When Duncan’s Business Trip Turns Into A Nightmare: Ghosts, Secrets, and A Shocking Discovery
Duncan had always been accustomed to his life of business trips. It was a routine that had worked for him and his family for years. His wife, Emmie, was understanding. His daughter, Leila, a lively, ten-year-old bundle of energy, was used to his comings and goings. Their life, while not without its challenges, was predictable and comfortable. Or so Duncan thought.
When Duncan’s partner at the firm told him about a new business opportunity that required him to travel for a meeting in another state, it seemed like just another routine trip. Business as usual. His wife and daughter were always at home, and even though he hated being away from them, they managed.
“I’ll only be gone for a week,” Duncan assured Emmie as he helped pack his suitcase. “You’ll be fine.”
Emmie smiled warmly, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “Of course, I’ll manage. You know it’s not the time away that bothers me; it’s the time when you come back and you’re always unpacking or catching up.”
Duncan chuckled, knowing it was true. He never seemed to get around to unpacking right away, often leaving his suitcase half-open by the bed, clothes spilling out as the days went on. But when he left for his trips, it was business, and he never let the weight of missing out on family moments interfere.
Leila, though only ten, had already become used to the rhythm of his absences. She had her school, her friends, and her homework. Duncan always tried to make it up to her when he came home, buying her small treats from the bakery she loved, or taking her out for ice cream. These little gestures were his way of making up for the time he missed.
“Have a safe trip, Duncan,” Emmie said, kissing him goodbye as she drove him to the airport early one morning. Her voice had a calmness to it, one that Duncan found reassuring, even though it always left him with a small pang of guilt.
The week passed by in a blur of meetings, phone calls, and presentations. Despite the hustle of work, Duncan’s thoughts kept returning to his family back home. He couldn’t help but wonder how Leila was handling things without him. But Emmie always reassured him in her messages, letting him know everything was fine.
As the trip neared its end, Duncan was eager to return home earlier than expected. He made a detour to Leila’s favorite bakery, picking up a selection of treats that would surely make her day. A smile tugged at his lips as he imagined the excitement on her face when she saw him walking through the door.
Arriving back home earlier than planned, Duncan felt an odd sense of contentment. He could hear Leila’s voice as she shouted a joyful greeting from the hallway.
“Dad, you’re home!” Leila ran into his arms as he set the bakery bags down on the table.
His heart swelled as he picked her up. “My trip ended early,” he said, holding her tightly. “I missed you.”
Leila’s laughter filled the room, but there was something in her eyes—a spark of excitement, a twinkle that didn’t seem entirely happy. Before Duncan could ask her about it, she spoke up.
“Dad, I saw a ghost last night,” Leila said suddenly, her voice filled with a seriousness that caught Duncan off guard.
Duncan blinked, half-expecting to hear her giggling or to see a mischievous smile. But there was none. She was completely serious.
“A ghost? What do you mean, honey?” Duncan asked, setting Leila down gently as he looked at her with a mix of confusion and concern.
Leila hesitated for a moment, her eyes dropping to her ice cream cone. She watched the melting scoop for a while before she spoke again.
“I was going to the bathroom, and I saw something by the stairs. It was a ghost, floating in the hallway.” Leila’s voice was soft but firm.
Duncan felt his heart skip a beat. “A ghost? Maybe it was just Grandma or Grandpa,” he suggested, trying to rationalize her words. After all, it could have been one of the relatives staying over.
Leila shook her head. “Grandpa didn’t come last night. Only Grandma, and she said Grandpa was with their cat.”
Duncan nodded, trying to piece things together. Emmie’s parents, especially her father, weren’t the types to spend too much time away from home, but the idea of a ghostly presence in the house was unsettling. However, Duncan didn’t want to dismiss his daughter’s feelings outright.
“Alright,” he said carefully. “If you see anything strange again, you come and tell me, okay?”
Leila’s face brightened as she nodded enthusiastically. The conversation ended as quickly as it had begun, and soon they were back home, the early afternoon sun casting warm light into the house. Emmie was home, busy with her usual routine of cooking and helping Leila with homework. There was no sign of Marie, Emmie’s mother, so Duncan assumed she was resting in the guest room.
Duncan began unpacking his suitcase, a task that he would usually delay, but Emmie hated seeing it half-done. He opened the door to their walk-in closet, intending to put his clothes away before sitting down for dinner, but what he saw next completely shattered his calm.
There, standing in the dimly lit closet, was an older man, buttoning up his shirt as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Duncan froze.
“Emmie!” he yelled, his voice sharp with disbelief and anger. “What is this? Who is this man?”
He could hear Emmie’s footsteps thundering through the house as she rushed toward him. “Duncan? What’s going on?” she called, her voice full of concern.
“I should be asking you that!” Duncan snapped back, his pulse racing. “Who is this man?”
Emmie’s face turned pale as she stepped into the room. “What man?” she asked, eyes wide in confusion.
The man in the closet peered out and looked at her, his face a picture of surprise. Emmie gasped and stumbled backward.
“Who are you?” she asked in disbelief.
At that moment, Duncan felt the weight of the world crashing down on him. His first thought was that Emmie had been hiding an affair. But the expression on her face—the shock, the horror—told him that she didn’t know this man either.
“That’s the ghost,” Leila whispered from the doorway, her voice trembling with fear.
Duncan’s world tilted. The same ghost that Leila had seen? Standing in their closet?
“Call the police!” Emmie hissed, her face drained of color.
Marie, Emmie’s mother, entered the room with a glass of water in her hand, clearly unaware of what had transpired. “What’s going on?” she asked.
The moment she laid eyes on the man in the closet, she froze. “Tony?” she said, her voice tight. “What are you still doing here?”
“Tony? You know him?” Emmie asked, her voice quivering with both shock and disbelief.
Marie shifted uncomfortably, her face flushed with guilt. She sighed and glanced away, avoiding eye contact with her daughter. “I’ve been seeing Tony for a while,” she admitted quietly.
The room fell into stunned silence. Duncan was too shocked to say anything. His mind was racing—this was not just a ghost, but a man who had been secretly involved with Emmie’s mother.
Emmie looked at her mother, then back at Duncan, her face pale with shock and anger. “How long has this been going on?” she demanded.
Marie shifted uncomfortably. “There’s something you need to understand, Emmie,” she said softly. “Your father and I… we’ve had our issues for a long time. But I didn’t want to burden you with it. And Tony, he makes me feel alive again, especially after everything with your father.”
Emmie’s face contorted in disbelief. “So, all this time, you’ve been hiding him? In our house?”
Marie nodded, her gaze downcast. “I never meant for you to find out like this. But I can’t keep hiding anymore. I needed something for myself.”
Tears welled in Emmie’s eyes. She stood there, speechless, as her mother stood before her, a woman who had been so important in her life suddenly reduced to a stranger. “But why here, in our house?” Emmie asked, voice cracking.
Marie looked uncomfortable. “I thought he would leave before you got home. But he didn’t.”
Duncan felt sick to his stomach. The chaos in the room was overwhelming. Emmie had always been the picture of composure, but now she was unraveling, struggling to process the bombshell that had just dropped.
“What now?” Duncan asked quietly, unsure of what to say or do.
“I don’t know,” Emmie replied. “I need some time.”
Tony, realizing his cover was blown, quickly left the house, followed by Marie. The room was left in stunned silence, with the weight of the secrets laid bare.
The next hours were a blur of raw emotions. Emmie and Duncan tried to process everything, but their world had been shaken to its core. Duncan could see the strain on Emmie’s face as she wrestled with the truth.
“I don’t know if I can ever look at my mother the same way again,” Emmie said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Duncan didn’t know what the future held, but he knew he would stand by Emmie. She had been through enough, and whatever happened next, he was going to be there to support her through it all.
The family’s life would never be the same again.
As the days passed, the weight of the secret that had been exposed lingered in the air, thick and suffocating. Emmie was a woman of remarkable strength, but the betrayal of her mother, someone she had always trusted and looked up to, shook her to her core. Duncan, too, found himself grappling with his own emotions, trying to support Emmie while coming to terms with the unsettling revelations that had unfolded in his own home.
That night, after Marie and Tony left, the house was eerily quiet. The kind of silence that felt unnatural in a place that was supposed to be filled with laughter and life. Leila had retreated to her room, but Duncan could hear her soft sniffles through the thin walls. The young girl, who had once spoken so openly about the ghost she had seen in the house, was now more scared than ever. The strange man in the closet—the one who had been hiding there—was a ghost in a way, but not the kind Leila had imagined.
Duncan sat in the living room, waiting for Emmie to come down. He had already tried to speak with her once, but she had excused herself, needing some space to think. The emotional storm swirling in her head had taken its toll, and Duncan could see that she needed time. It wasn’t just the shock of discovering her mother’s affair that upset her—it was the sense of having been kept in the dark, of having her own family’s skeletons shoved in her face without warning.
As the hours ticked by, Duncan decided to let her be. He would be there when she was ready to talk. Emmie had always been a rational woman, and he knew that the shock would eventually fade, though he had no idea how long it would take for the trust to rebuild, if it ever could.
Around midnight, Emmie finally came downstairs. Her eyes were red from crying, but there was a sense of determination in her gaze, something that told Duncan she wasn’t going to fall apart. She was stronger than that.
Sitting down next to him, she exhaled deeply, the sound almost as if she had been holding her breath for hours. “I don’t know where to start,” she said quietly, her voice strained.
Duncan didn’t need to say anything. He simply took her hand, offering a silent support that he hoped would speak volumes. Emmie looked at him, her fingers tightening around his as she continued.
“Why, Duncan? Why would my mother do this? After everything—after all these years of trying to protect us from pain, why would she do something so reckless?”
Duncan squeezed her hand. “I don’t have the answers, Emmie. I can’t explain her actions. But I know one thing for sure: this is not your fault.”
“I feel so betrayed, Duncan. She’s my mother. I thought I knew her. And now I don’t know who she is anymore.”
Duncan felt the ache in his chest. He could see the woman he loved—the woman who had always been so strong, so capable—crumbling before him. This wasn’t about the ghost or the man hiding in the closet anymore. This was about a mother’s betrayal and the fractures it caused in their family’s foundation.
“She’s human, Emmie. She made a mistake. A big one. But that doesn’t mean she’s a bad person. She’s just… lost, I guess. And it sounds like she doesn’t know how to fix it.”
Emmie shook her head, her fingers brushing away a stray tear. “But she should have known better. She’s my mother. She’s supposed to protect me. And now I’m supposed to keep this secret from my father? I can’t do that, Duncan. I just can’t.”
“I’m not asking you to,” Duncan said softly. “You don’t have to keep this secret. Whatever you decide to do, I’ll support you.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Emmie whispered. “I don’t know if I can keep living this lie. But if I tell my father, it will destroy him. He’s already had so much heartbreak in his life. I don’t know if he can handle this.”
Duncan nodded, understanding the weight of Emmie’s dilemma. Her father, a proud man who had worked hard all his life, would never expect such a betrayal from his wife. The truth would devastate him, and yet, hiding it would mean living a life of deceit. Emmie was caught between her love for her father and the need to confront the truth about her mother.
“Do you want to tell him?” Duncan asked, his voice low.
Emmie hesitated. “I don’t know. But I don’t want to lie to him anymore. I can’t do that to him, to us. But I also don’t want to hurt him.”
Duncan leaned back, thinking for a moment. “Maybe there’s a middle ground. You don’t have to make any decisions right now. Take the time you need. But when you’re ready, we’ll figure out how to move forward. You don’t have to do this alone.”
Emmie looked at him, her eyes filled with both gratitude and sorrow. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Duncan. You’re the only one who’s been there for me through all of this.”
“And I always will be,” he replied firmly. “No matter what happens, you’ve got me.”
The night stretched on, and the conversation continued, though it became less intense. Emmie’s emotions, raw as they were, began to settle as she spoke through her confusion and pain. The reality of the situation didn’t change, but there was some comfort in knowing she wasn’t alone.
The following days were filled with quiet moments of reflection. Duncan found himself constantly checking in on Emmie, watching her as she navigated the choppy waters of her relationship with her mother. Leila, too, had questions, and though Duncan tried his best to reassure her, there was a noticeable distance between them. The ghost in the house—real or imagined—was no longer just a harmless figment of a child’s imagination. It had become a symbol of the secrets that had been hidden within the walls of their home for far too long.
Emmie spent several days deliberating over whether or not to confront her father with the truth. Each time, she held back, the fear of hurting him weighing heavily on her heart. She tried to focus on her daughter, who had started to withdraw even more, afraid to be left alone in the house, convinced that the ghost still lingered in the corners.
Duncan, ever the pragmatist, suggested that they try to heal their family in small steps. Perhaps it was time to seek help, to talk to a counselor about everything that had transpired. Emmie agreed, and together they began the painful process of mending the broken parts of their lives.
But even as they took these steps forward, the question remained: How could they move on from the secrets that had torn their family apart? Would they ever truly be able to look at each other the same way again?
As time passed, Emmie made a decision. She would tell her father. But not immediately. She would wait for the right moment, a time when her father could process the truth without falling apart. Duncan stood by her, giving her the space to make her decision, knowing that whatever came next, they would face it together.
And so, life moved forward, but it was no longer the life they had known. The ghost in the house, whether real or not, had served as a catalyst, forcing them to confront the hidden truths that had been buried for far too long.
Lila Hart is a dedicated Digital Archivist and Research Specialist with a keen eye for preserving and curating meaningful content. At TheArchivists, she specializes in organizing and managing digital archives, ensuring that valuable stories and historical moments are accessible for generations to come.
Lila earned her degree in History and Archival Studies from the University of Edinburgh, where she cultivated her passion for documenting the past and preserving cultural heritage. Her expertise lies in combining traditional archival techniques with modern digital tools, allowing her to create comprehensive and engaging collections that resonate with audiences worldwide.
At TheArchivists, Lila is known for her meticulous attention to detail and her ability to uncover hidden gems within extensive archives. Her work is praised for its depth, authenticity, and contribution to the preservation of knowledge in the digital age.
Driven by a commitment to preserving stories that matter, Lila is passionate about exploring the intersection of history and technology. Her goal is to ensure that every piece of content she handles reflects the richness of human experiences and remains a source of inspiration for years to come.