Coronation Street teen Asha Alahan has been acting out of sorts for a while, and next week her worried dad Dev stumbles across her secret.
Thirteen-year-old Asha has been struggling with low self-esteem, which escalated during the family's trip to India with her buying a pot of skin lightening cream.
When Asha drops her bag and the contents spill out, she quickly scoops up the tub of cream hoping Dev hasn’t spotted it.
Dev returns from India telling her devoted nanny and family friend Mary Taylor that she's been an absolute nightmare and he's at his wits end with his daughter, and kindly Mary vows to get to the bottom of what's troubling her.
Asha, played since 2009 by 17-year-old Tanisha Gorey, has been away from the street for a couple of months after her father decided to take her and her twin brother Aadi to India to visit his dying uncle.
Asha, a friend of mouthy Amy Barlow, is the daughter of corner shop owner Dev and the late Sunita Alahan.
Shortly after she and Aadi were born in January 2016 their mum decided to leave Weatherfield with the twins but they returned in 2009 when Sunita reunited with Dev.
Tragically, in 2013 the twins lost their mum when Sunita was injured in the Rovers Return fire started by her ex lover Karl Munro.
The twisted pub landlord, fearing she would spill the truth about the arson attack and leaving her to die in the pub, stopped her life support in hospital.
The horrifying truth came the day he married Stella Price and, after taking his bride hostage, he was arrested for arson and Sunita's murder.
Dev, played by Jimmi Harkishin, has failed to find another true love after Sunita, played by Shobna Gulati, but he found a loyal friend in Mary, played by Patti Clare, who has cared for him and his children.
