The Young and the Restless spoilers: Cole’s mystery illness comes with a major plot twist for Victoria?

Despite The Young and the Restless’ Jordan (Colleen Zenk) taking a wrecking ball to Nikki’s (Melody Thomas Scott) sobriety, burning down Victoria’s home (Amelia Heinle) and nearly killing several members of the Newman family, in a way, Victoria owes her newfound happiness to the deranged woman.

Not only has Victoria “regained” a daughter in Claire (Hayley Erin), but she’s also reconnected with Cole (J. Eddie Peck), arguably the most easygoing love of her life (yes, we’re aware Victoria could have been perhaps happy with Claire and Cole long ago if Jordan hadn’t kidnapped Claire as a baby, but we digress). Heck, we haven’t seen this softer side of Victoria in a long time, and we were starting to buy into the nickname she’s earned among many Young and the Restless fans — Ice Princess. Unfortunately, we have an ominous feeling that the future of her joy and contentment is in grave danger.

During the week of April 21, Cole finally returned to Genoa City after a lengthy business trip, where he toured the Newman Publishing divisions around the world. While Victoria and Claire were happy to see him and appreciative of the souvenirs he brought back, we were focused on Cole's cough, which he claimed was just a cold.

Fast forward to The Young and the Restless episode airing on April 30, and Cole is in pretty bad shape on the couch in the tackhouse. Victoria is insistent that she take care of him and that he see a doctor. He’s resistant to the idea of seeking medical attention until his coughing worsens, and he realizes he may have more than just a cold or flu.

We aren’t exactly sure what Cole’s diagnosis is, and can’t even rule out that while away Ian (Ray Wise) poisoned him as retaliation for Claire "killing" Jordan (Jordan technically took her own life, but Claire made the lethal cocktail). However, whatever is causing him to be ill, we wouldn’t be surprised if this is the end of the road for Cole. He’s been gone for months, and his love affair with Victoria isn’t as fiery as soap romances go.

Of course, Cole’s death would devastate Victoria. After all these years, she’s finally been able to reconnect with a man who was one of the first loves of her life and who’s never had an ulterior agenda. Victor even approves of him.

In the aftermath of a Cole death, we imagine she’ll need all the love and support she can get from family and friends, and she’s definitely light on the latter. She does have one friend in town in her ex, Billy (Jason Thompson), and this is where things could get interesting and offer Victoria a major plot twist.

We can picture a scenario where Billy becomes a big shoulder for Victoria to lean on, and in the midst of all this consoling, the exes eventually fall into familiar territory. Things between the two could become romantic, which would be great news for fans of #Villy who have been waiting for the pair to reunite, but it would be awful news for two people in particular — Sally (Courtney Hope) and Victor (Eric Braeden).

In terms of Sally, that’s a romance we feel is on borrowed time anyway. We can’t shake the feeling that Aristotle Dumas’ emergence in Genoa City will upend Billy’s new company, the very one Billy is actively trying to recruit Sally to work for. Between Aristotle’s arrival, Billy’s obsession with revenge on Victor and hatred of Adam (Mark Grossman), it all may prove too much for Sally. The couple could experience turbulence in their relationship that only worsens with him comforting Victoria. She could end things with Billy, not wanting a repeat of her relationship with Adam, or Billy could cheat with Victoria, mirroring the end of her time with the Newman heir.

Oh, and The Mustache would hit the roof. He’s never liked Billy with Victoria, and almost loathes him as much as Jack (Peter Bergman). Who can forget, Victor went as far as to have Victoria arrested to prevent her from marrying Billy Boy Abbott. And if Victor’s on a mission to destroy Claire’s relationship with Kyle (Michael Mealor) now, he’d likely take a scorched-earth approach to break up Victoria and Billy.

So what do you think, is a #Villy reunion on the horizon should Cole pass? Is that a reunion you want to see?

New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.