AIBU to be suspicious after finding a sealed card in his luggage?

[greatbigproblem]

So... My husband works away a lot. I mean really a lot. No particular reason to distrust him but at the end of the day I'm a realist and think complacency is unwise. Marriage not great but honestly it's probably more me that thinks that...
Anyway. Husband packing to go away. Stuff on bed. I picked up a music magazine that was lying in amongst the stuff and flicked through it. Inside, there was a red sealed greetings card. This has got my spidey sensing tingling because this man doesn't send anyone - other than me - cards EVER. I do all that stuff.
I don't know what to do: ask him about it? But I run the risk of him being defensive and if he really doesn't want me to see the contents of the envelope then I suspect he will accuse me of snooping and I'd have to escalate massively to see the contents. If that happened then yes you could say that would be all I'd need to know but I feel I'd want something concrete to base turning our lives upside down upon.

What I have actually done is remove it to give myself time. I figure if it's current and important he'll worry where it's gone but he'll have to ask ME about it.

I COULD find an envelope same size and colour and open and reseal. Probably don't have time to do that today and he's leaving tomorrow.

I'm mainly a lurker but I've seen other people get good advice on here so... What do we think?
To be clear I am very chill about him being away all the time and never give a second thought to where he is or what he's up to. But this has kind of freaked me out and I have a weird feeling about it.

She would be told to get out and leave him as he is being controlling or a million other things

This is a lovely ending. It’s like the Pina Colada song

“You only have this opportunity to know” - spot on!!

Open it, then bin it if innocent.

Fucking hell people - if you are that invested in what happened then read the bloody thread In less time than it has taken you to post, you would know what actually happened.

Rather that guessing which is leading to anxiety just ask him

This! ☝️ If it’s what you suspect, then he can’t exactly ask you about it when he discovers it’s missing, can he?

I would have hated my husband to have snooped on me, whether on phone, or post, so, I wouldn't open it. If I had mistrusted my DH that much, I’d have been long gone anyway.

RTFT

Apparently he never bothered to open the envelope, but carries it around inside a magazine (presumably a current one) he is taking on a business trip!

Why would he put a card he wasn't particularly arsed to open last February (or longer ago) inside a magazine?

This story has more holes than a leaky sieve.

@greatbigproblem I'm sure you could have found a better "punchline" for your made-up story. A poor effort.

@SinisterGreenMan

Apparently he never bothered to open the envelope...

Can you show me the bit where OP says this?

It's in her original post where she says:

"I picked up a music magazine that was lying in amongst the stuff and flicked through it. Inside, there was a red sealed greetings card."

@SinisterGreenMan

She subsequently says: "When I gently tried to peel it open it kind of came away - obvs resealed by having been between the pages of a magazine!"

This is perfectly plausible if it has spent several months flat in a magazine.

Nice try, but there is nothing "perfectly plausible" in what you have said.

You are trying to mitigate your ridiculous post asking me to show you the bit where OP says he didn't bother to open the card when it's clearly stated in both the title of the thread, the opening post and reiterated in her subsequent posts.

Admit it. It was a daft question.

Another thread where it didn't happen.

Nope. OP says she found a sealed card in his luggage. She subsequently said it had been opened and had resealed itself by being between the pages of the magazine. At no point did she say anywhere that he hadn’t bothered to open it.

Thanks @ThreadGuardDog (excellent username!)

It all seems perfectly plausible to me - but then I don't live in the MN swamp-world of cheating/lying partners but only the male ones of course!

I'm sure OP is perfectly capable of identifying a card that she chose and wrote herself and gave to her husband on a previous occasion.

That's great!

I’d take it too. If it’s dodgy he can’t ask , if it’s not dodgy he’ll ask. Either way you’ve not seen it . But open it . Of course if he never sends cards it’s highly suspicious!

Why not give reading the thread a go?

I can't help wondering whether most people simply don't know that if you click on "see all" in one of the OP's posts you can read everything the OP has posted without having to plough through the entire thread. If more people knew that, they presumably wouldn't make suggestions that have been rendered totally pointless by a later post from the OP which explains what has happened since the first post was put up. In this case there was

greatbigproblem · 29/08/2026 16:28
I opened it!!! Oh my God I feel like such an idiot!!! It was an old valentine's card from me!!!

the day before yesterday.

In the Pina Colada song they were planning to cheat on one another, but ended up with their current partner in error.

And in this case, her husband didn't bother to open her Valentine's card and works away so much she thinks he might be cheating.

I'm not seeing the lovely ending in either scenario.