Coronation Street fans were thunderstruck as Toyah Battersby aired Imran Habeeb’s shocking secret with Abi Franklin on Friday’s instalment of the ITV soap.
Abi and Imran’s secret fling in September, which led to the birth of baby Alfie on the soap last month, was finally exposed after Kevin Webster discovered the true paternity of the child.
Abi had been completely unaware she was six months pregnant before she went into labour, and gave birth to her premature baby boy.
Since then, Abi's ex Kevin Webster and Imran's partner Toyah Battersby have remained in the dark about their fling, while Imran has fought in court for Abi to retain custody of the child, after the local authority solicitor suggested the child should be taken into care.
But during Friday’s hour-long episode of the soap, Imran decided to have his name attached to Alfie’s birth certificate, triggering a spiral of devastation on the soap that came to a dramatic conclusion at his adoption hearing with Toyah.
After registering Alfie's birth, Abi took the certificate and paperwork in an envelope back home - but on the way, she bumped into Toyah.
Toyah saw the envelope and worried that Abi had relapsed back into drug use and so alerted Kevin. When Abi then left the package unattended, Kevin went snooping, only to discover Imran is Alfie's father.
He soon confronted Abi about the fact and went so far as to send a photo of the document to Toyah, resulting in her launching a vicious tirade at Imran during their consultation for baby Elsie.
Heartbroken by Abi and Imran's betrayal, Toyah exposed Imran’s lies before him, leaving Coronation Street shocked.
Taking to Twitter, one fan wrote: "TOYAH, I screamed," as another chimed: "I GASPED! Toyah!"
A fellow fan tweeted: "Well done Toyah...hell hath no fury," as a fourth wrote: "Toyah is livid I don't blame her."
During the consultation, Toyah was visibly upset and as Imran talked the couple's strengths for adoption up, Toyah eventually interjected to call Imran a "liar".
As the penny dropped that Toyah knew the truth of Alfie's paternity, Toyah questioned whether Imran was really sorry after he offered an apology.
She said: "You lied so much that I don't know what the truth is anymore. You just lie and lie and people get hurt."
She continued: "I was telling the truth when I said that I love Elsie. All I want is to have her in my arms and be her mum. That is all I want, but I can't do that with you - even if that means that I lose Elsie - I can't risk you hurting her too."
Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV.
