oc wherever he went. And yet, despite the warning signs,

Abi allowed herself to believe that this time, happiness might finally be within reach.

Abi’s decision to leave Kevin and uproot her entire life to be with Carl was a monumental leap of faith. After years of hardship, addiction struggles, and heartbreak, she longed for stability and love. Carl presented himself as a fresh start, someone who understood her pain and promised a future free from judgment. But behind closed doors, he was playing a far darker game.

Carl’s track record reads like a catalogue of sins. His affair with Kevin’s wife during Kevin’s cancer treatment was unforgivable enough, shattering family bonds at their most fragile moment. Yet Carl didn’t stop there. He dragged vulnerable teenagers Dylan Wilson and Brody McCiss into dangerous vehicle theft scams, exploiting their youth and naivety for his own gain. His recklessness reached horrifying levels when Tyrone Dobbs was left seriously injured after being struck by a stolen car linked to Carl’s criminal activities.

Perhaps most chilling of all was Carl’s exploitation of his sister Debbie Webster. As Debbie faced a devastating dementia diagnosis, Carl manipulated her condition to gain access to her business accounts, siphoning money while she struggled to hold onto her memories. It was a betrayal of blood, trust, and basic human decency. For many viewers, this marked Carl as irredeemable—a man who preys on the sick, the young, and the vulnerable without a shred of remorse.

Yet through all this, Abi remained blind to the worst of Carl’s behavior, choosing love over logic. That loyalty, however, would soon be cruelly punished.

Unbeknownst to Abi, Carl had embarked on another sordid affair—this time with James Bailey. What makes the betrayal even more vicious is its timing. While Abi was building a home with Carl and trying to create a stable life for her son Alfie, Carl was sneaking around behind her back, turning their shared home into a staging ground for deception.

The cracks almost showed days earlier when a suggestive message from James raised suspicions. Ever the smooth operator, Carl twisted the narrative, claiming James simply wanted to apologise for a social snub. Abi, wanting desperately to believe him, accepted the explanation. But Carl’s lies were already piling too high.

The true horror unfolded during the festive period. As Abi took Alfie to spend Christmas with Kevin and Jack, Carl wasted no time inviting James over. The audacity of his betrayal—cheating the moment Abi walked out the door—left viewers furious. Carl treated the people who loved him as disposable, interchangeable, and utterly insignificant.

Confident he’d covered his tracks, Carl never anticipated that his downfall would come from something so small, yet so symbolic: a necklace. When Abi discovered the jewellery hidden between the sofa cushions, Carl brushed it off with casual ease, suggesting it belonged to a previous tenant. But the truth has a way of surfacing, especially in Weatherfield.

Abi’s world collapsed when she later came face to face with Michael Bailey—wearing the exact same necklace. As Michael explained that he and James had received matching necklaces from their mother for Christmas, the pieces snapped into place with devastating clarity. In that instant, Abi realised the truth she had been refusing to see. Carl wasn’t just unfaithful—he was a serial liar who had been mocking her trust for months.

Confronted, Carl did what he does best: he lied again. He claimed he knew the necklace belonged to James but insisted it was connected to another shady car deal and that he’d kept quiet to protect Abi from worrying about his criminal past. It was a clever lie, weaponising Abi’s knowledge of his dodgy history to mask his romantic betrayal. But this time, Abi wasn’t willing to take his word for it.

Desperate for confirmation, Abi sought out James at the pub, thanking him for supposedly rejecting Carl. James’ nervous behaviour and abrupt exit only deepened her fears. Then came the final nudge from Tracy Barlow, who bluntly warned Abi that Carl couldn’t be trusted. When even Tracy—queen of schemes herself—calls out a liar, it’s time to listen.

In a moment of nerve-shredding tension, Abi took matters into her own hands. As Carl slept peacefully with his head resting in her lap, she unlocked his phone and scrolled through his messages. What she found was undeniable proof: explicit texts, arranged meet-ups, and months of deceit laid bare in black and white. Carl had been living a double life, and Abi had been the fool he thought he could outsmart.

The image of Abi sitting there, heart pounding, holding the evidence while Carl slept on unaware, was one of Coronation Street’s most harrowing scenes in recent memory. It captured the raw vulnerability of betrayal—the moment when love turns to ashes and truth shatters everything you thought you knew.

As the storyline reaches its boiling point, one question hangs heavy in the air: what will Abi do next? With Carl’s lies exposed and his mask finally ripped away, the fallout promises to be explosive. For Abi, this is more than heartbreak—it’s a reckoning. And for Carl Webster, the clock is ticking.

Coronation Street has delivered a masterclass in slow-burn storytelling, reminding viewers that secrets never stay buried forever on the cobbles. As Abi prepares to confront the man who destroyed her trust, one thing is certain: Carl’s reign of chaos is coming to an end—and justice may finally be on the horizon.