L'imparfait ou le subjonctif

Question

> elle ne s'attendait pas à ce qu'elle était sur le point de découvrir !

Doesn't "s'attendre à ce que" take the subjunctive? Or is there an exception in this case that wasn't noted in the lesson? Attendre quelqu'un vs s'attendre à quelque chose = to wait vs to expect in French

Accepted Answer

I think this is an exception, and the subjunctive is not required. 
The English text is: "she didn't expect what she was about to discover!"
I believe this is actually: s'attendre à [quelque chose]  =  to expect [something].
In this example, ce que means "what" and this takes the place of "something".
If it had been: s'attendre à ce que + [Subjonctif clause], then the English text would have to be something like: "she didn't expect that she was about to discover!", which makes no sense.

Answer

Bonjour Alex,
As Alan explained the difference here is extremely subtle. So, we've added a hint asking to use L'Imparfait so as to avoid any ambiguity.
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

Reading it back, I just realized there's no subject change which is normally required to trigger the subjunctive.