Coronation Street‘s Alya Nazir goes behind Adam Barlow’s back next week, as she meets up with Rich Pemberton, her old boss from Fabian’s law firm. But why is she keeping it so secret?

As they work together at Barlow Legal Services, Adam suggests to Alya that they should celebrate all their hard work with a holiday. At first, Alya is delighted by the idea, but when she receives a text message, her mood takes an unexpected turn…

“Alya is totally thrown by the text,” our Corrie insider explains. “Then later in the week, Alya’s phone rings with a call from Rich, just as Daniel brings her and Adam up to date about a recent incident.

“Alya can’t reject the call fast enough, which is strange as she is usually an open book, particularly when it comes to Adam. Whatever is going on, it’s clearly serious.”

Afterwards, Alya sneaks down the cobbles and climbs into Rich’s high-end car. As Alya sits in the passenger seat, Rich delivers a grim ultimatum, but how will she deal with her predicament?

“Rich previously hired Alya at Fabian’s in Dublin,” recaps our source. “She spent six months there, so she must know him pretty well, which makes his behaviour all the worse.

“But let’s not forget that Adam has met Rich before – remember that time he caught Alya and Adam kissing? – so hopefully he’ll pick up on Alya’s problem sooner rather than later.”

What does Rich want from Alya? And why is Alya so determined to keep her meeting away from prying eyes?

News of Rich’s return was first revealed last week, but this is our first glimpse at the storyline in official spoiler pictures. He was last seen across a handful of appearances in April and May 2024.

Jamie Cho has reprised his role as Rich for this storyline. The actor’s previous credits include parts in Bridgerton, Doctor Who and Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.