Sisters Denise (played by Diane Parish) and Kim (Tameka Empson) have always been close on EastEnders, ever since the latter arrived on the BBC soap nine years ago.
Yet a recent confession from their mother Emerald Fox (Doña Croll) knocked Denise and Kim for six as she told them that Denise wasn’t actually her biological daughter.
Stunned, the two women listened as Emerald revealed that Denise was actually found by her uncle when the character was a newborn baby.
Without hearing exactly what took place between Emerald and her uncle, Denise and Kim learned that the former raised the tot as her own.
Leaving her daughters reeling, Emerald didn’t stick around to hear their reaction and scarpered from Walford before they could even process the news.
Struggling to get to grips with the possibility that Denise isn’t her biological sister, Kim eventually manages to persuade her to take a DNA test and find out the truth once and for all in upcoming scenes on the soap.
Kim then discovers that Denise is shying away from opening the results letter when she finds toddler Pearl playing with the envelope stuck down the side of a handbag.
Realising that Denise may not react well to the answer, Kim comes up with another plan in an attempt to soothe her sister when the news is finally revealed.
But it backfires, and Denise is left shocked and confused.
It turns out that Kim got a card for both outcomes so she could prepare to support Denise whatever the answer may be, but the latter ends up coming across both.
Yet, in a heartwarming moment for the pair, Denise reveals that the mix-up doesn’t matter anyway because she’s already made up her mind on how she feels.
She tells Kim that the result is irrelevant and they will always be sisters, whatever happens.
In true soap fashion though, it probably won’t be long before Kim can’t resist taking a sneak peek at the hospital letter – and how will Denise react then?
Meanwhile, Kim has her own problems to face with her husband Vincent (Richard Blackwood) following his run-ins with local villain Aidan Maguire (Patrick Bergin).
After the botched New Year’s Day heist, Vincent’s money problems have become worse and worse, until he finally has to share the reality of the situation with his concerned wife.
EastEnders continues tonight at 7.30pm on BBC One.
