Joel Deering (Calum Lill) was left in tears at the end of Wednesday’s Coronation Street

as he opened a package that confirmed the next part of his plan to get Lauren Bolton

(Cait Fitton) and their baby out of his life.

As it stands, Lauren is currently living in Joel’s old flat. She is given money by him regularly to buy food and clothes for their child, but has been given strict instructions to keep her head down because in return, Joel is planning on sorting her out with a flat in Ireland for a new life.

Tonight’s instalment of the ITV soap largely saw Lauren very bored. Stuck in the flat with nothing to do, Lauren passed the time by winding Joel up over the healthy, dull food he had purchased for her.

As Joel headed off to the police station for work, a very innocent and oblivious Dee-Dee (Channique Sterling-Brown) was on the cobbles chatting to Michael (Ryan Russell).

On the phone to Joel at the same time, Dee-Dee then took a parcel in for him, but was puzzled to realise it was addressed to an E Smith.

Meanwhile, at the station, Joel was listening to the message Dee-Dee had left him, and was taken aback to realise she had recorded the moment she was handed that all-important package.

Back at home, Joel was obviously confronted by Dee-Dee about the address on the parcel. He managed to cover by saying it’s the name of a client, who has an abusive partner who checks her post.

With Dee-Dee believing Joel’s story, he was later seen in the car opening the bag and taking out a box of drugs from inside.

The drugs were bought by Joel after he was seen researching how to induce an early labour. With tears forming in his eyes, Joel was clearly struggling to cope with the horror surrounding the next part of his plan, which will put Lauren and their baby in danger if he goes through with it.

Judging by the fact we know Lauren collapses with stomach pains towards the end of this week, is Joel about to drug her in the hope their child won’t survive the early birth?