Martha spent Boxing Day at home with her sons, anxious and resentful that Alistair had left early to attend to his missing mother and had not responded to calls or messages. The holiday felt hollow after a solitary Christmas Day and with work responsibilities looming the next morning. Martha reflected on a pattern of Alistair going silent and not checking in, fueling her apprehension.

Feeling reckless, Martha went upstairs and searched for Alistair's secret phone in his medical bag but did not find it. Convinced he was having an affair, she methodically searched his pockets and coats. She found almost nothing—an absence she read as suspicious—until she uncovered a crumpled receipt from Paddy's, a name she recognized from a past dinner with Alistair in Whitstable.

On reading the receipt closely, Martha realized it was from a different branch, Paddy's in Ramsgate, timestamped two weeks earlier at 9:56 p.m., showing the purchase of a single bottle of champagne for £55. Checking her phone diary, she saw that the date matched the night Nala was sick, when Martha had rushed their daughter to hospital and Alistair had later claimed he slept on a staff-room sofa at a hotel job.

Overwhelmed by anger at the apparent lie, Martha contained herself when Jonah, still wearing a paper crown, appeared in concern. She reassured him and, when he asked about contacting Alistair, she shared Alistair's number and encouraged Jonah to message him directly, a reversal of her usual protective stance.

After sending the contact, Martha searched online for Paddy's Ramsgate and noted it would reopen the next day at midday. She resolved to call them for confirmation. The chapter closed with Martha feeling an unexpected relief, as if the long-suspected truth had finally surfaced and allowed her to breathe.