Disclosing that Haunted wants to attract the wife's attention by pointing out to her that Haunted is valuable in the eyes of other women might be a good idea. See how she responds. Even just ask her - look, your being paranoid when I take the calls. It seems to say something. A person who is indifferent does not care, but you do care - think about why? Maybe you are actually still into me. think about it? really, why do you care?
So that would be a more direct and less manipulative way to work with paranoia and capitalize on paranoia without involving third parties who might have their own feelings. Sure. Whatever you do, you saw paranoia, so paranoia must have some meaning (as opposed to being random). Work with the paranoia.

Anika, yes, it is possible to say I love you just purely expressing your feelings without expecting anything - I get that. Still, there is a whole world of gray between pure self-expression and premeditated coldness - it does not seem that Haunted would find himself on the extreme side of premeditated coldness if he were to pick up on paranoia. He cares about the wife - otherwise he would not have opened the thread. So, he can just say - "look, I care about you and want to be with you, and you say you have lost passion and yet get paranoid when I step outside to take calls - tell me why! Tell me why because it does not make any sense!"