Page 1 of Heal You (The Study You #3)

Humming lightly as she tilted her face towards the sun, Jan rested against the bonnet of her car and smiled. God, she loved pleasant weather. More than anything, she loved pleasant weather and good people. Friends, family, even her employees most of the time.

Today was the beginning of a new week, and Jan had everything to look forward to. She had a husband who had dedicated every second of his time to her over the weekend, and she planned to see Gillian and Finn in a couple of days. What more could she need right now?

Oh, you have it all.

Jan pushed off her car and took the steps up to the office.

Gillian, her best friend, often told her she was out of her mind to be stepping over gravel in her expensive heels, but this was all second nature to Jan Bartlett.

All she had known for over twenty years was this.

The business. The daily commute down the motorway to deal with plant hire and housing developments.

“Love?” Phil opened the door to his office—an outside portacabin —that he was currently residing in while his usual one was being refurbished.

He swapped and changed depending on his mood, but he would know about it the moment the summer arrived.

He would be cooking in that tin can. “Can you bring me the files on The Mews development when you have a minute? I forgot to pick them up when I got here earlier.”

“Of course. Give me ten to get my things sorted, and I’ll be over.”

“Thanks.” Phil regarded Jan with a loving smile, his gaze lingering. “You look gorgeous today, by the way.”

Jan smiled to herself as she allowed the compliment to sink in. “Thank you. I’d say the same back at you, but you’ve always been a handsome bastard, and that’ll never change.”

Phil winked and turned back inside the cabin.

He had been extra attentive this weekend, surprising Jan at the last minute with a spa weekend on the outskirts of the city.

It had been just what they’d needed, given how busy they’d been recently.

Jan didn’t require much in the way of relaxation, but she did need a day or two to recharge on occasion.

She quickly rushed inside her own office and took her phone from her handbag the moment she was sitting behind her desk. Gillian had wanted an update on the hotel they’d just been to, and if Jan didn’t take care of that right now, Gillian would be calling her for most of the day.

Hotel was amazing! The treatments were exceptional. Throw the hint to Finn and I’ll expect a call from her for hotel details soon. Love ya! x

Jan locked her phone and looked up at the door when someone knocked.

She caught sight of Gareth through the small window and waved him inside.

Gareth was one of the business’ couriers who handled the delivery of office supplies.

He was here at least twice a week, usually delivering reams and reams of paper or ink cartridges.

“Hi, Gareth.” Jan sat back in her seat and clasped her hands on her knee as she crossed her legs. “Nice weekend?”

“He…hasn’t told you.”

Jan frowned. “I’m sorry? Who hasn’t told me what?”

Gareth’s face had suddenly turned very pale. Jan’s concern was instant, so she shot from her seat and helped Gareth into the one on the opposite side of her desk.

“I’m sorry, Jan. I really didn’t want to be the one to do this.” He scrubbed a hand down his face as his voice broke. “Fucking coward!”

“Okay, take a breath, and tell me what’s going on.” Jan returned to her seat and perched her elbows on her desk. She had no idea what Gareth was talking about, but he seemed almost…haunted by whatever this was. “Has something happened? Are your family okay?”

“Y-yeah. Mum is doing really well, and Dad has been a diamond looking after her.”

Jan smiled. Gareth’s mum had recently undergone treatment for cancer. Jan and Phil had given him any time he needed off so Gareth could be there for appointments, so to hear that things were going well was always a plus. “That’s great news. Please send them our love, won’t you?”

Gareth stared at Jan. That look on his face hadn’t changed. It was only growing worse. “I, uh… I caught them, Jan. In bed together.”

Jan smiled. “Caught who?”

“Anais and Phil.”

Jan sat forward a little. She thought for a second that Gareth had said her husband’s name. No, he couldn’t have done. “Anais and who?”

“Phil. Your Phil.”

Jan laughed, mostly with nerves…but also because that just couldn’t be true. “My Phil? No, you have it wrong. We’ve just been away for the weekend to a spa hotel. It wasn’t him.”

“It…was last weekend.” Gareth swallowed as his eyes filled with tears.

“She told me she was away with friends for the weekend, so I decided to stay with Mum and Dad. Give Dad a break, you know?” He shook his head.

“I called home on the Saturday morning because I’d forgotten my razor and wash bag. They were there, in bed together.”

Jan’s heart sank. Phil had also been away from home last weekend.

Only for Jan, that was nothing out of the ordinary.

Phil often travelled for work, usually to finalise contracts or to source land for new developments.

Still… “No, you have it wrong. Phil would never cheat on me. We’re celebrating our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in a few months.

W-we’re taking our friends away on a cruise. ”

Only you haven’t booked that cruise yet.

Not because they hadn’t decided on where to go but because Phil kept putting it off. Was that because he was planning to leave Jan for Anais? No. This just wasn’t something she could comprehend.

“I’m sorry, Jan. I told them they had the week to tell you, or I’d come to you myself. I thought he may have done the decent thing and come clean, but it seems not.”

Jan didn’t show it, but inside, she was slowly dying. Phil, her husband, had been having an affair with their employee? For what reason? Just…why? This has to be a mistake. “Can you give me a few minutes please?”

Gareth rose to his feet. “Of course. I’m sorry. This is a lot for you.”

“No, no. Take a seat, and I’ll be right back.

” Jan composed herself and left her office.

It would take her all of ten seconds to knock on Phil’s door, but she found herself taking her time.

Was she worried that this was true? No, not at all.

But she was trying to figure out how to run this by her husband without accusing him.

Only, as she reached his door, she wasn’t sure it was possible to say this in any other way.

She poked her head around the door. “Do you have a minute?”

“For you? Always.” Phil smiled where he stood behind his desk, his hands braced against it as he studied floor plans for their most recent development. As Jan stepped inside the office and closed the door behind her, he said, “Did you bring the files for The Mews?”

“No, um…could you come to my office for a few minutes so we can clear something up?” Jan threw a thumb over her shoulder. “Gareth is in there, and I think he’s a little bit confused.”

As Jan watched her husband, the way he shifted uncomfortably and wrung his hands, her heart sunk further. “Jan, I?—”

“It’s true, isn’t it?” Jan’s voice boomed in her ears, her pulse hammering throughout her entire body. Shock was the first thing she felt, sheer humiliation the second. “Answer me!”

Phil visibly swallowed as he slowly lowered himself into his seat. “I wanted to tell you. I just didn’t know how.”

Jan took a step back and walked directly into the door. Her back connected with it, but it barely registered in her mind. “You’ve been sleeping with another woman…”

“I’m sorry. It was a mistake.”

Jan laughed weakly, staring back at a man she had spent so many years with…but now felt as though she didn’t know at all. “Was it a one-off? Were you drunk?”

Phil lowered his gaze to the desk strewn with their business plans. Their hard work and dedication.

“How long, Phil?” Jan dug her nails into the door, sure she would break them any second now. “How fucking long?!”

“A year, I don’t know. Maybe a little less.”

Jan pushed off the door, crossed the room, and braced her hands against Phil’s desk. “I want a divorce.”

“Wait, love. We can work this out. Nothing is lost. We just…have to work this out between us. I can’t lose you.”

“You’ve already lost me, Phil. The moment you even looked at that fucking woman out there was the moment you lost me.

You’re now just realising it—that’s all.

” Jan turned and walked away, glancing back over her shoulder.

“Twenty-seven years together, and you ruin it all by dropping your fucking pants for your receptionist.”

“Jan!”

“Don’t. I’m not interested in anything you have to say.” Jan left the office and looked to her left. Anais sat at her desk, chancing a look over the top of her computer screen. “No need to hide. I know the truth. I hope you’ll be very happy together.”

She strode out of Phil’s office, determined not to break down until she was alone.

Right now, she had Anais’ distraught husband sitting in her own office, and she would have to deal with it whether she wanted to or not.

As she stopped outside her door, gathering herself and her thoughts, Jan’s throat grew thick with emotion.

What the hell was she supposed to say to Gareth?

What the hell was she supposed to say to herself about all of this?

God, she couldn’t begin to imagine the state she would be in later today.

With her shoulders pulled back and a quick check of her makeup in the barely visible reflection in the door, she walked back into her office and pressed her back to the door once it was closed. “I’m sorry, Gareth. I don’t know what to say to you.”

“Don’t apologise. This isn’t your fault.”

Wasn’t it? It was hard to believe anything else when her husband had found what he needed in another woman.

Shouldn’t she have seen it coming? After all, they’d been going through marriage counselling recently.

Perhaps Jan had pushed Phil into Anais’ arms simply because she had wanted counselling.

“I…need to get my things together so I can leave.”

“Leave?”

“Mm.” Jan smiled as she rushed around her office and gathered what was visible to her. “I need to go home and pack some of my belongings.”

“You’re leaving him?”

Jan spun around and frowned. “You’re not leaving her?”

Gareth drew in a deep breath and shrugged. “To be honest, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I don’t know what to do for the best.”

“That’s understandable. But for me, there is no coming back from this.

I don’t even intend to try to fix my marriage with him.

” Jan took a calming breath, hoping her heart rate would begin to settle.

She needed Gareth to leave so she could figure out the next step, but he didn’t look to be in a good way at all.

“Maybe you should take the rest of the day off. Give yourself some time to come to terms with this. It’s out there now, so you can begin to decide what’s best for you. ”

“Will you be okay?” Gareth asked as he got to his feet and shoved his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants. “I can stay, or we could get a coffee somewhere and talk about this…”

“I appreciate that, but I also hope you can understand that I need to be alone for a little while. I didn’t come to work this morning expecting to find out my husband has been having an affair.”

Gareth pulled one hand from his pocket and held it up. “Of course. Of course.”

“Whatever you decide to do, you’ll take care of yourself, yes?”

Gareth sighed and backed up towards the door. “I will. You will, too?”

Oh, Jan was sure as hell going to look after herself. If anyone thought she would fall apart because of a man, they had another thing coming. “Of course.”

Gareth nodded and left Jan’s office, the silence in the room now deafening.

Jan expected Phil to come bursting through the door at some point, but she wouldn’t be around long enough for that to happen.

The only thing she knew for sure right now was that she had to leave.

The office and the house. If Phil had been fucking Anais in Anais’ bed, then there was no telling what had happened in their own home when Jan wasn’t around.

She gathered some bits and pieces from her desk drawers and shoved them into her handbag.

Choosing not to take any work with her—she had no idea if she’d ever return here—Jan turned out the lights and stepped out into the open office she managed.

It was quiet, people were getting on with their jobs, but Jan couldn’t look any of them in the eye.

The moment she did, she would break down.