On this week’s episode of Home and Away in Australia, Chloe’s father Matthew comes in Summer Bay, and Mia must plan quickly to avoid the two colliding.
When Nikau (Kawakawa Fox-Reo) returned from a journey to New Zealand with his “sister” in tow, Chloe (Sam Barrett) first appeared in Summer Bay in early 2021.
Growing up, the two were virtually siblings. Chloe was Mia’s (Anna Sampson) daughter, but she saw Ari (Rob Kipa-Williams), Mia’s then-partner, as her father figure, and his nephew Nikua as her brother.
Unfortunately, Ari’s difficulties to have a child of his own drove him down a path of self-destruction, and he eventually found himself in prison following a failed armed robbery.
Ari had come to Summer Bay with Nikau and Tane (Ethan Browne) more than a decade later, hoping to put their family’s criminal history behind them once and for all.
When Nikau and Chloe ran into one other again in New Zealand, he took her back to town, where she had an emotional reunion with Ari and learned the truth about why he had vanished all those years before.
Mia came in town not long after, hoping to see her daughter. Despite the fact that things between her and Ari were tense, the two ex-lovers quickly realised why they were together in the first place and reconciled.
Ari had never questioned Mia about Chloe’s paternity, despite their many years as a family of three, Australian fans found last week. He had no idea who he was, what his backstory was, or why he hadn’t been involved in Chloe’s upbringing. It simply didn’t matter.
However, an unexpected phone call altered everything.
Mia was getting coffee at the Diner when Matthew, Chloe’s father, called. Mia had not heard from him in over 20 years, and it was evident that she was not pleased to receive the call.
She hung up on him, insisting that he never call her again. She didn’t even hang up long enough to find out what he was looking for.
When Matthew kept calling, she told Ari the truth, revealing that Chloe’s father was a man she had spent a single drunken night with when she was 16.
She was too inebriated to consent to sex, had only a hazy recall of what happened after Matthew went into bed with her, and awoke alone and disoriented the next morning.
She soon realised she was pregnant, much to her dismay. She went to Matthew’s house to inform him, but instead found his mother, who handed her a bundle of cash and ordered that she be fired. Mia finally opted to keep both the money and the baby and flew away, but she was adamant that her daughter never see her father again.
She managed to maintain things that way for 20 years, and Matthew and his mother assumed she had carried out the abortion. That’s why she was taken aback when he phoned her unexpectedly. What was even more alarming was that he seemed to be aware that she had purchased the gym.
When Mia informed Ari that she’d swiftly hung up, Ari pointed out, “You don’t simply call out of the blue like that for no reason.”
Why are you contacting me after such a long time? And, if he was aware of the gym purchase, has he also learned about the daughter she has kept hidden for the past two decades?
Mia, on the other hand, indicated that she’d rather not think about it and that she’d continue to keep his presence hidden from Chloe. She maintained, “She will never meet him.” “Ever!”
As the new week begins, she appears to be determined to push him out of her thoughts and focus on their happy family of three.
That, however, is not the case.
When Matthew shows up in Summer Bay uninvited this week, she’s in for a rude awakening! He’ll cause a tremendous upheaval for the happy Parata/Anderson trio, as played by James Sweeny, star of The Secret Daughter and Neighbours.
Mia is taken aback by Matthew’s appearance at the harbour, and she is startled by the prospect of being confronted with her history.
“Mia is completely taken aback by the fact that the past has returned in Summer Bay,” Anna reveals in the newest issue of TV Week. “This is a man she had assumed she had left behind for good cause.
“She is terrified at the prospect of his being in their lives. She is adamantly opposed to the notion.”
When the two run into one other as Matthew exits the gym, Mia expresses her dissatisfaction with her nonconsensual one-night fling. Unfortunately, now that he knows he has a daughter he has never met, Matthew is determined to stay and meet her.
Mia, on the other hand, appears to be willing to go to any length to keep Chloe and Matthew apart. She informs him that Chloe has no desire to see him, hoping that he will have the decency not to impose himself on a daughter who refuses to meet him.
“Mia dislikes and distrusts Matthew,” Anna observed of the newcomer. “She understood it was for the best that he wasn’t in her life or that of her daughter.”
Mia’s allegation has turned him off, and he appears to be on his way out as swiftly as he arrived. However, in the heat of the moment, she gives him Chloe’s name by mistake — he’s one step closer to finding out who his daughter is!
Because Summer Bay is such a tiny town, he doesn’t have to look far to find her. When Irene (Lynne McGranger) calls Chloe’s name in the Diner, he suddenly realises that his daughter is standing right in front of him.
Worse, Irene slips the man one of Chloe and Ryder’s (Lukas Radovich) business cards, giving him access to his daughter’s contact information for the first time. It makes him desire to contact her more more than before.
Mia finds herself in the midst of a fight to prevent the two from colliding. She is obliged to issue an ultimatum to Matthew, reminding him that she did not consent to their time together and that if he does not leave, she would tell everyone about what he did to her.
Will the threat be enough to scare him away, or will he take a chance and approach his daughter anyway?
These sequences will be seen by UK viewers in early 2022.
