When Dev Alahan began his amorous pursuit of solicitor Maya Sharma in October 2003, he was dismayed to see her a few weeks later kissing an unknown man. Seeing this as proof that she was two-timing him, he started to ignore her calls. This brought her round to the Corner Shop where she confessed that she'd been seeing a married man called Gavin Parks on a strictly non-committal basis. Dev told her to drop Gavin if she was interested in seeing him again.
Their romance started to develop but after a few weeks, Dev got an insight into Maya's strange character. Lunching with her at her flat, they were interrupted when Heather Parks burst in. The reason Maya had met Gavin was that she was Heather's divorce solicitor and while arranging this matter and taking her fee from the wife, she was bedding the husband at the same time. Heather angrily told Maya that her unprofessional behaviour had made matters worse, had led to her being on anti-depressants and warned Dev to be careful of his new girlfriend. She then quickly made good her promise to report Maya for unethical behaviour. Ms Sharma was summoned by her head of chambers and sacked for her unprofessionalism. Maya later told Dev that she'd been in trouble before and wasn't cut out to be a solicitor. Not seeing the warning signs, he invited her to live with him and thus began a train of events which ended a year later when Maya attempted to murder Dev and the other woman in his life, Sunita Parekh.