming Bethany, flattering her, complimenting her, and helping her with her beauty tutorials online. She’s fallen for his charms hook, line and sinker, and they shared their first kiss in Wednesday’s episode.
It’s fair to say Bethany’s smitten.
When Nathan gets arrested for abducting a girl next week though, Bethany’s thrown and ends up going out and getting drunk.
Read more: Leanne’s baby bombshell threatens to blow her family apart
Concerned nurse Rana sees a worse-for-wear Bethany and offers to take her home, but then Nathan swoops in and insists he’ll help her.
He takes the vulnerable schoolgirl back to his flat, where he offers her the sofa to sleep on. But when he goes to bed and leaves his bedroom door open she follows him in and they spend the night together.
When Bethany returns home the next day, Sarah is fuming, wanting to know where her daughter has been.
“At first Bethany lies and says she stayed at Mel’s,” Lucy Fallon who plays the troubled teen told Digital Spy. “So when Sarah finds out from Rana that she actually went off with Nathan, she goes mad about Bethany lying.”
Sarah then tries to ban her daughter from seeing the much older man – is this the last we’ll see of Nathan?
Unfortunately not, because Lucy also revealed Sarah soon backtracks on her ban.
“Bethany says ‘well you can’t stop me’,” she told the website. “Sarah realises that if she keeps trying to stop her from spending time with him, then she’ll just push her further into Nathan’s arms.”
So it looks like Sarah hasn’t become wise to what Nathan’s trying to do just yet – we really hope someone does before Bethany gets in too deep.
Read more: Corrie star opens up about dramatic plot
According to reports, the Corrie writers have been divided over the subject matter and the dark territory it goes into.
Speaking at the Coronation Street: The Next 56 Years panel in Salford, Metro reports that writer Jan McVerry explained:
“I think it’s an important story to tell for young people, particularly those who may be lacking in self-confidence.
“We’ve had many discussions on how to tell the story.”
As the abuse plot looks set to take an even darker turn in the coming weeks, it’s certainly set to make uncomfortable viewing.