With twisted boyfriend Steven Beale telling Lauren Branning he has a brain tumour to get her to stay with him, EastEnders is really going all out to shock at the moment.
But as Lauren feels she can’t leave Steven, he starts forcing her into doing more and more things that make her uncomfortable.
It’s not long before all of Lauren’s worst nightmares are coming true as he does all he can to push her into loving him again.
Steven and Abi are plotting against Lauren to make her suffer for trying to leave him and go back to Peter in New Zealand. And poor deluded Abi actually thinks Steven wants to be with her instead.
Read more: EastEnders viewers horrified at Steven’s latest lie
After showing Lauren a brain scan belonging to a dog and convincing her it was actually his, Steven thinks he has her right where he wants her, so steps things up.
Firstly, he tells her he wants to officially adopt Louie, which really doesn’t sit well with Lauren.
Although Steven brings him up, Peter is her son’s father and Lauren’s always been clear about that.
She wants her ex to be involved in the decision, but an EastEnders source revealed to Inside Soap magazine: “With Steven not being long for this world, she’s finding it hard to say no to him.”
Steven pushes ahead, backing Lauren into a corner with the announcement he’s going to see a solicitor to move forward with parental responsibility.
Read more: Corrie’s Michelle and Robert in fire horror
With Steven yet to tell anyone else in the family about his brain tumour, when he calls a family meeting in the pub, Lauren assumes it’s to come clean.
Abi on the other hand, thinks it’s to humiliate Lauren and announce her own relationship with Steven.
Turns out they’re both wrong, because actually Steven’s planning to get down on one knee and ask Lauren the question she really, really doesn’t want to hear.
Faced with a ring and proposal from a man who claims to be terminally ill, can Lauren really bring herself to break his heart?
Will she find herself trapped in a marriage she doesn’t want to be in just to be seen to be doing the right thing?
And for how long can Steven keep up this terrible lie before suspicions are aroused and Lauren starts to realise all isn’t as it seems?
The fallout when the truth comes out is set to be huge.