On New Year's Eve, a pregnant Kim surprises Denise and accuses Ian of ruining Denise's life. The next day, Kim finds bruises on Patrick's arms and realises Denise had beaten him and confronts her. At the pub, Denise gets drunk, and after hearing of Emma Summerhayes' (Anna Acton) death, drunkenly slurs that Lucy's killer would be jailed if Emma had done her job properly. In anger of Denise's disrespectfulness, Ian says that despite what Kim said, Denise has been ruining her own life. On arriving home, she tells Kim she cannot be Patrick's carer any more. After an argument with Denise in The Queen Victoria public house, Kim goes into labour and gives birth to a daughter named Pearl. Although she disowns Denise, they eventually reconcile the next day. After Pearl's christening, she tells Denise that her husband doesn't exist and she made him up because of fear of being alone. However, Kim's confessions to Shirley, Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace), Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) and Patrick reveal that her husband does exist but she left him when she found out that he was a criminal. Eventually, when her husband Vincent Hubbard (Richard Blackwood) tracks her down in Walford, Kim works up the courage to tell Denise the truth about him and explains her experience when she went to tell him she was pregnant. Denise and Patrick soon become wary of Vincent's intentions.