Next week on Home and Away, Leah Patterson is forced to confront the pain she has been desperately avoiding. As Wendell’s sentencing looms, buried grief resurfaces, alliances are tested, and one choice threatens to tear open wounds that have barely begun to heal.

Theo’s death left a void no one in Summer Bay knows how to fill — least of all Leah. Weeks on from the tragedy, her world remains frozen in shock, anger, and denial. While others move cautiously around her pain, the legal system does not wait. Wendell’s sentencing is approaching fast, and with it comes the question Leah has been dreading: whether to speak, or stay silent forever.

Since losing Theo, Leah’s emotional centre has quietly shifted. Rather than leaning on her partner Justin Morgan, she has formed a growing reliance on Sonny Baldwin — Theo’s close friend and someone who understands the loss without sharing Leah’s history.

That bond has not gone unnoticed. Justin watches helplessly as Leah shuts him out, turning instead to someone else for comfort. The distance becomes impossible to ignore after a Coastal News article praises Lacy for “bringing Wendell to justice,” reducing Theo’s death to a footnote. Leah’s fury boils over, leading her straight into a confrontation that ends with her arrest for trespassing.

At the police station, it is Sunny she calls — not Justin. The message is devastatingly clear.

The fallout ripples quickly. Justin struggles to understand why Leah keeps choosing Sunny over him, while Leah insists everyone around her is judging, managing, or monitoring her grief. Sunny, in her eyes, is the only one who listens without expectation.

When Justin asks Sunny for boundaries, the response is calm but firm. Sunny refuses to betray Leah’s trust or act as a gatekeeper. Advice from Alf Stewart offers some perspective, suggesting Leah may simply need a sounding board connected to Theo — but not entangled in the same emotional history. Even so, the unease does not fade.

A quiet but devastating turning point arrives when Cash Newman and Eden Fowler deliver a wedding album. Inside is a photograph of Leah, Justin, and Theo — taken just hours before Theo’s death.

The image breaks her.

What Leah initially assumes is more trouble over her arrest becomes something far more painful: the last photograph ever taken of her nephew. In that moment, grief finally lands with full force. When Justin later sees the photo, Leah softens, admitting she no longer wants to fight. Justin responds with quiet grace, promising to support whatever she needs — even if that means turning to Sunny.

But the fragility remains. Leah accidentally refers to Sunny as Theo, confirming Justin’s deepest fear: that her closeness to Sunny is blurring into denial.

Justin voices his concern directly, warning that Leah seems to feel closer to Theo when she is with Sunny. The implication is unsettling — grief is no longer just pain, it is rewriting reality. Sunny listens carefully, but refuses to step away. He believes abandoning Leah now would do more harm than good.

The emotional ground continues to shift beneath everyone’s feet.

As the week progresses, David reveals that the DPP has confirmed Wendell’s court appearance is imminent. The next step is victim impact statements — a final opportunity to make the consequences of Wendell’s actions unmistakably clear.

Lacy immediately agrees. Determined and unflinching, she wants the truth on record. Wendell destroyed her life — killing both her mother and her boyfriend — and she refuses to let his crimes be reduced to paperwork.

Leah’s reaction is very different.

When Lacy approaches Leah, she is met with resistance and raw hostility. Old blame resurfaces. Old wounds reopen. Leah wants nothing to do with her. But Lacy refuses to back down. She admits it will be hell, but insists Theo deserves a voice — and now, only they can give him one.

If Leah will not help, Lacy is prepared to stand alone.

That final plea lands hard.

Leah is torn between justice and survival, between honouring Theo and protecting herself from unbearable pain. The question hangs heavy as Wendell’s sentencing approaches: will Leah find the strength to speak — or will grief silence her forever?

Will Leah’s decision to stay silent protect her fragile heart — or will refusing to speak for Theo become the regret she can never escape?