diff --git a/config/cache.go b/config/cache.go
index a196a5c..168e533 100644
--- a/config/cache.go
+++ b/config/cache.go
@@ -124,10 +124,16 @@ type ContactUsage struct {
 }
 
 // Contact stores a contact's name, email address, and per-account usage.
+//
+// For regular contacts, Email holds a single address and Addresses is empty.
+// For mailing-list virtual contacts emitted by SearchContacts, Email is empty
+// and Addresses holds the expanded list of recipients. Callers that need to
+// distinguish the two cases should check len(Addresses) > 0.
 type Contact struct {
-	Name  string                  `json:"name"`
-	Email string                  `json:"email"`
-	Usage map[string]ContactUsage `json:"usage_by_account"`
+	Name      string                  `json:"name"`
+	Email     string                  `json:"email"`
+	Addresses []string                `json:"addresses,omitempty"`
+	Usage     map[string]ContactUsage `json:"usage_by_account"`
 }
 
 // UnmarshalJSON accepts both the current usage_by_account format and the
@@ -322,10 +328,14 @@ func SearchContactsForAccount(query, accountID string) []Contact {
 	if err == nil {
 		for _, list := range cfg.MailingLists {
 			if strings.Contains(strings.ToLower(list.Name), query) {
-				// Convert mailing list to a virtual contact
+				// Convert mailing list to a virtual contact. Addresses are
+				// stored in a dedicated slice so the Email field keeps its
+				// single-address invariant -- avoids corruption by
+				// normalizeContactEmail and exact-match lookups in callers.
+				addresses := append([]string(nil), list.Addresses...)
 				matches = append(matches, Contact{
-					Name:  list.Name,
-					Email: strings.Join(list.Addresses, ", "),
+					Name:      list.Name,
+					Addresses: addresses,
 					Usage: map[string]ContactUsage{
 						accountID: {
 							UseCount: 9999, // Ensure lists appear at the top
diff --git a/tui/composer.go b/tui/composer.go
index 9d2cecb..3f3fd53 100644
--- a/tui/composer.go
+++ b/tui/composer.go
@@ -347,9 +347,9 @@ func (m *Composer) Update(msg tea.Msg) (tea.Model, tea.Cmd) {
 				selected := m.suggestions[m.selectedSuggestion]
 
 				var newEmail string
-				if strings.Contains(selected.Email, ",") {
-					// It's a mailing list: insert just the addresses to maintain valid email formatting
-					newEmail = selected.Email
+				if len(selected.Addresses) > 0 {
+					// Mailing list: emit just the addresses to maintain valid email formatting
+					newEmail = strings.Join(selected.Addresses, ", ")
 				} else if selected.Name != "" && selected.Name != selected.Email {
 					newEmail = fmt.Sprintf("%s <%s>", selected.Name, selected.Email)
 				} else {
@@ -701,7 +701,9 @@ func (m *Composer) View() tea.View {
 		var suggestionsBuilder strings.Builder
 		for i, s := range m.suggestions {
 			display := s.Email
-			if s.Name != "" && s.Name != s.Email {
+			if len(s.Addresses) > 0 {
+				display = fmt.Sprintf("%s (%s)", s.Name, strings.Join(s.Addresses, ", "))
+			} else if s.Name != "" && s.Name != s.Email {
 				display = fmt.Sprintf("%s <%s>", s.Name, s.Email)
 			}
 			if i == m.selectedSuggestion {