"Is it true?"

For almost a second, he'd thought she wasn't going to ask. That she was going to simply put the emails down in front of him, look him in the eye and curse him to the depths of hell he belonged to.

He should have known better. He should have known she was never going to simply take this and walk away. Not his girl.

For a second he wished he could say no. Wished he could give in to every damned instinct that was clamoring to clasp her to him and kiss away every silver tear tracking down her beautiful face. But he couldn't. Not when it came to her.

She deserved so much better – so much more.

And if there was one person he would never deny the truth – it was her. Not even when he knew, in some corner of her heart that she didn't want the truth, not even when he knew that she refusing to raise her eyes to his because right now in this moment – she wanted all the lies, the excuses, the justifications he could give. Just as he knew she was stronger than that.

"Yes."

The deep, regret in that simple word, resonated even now as Demi lifted her eyes from the assorted sheaf's of paper, she was holding onto with her still trembling fingers.

Her lower lip caught, between her teeth, as she bit back a shuddering sob, she nodded briefly, almost mechanically. Full Circle.

She was standing here Full Circle.

And finally this time – she realized – she knew what she had to do. Carefully, almost tenderly, Demi loosened her grip on the sheaves of paper clutched ever so tightly in her grip, and placed them oh-so-precisely in a perfect neat pile in front of the man who had made her laugh through her very soul, who'd worked her into infuriated temper on nation television, only to turn around and destroy anyone who dared to even think about teasing her off it – this man - who had simply been so much.

Dragging in a breath – her eyes closed as if to hold in all the pain she didn't want to ever touch him – and turned and walked away.

Behind her a man who had lived over four decades of his life scorning, women, sentiment and every other thing that overdramatized the human heart – felt his something suspiciously like it break irreparably