2631: Sarah ends her relationship with Lydia

Ste receives little support after nearly letting Daniel and Abi take Lucas away. Mike and Sarah insist that he's not welcome at their home and that Lucas will stay with them.

When Abi tries to explain herself, Ste's hostile. She claims that she only ever acted out of love for Lucas and that the three of them can still be a family. Mike dismisses any possibility of letting Lucas live with Ste, so Ste pleads with Mike to give him a few final hours with Lucas to say goodbye. Mike reluctantly relents.

Seizing his only chance, Ste plans to take Abi up on her offer to leave the village as a family. Daniel shows up, though, having been released by the police. Ste's furious, prompting Abi to run off with Lucas.

Ste later finds them safe and ready to leave, but begins to have second thoughts about Abi. As she becomes increasingly clingy, Ste realises that Abi's unstable in her obsession with having a baby and doesn't truly care for him - he's merely a means to an end.

Ste takes Lucas back and tells Abi to stay away from him. Frustrated by his shortcomings as a father, Ste reluctantly hands Lucas back to Mike, while Abi turns to Daniel with renewed determination to have the baby she so desperately craves…

Meanwhile, Lydia's finding her relationship with Sarah increasingly hard work. Sarah's preoccupied with babysitting Leah and gives Lydia the cold shoulder when she offers to help out. After speaking to Josh, Lydia resolves to take control of things with Sarah.

Lydia suggests that they could spend more time together by getting a flat of their own, but Sarah's caught off guard. She insists that she can't leave her dad in the lurch with Leah, especially after recent events with Lucas. Trying to assert herself, Lydia declares her love. The revelation proves too much for Sarah and Lydia's shocked by her response.

Elsewhere, Darren and Cindy connive to undermine business at The Dog. Having been tasked with finding a new chef by Neville, Darren finds too many well-suited candidates. However, he plans to hire someone who will be bad for business in the hope of opening the door for him to take over.

Cindy puts the idea to Dom and manages to persuade him to go for the job. Darren sulks, believing Dom will be far too competent for what he has in mind, while Cindy's delighted that she can get closer to Tony with Dom out of the way.