Emmerdale spoilers: Night of horror as sick abuser Tom leaves Belle injured and in agony

The dinner party from hell played out in Tuesday (May 7)’s Emmerdale in a special episode which focused on an event hosted by Belle and Tom King (Eden Taylor-Draper and James Chase) and saw the day’s events play out from two different angles as things became very nasty indeed.

Belle was blindsided when Tom told her he’d invited Marlon (Mark Charnock), Rhona (Zoe Henry), Mandy (Lisa Riley), Paddy (Dominic Brunt), Vanessa (Michelle Hardwick) and Suzy (Martelle Edinborough) for a dinner party.

She’d never cooked for so many people before, but Belle has learned during her relationship with Tom that it’s safer to go along with what he wants.

Something he desperately wants is for them to have a baby and we’ve seen that’s something that Belle knows she certainly doesn’t want and she’s been taking steps to stop it happening.

Belle was left terrified

Previously we saw her visiting Manpreet (Rebecca Sarker) to arrange to pick up her contraceptive pills separately from her other medication, so Tom doesn’t know she’s still on the pill.

Unfortunately she decided to stash the pills away in a drawer in the kitchen, and in among the chaotic events of the dinner party – with Marlon and Rhona having a stand-up argument in front of the other horrified guests – Tom found the pills.

Because of the way the action was presented in two different timelines, in the first half we saw Belle in tears at one point and Mandy asked if she was alright. Belle said it was just the onions bothering her, while Tom pretended that Belle always got emotional when she used her mum’s oven dish.

In the second half we found out the reason for her tears – she’d looked in the drawer, realised that Tom must have found the pills, and she was terrified about what might happen next.

After Rhona stormed out, declaring that her marriage to Marlon was over, the other guests soon followed and Belle was alone with Tom. As soon as there was no need for him to wear a mask of being a genial host and loving husband, he revealed his true colours again.

‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you?’ he began and launched a horrible attack on Belle. He swept the cake that she’d made for dessert off the kitchen counter. and brandished the pill packet at her, calling her ‘manipulative,’ ‘unhinged’ and ‘crazy.’

As Belle tried to get away he grabbed her and forced her hand under the kitchen tap which had been running hot for the washing up. As Belle screamed that he was burning her, she finally broke free.

As Belle sobbed and wrapped her scalded hand in a tea towel, Tom muttered that she was ‘a great wife,’ and went upstairs, leaving Belle looking completely traumatised.