She'd known he wasn't playing a game then, his words wrapped in a harsh truth for him too. At least, she'd reasoned, if he was playing a game, it was on a level of deception that even he didn't recognize; a game that would ruin him as much as it would ruin her. There would be no parting between them, no severance or bitter parting. There would be, there was, nothing but a tie between them that wouldn't be undone.