I never suspected my husband was keeping secrets from me until he stopped inviting me to dinners with his friends. It wasn’t just the exclusion that stung, but the nagging feeling that something else was going on. The past few months have been strange. Jack’s been acting distant, especially when it comes to his weekly dinners.

“It’s just a guys’ night,” he always says, dismissing my questions. We used to attend these dinners together, but now it was like a secret club I wasn’t allowed to join.

Last night, as he was getting ready, I asked, “Are you sure the other wives aren’t joining, Jack?”

He hesitated, looking away. “Honestly, Mandy, it’s just been… complicated lately.”

My heart dropped. “Complicated? How?”

“Just let it go, please,” he said, moving towards the door.

The next day, at the grocery store, I bumped into Terri. “We miss you at dinners,” she said. “But Jack told us about the IVF and how it’s affecting you.”

What? Jack told them we were getting IVF? We had never even discussed having kids! I knew he was hiding something. Why else would he lie? Why else would he exclude me?