Jai has been harbouring the secret that upon learning of Amit Sharma’s true involvement in Rishi Sharma’s (Bhasker Patel) death, he pushed him down the stairs and tortured him in revenge, before forcing him to sign over all of his shares in the HOP to Jai and leaving for India.

In turn, this left Suni Sharma (Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana) high and dry – his dad left him without so much as a goodbye while also cutting him out of the business.

The only person who knew about Jai’s dark side was Pollard (Chris Chittell), who took great pleasure in winding him up in Thursday’s (June 27) episode of the ITV soap.

This annoyed Suni. He told his brother that Eric should start paying the bill, but Jai knew that wouldn’t happen.

Eric spent the entire day annoying Jai and he loved it. During one of these interactions, Laurel picked up on Jai’s stressed attitude towards their friend and was curious.

Outside, as Jai lost his temper at Eric, Laurel confronted them both and wondered what was going on.

In the aftermath of this, a vicious argument will begin between the couple, resulting in Jai insulting Ashley.

Incandescent with rage, Laurel makes him leave. But that could end up being a grave mistake as once alone, Laurel starts to feel severely unwell. As dizziness overwhelms her, she collapses.

With no idea what’s happening to her body, she’s terrified as she realises she can barely move, is struggling for breath, and cannot reach her phone.

As precious time ticks on, Laurel is discovered barely breathing by Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham), who immediately calls an ambulance for her step-mum.

Meanwhile, Jai takes Suni to one side, preparing himself to drop the bombshell on his brother, but as he’s about to make the admission, he’s interrupted by Gabby’s unrelenting phone calls.

The disruptions make him see red and rudely accept the call, but as he listens to the urgency in Gabby’s voice, the colour drains from his face to hear his wife has collapsed and is in a very bad way.