In "The Unclaimed Sum," the fifth story in The Belfasters series, Ciarán navigates the emotional complexity of saying goodbye to Elder, a departing missionary whose church obligation has defined relationship with him rather than a genuine connection. When confusion arises over a forty-pound debt—neither can remember who loaned money to whom—the unresolved sum becomes a metaphor for the impermanence and transactional nature of missionary relationships. This story, set against the backdrop of Belfast's Europa Hotel, which survived repeated bombings during the Troubles, explores the structural loneliness of faith communities built on temporary bonds, the exhaustion of performing belief while privately doubting, and honestly acknowledges that some goodbyes cannot be neatly resolved. The forty pounds left unclaimed on a hotel table represents not carelessness, but the only truthful ending to a relationship that was always designed to be temporary.