Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) is a problematic Queen, and Emmerdale fans love her for it. She’s usually at the centre of a storm and it’s more often than not one of her creation. This particular storm, however, might be her biggest yet.

While she’s supposed to be carrying an embryo for Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) and Sarah Sugden (Katie Hill) as a surrogate, the baby she’s actually carrying is as a result of a one night stand between herself and Ross Barton (Michael Parr).

The pressure becomes to much for Charity (Picture: Mark Bruce/ITV)

While she struggled under the weight of not knowing the true parentage of the child she’s carrying, her world imploded when she found out the truth and, after initially considering a termination, then deciding against it, Charity has resigned herself to keeping the whole sordid deal a secret forever.

Having forged a document to convince Ross that the baby isn’t his, Charity finds further opposition in Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter), who’s furious at her cousin for forcing her to share the secret.

After Chas gives Charity a thorough needling about the impending scan, she leaves her in a horrifically anxious state, with a gnawing fear that the scan could reveal the truth to both Sarah and Jacob.

Returning home and wracked with nerves, Charity is met by the happy couple who’re anticipating the scan with sheer excitement and, coincidentally, discussing babies and their potential resemblance to their fathers.

Awkward.

With the pressure having become far too much, Charity viciously snaps at Sarah and Jacob as the fear of the scan revealing the truth reaches a crescendo. Though she later cools of and apologises to her granddaughter, Charity is utterly unable to risk the truth being exposed, and lies to Sarah that the scan has been cancelled, wounding her.

Charity attends the scan with Chas and is relieved when the sonographer informs her that nothing is untoward with the baby and the cousins breathe a simultaneous sigh of relief, though Chas is unnerved to see Charity staring lovingly at the baby scan image – the one she’ll be attempting to pass off as Sarah’s.

Convinced she’s gotten away with her latest in her vast web of lies, trouble comes in the form of Jacob, who spots Charity in the corridor at the hospital.