Stuart Highway was wrongly suspected of hurting Bex Fowler in Tuesday's EastEnders episode as Bex faced new danger on the streets.
Bex (Jasmine Armfield) fled the Square in the Bank Holiday Monday (May 27) episode, after being rejected by Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami) when she tried to sneak into the shower with him.
Tuesday's (May 28) episode saw her dad Martin (James Bye) and mum Sonia (Natalie Cassidy) trying to figure out where she'd gone with Stacey (Lacey Turner), until Kat (Jessie Wallace) let on that they should talk to Kush.
Once they spotted him at his stall, Kush reluctantly confessed Bex's attempt to seduce him, with Kat jumping in to insist that Kush had done "nothing wrong" because he'd immediately told her he wasn't interested.
However, Martin was shocked to find out that Kush had secretly given Bex a key to his flat so she could study in quiet — which Kush had conveniently left out of the story when he first told Martin about Bex's crush yesterday.
Kush tried explaining that he'd kept that bit back from Martin because he didn't think it'd be something he'd be happy to hear.
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"It ain't about what I wanted hear, it's about what I needed to know," Martin admonished his friend.
Meanwhile, Rainie Cross (Tanya Franks) was sowing seeds of doubt about Stuart Highway in the Minute Mart, telling Honey and Ted that he was a "lunatic" after he flashed some scratch marks on his neck.
Back at the Fowler house, Stuart insisted to Sonia that he'd cut himself shaving, while also questioning whether Bex was missing or if she'd just "got up early".
"Her bed don't look slept in, and apparently she did something to embarrass herself last night," Sonia confided in an increasingly worried Stuart.
Stuart talked Sonia out of calling the police, assuring the teen's mum that she's "a good girl" and "wouldn't get into any bother".
Viewers will remember that only Stuart is aware of Bex's recent dependence on pills, and had been taking her to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. It was outside of one of those meetings where Rainie recently snapped a photo of the two hugging, assuming something untoward was going on.
The picture came back to haunt him when a concerned Ted Murray (Christopher Timothy) warned Martin and Sonia about Bex's connection with Stuart over at the cafe.
"I can only tell you what I saw. He was wrestling with her," he told Bex's shocked parents. "Nah, that's a bit much. Tussling?"
When Martin demanded to know if there was physical contact, Ted confirmed: "Oh yeah, he had his hands on her! Or maybe he had his hands on the bottle [of pills]! That's when the bottle smashed to the ground, and Stuart ran away! Or… maybe he didn't run?"
At the same time, Rainie caught up with a panicked Stuart in the Square and read him the riot act, only for him to surprise her with an apology.
"You're right, there was no call for me to say what I did," he admitted. "That stuff with Mrs Branning, it's done. It's in the past. People deserve a chance to change… Rainie, truce?"
There was a surprising moment of understanding as the two shook hands, with Rainie even tearing up seeing how concerned Stuart was to be over Bex's disappearance.
A furious Martin and Sonia soon arrived back at their flat to find a note from Stuart telling them that he'd "gone to look for Bex", with Sonia finally confessing to him how much time Stuart had been spending with their daughter.
"I talked to Bex about it, and she told me there was nothing in it! It was just affection," Sonia swore.
That's when Sonia remembered that she'd seen Stuart patching up the scratch on his neck from earlier. Over at the Vic, a concerned Tina (Luisa Bradshaw-White) found out about Bex's disappearance from Ted.
Tina put pressure on a conflicted Rainie to show Martin and Sonia her secret photo of Bex and Stuart's hug, while the girl's parents were questioning Callum (Tony Clay) for any information on Stuart's whereabouts.
"Your brother has been creeping around Bex for weeks now," Martin insisted.
Callum came to his brother's defence, insisting he'd never hurt Bex. The mob mentality started taking hold when Tina took the decision out of Rainie's hands by telling Martin and Sonia about the picture herself.
As Bex's parents looked at the photo in horror, Sonia stopped the others from turning on Rainie by telling them: "She's shown us now. At least we know who she's with."
With Stacey encouraging Martin and Sonia to finally call police, the episode cut to Stuart's searching leading him to an abandoned shed where he found Bex's phone.
For the first time in the episode, a distraught Bex was then shown wandering the streets alone. A sinister stranger approached offering to take her to "a room nearby", forcing a terrified Bex to flee as the credits rolled.
EastEnders continues on Thursday (May 30) at 7.30pm on BBC One.
We would encourage anyone who identifies with the topics raised in this article to reach out. Organisations who can offer support include Samaritans on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org) or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to visit mentalhealth.gov.
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