Martha spent a tense day and night spiraling after Al failed to return from an emergency trip and stopped responding to messages and calls. Growing suspicious, she researched Glasgow hotels with hair salons and gyms, trying to match his story. By Sunday night Al arrived home exhausted, prompting Martha to immediately challenge him for vanishing without contact and to ask if he was having an affair.

Al denied infidelity. When Martha raised the “secret phone” she had seen him hide in his father’s medical bag, Al claimed it was his late father’s phone that he had simply kept. Martha refused to be diverted and pressed him on why he had not sent even a brief message and why his story contained gaps.

Al launched into an explanation about a dysfunctional hotel where multiple staff had quit, forcing him to cover roles and conduct back-to-back calls, which he said prevented him from contacting Martha. Martha pointed out how little effort a text would have taken and continued to question his excuses.

She then tested a key detail: the Glasgow hotel where Al claimed he had left his wedding ring in the gym. When he named a boutique hotel she had already checked, she showed him it had no gym listed. Al backtracked, insisting he had never said the gym was in the hotel and that he had used a gym across the road.

To defuse the issue, Al produced his wedding ring, saying he had just found it wedged near the car’s gearbox, contradicting the earlier gym story. Martha, overwhelmed by the contradictions, told him trust was eroding due to recent strange behavior. Al appeared hurt, but Martha, craving peace and rationalizing his behavior through his burdens and quirks, decided to set aside her suspicions for the moment and give him another chance.