Responses
Such a good analysis, I agree!
Exactly, in even when she was doing it with ML she was asking if was done. I ki da interpreted that scene as a demonstration of how she needs just kept getting neglected. No new clothes, or even underwear but would get her ex-husband everything new and what ever he desired. That intimate scene with the fl and ml felt key for her to start to realize she needs to start to think about her more than what she realized. Her thoughts in the end of the chapter emphasized that.
You are not seeing the red flags. Their flashback wasn't cute. It was a red flag. You can see the signals that soon already. She started crying, he thought he was hurting her and should stop, AND YET HE KEPT GOING. He's always showed great potential for abuse. He holds his own desires about her wellbeing. Every time. And he kept doing in increasingly abusive ways. He'd push a little, saw she took it, and the pushed more. It's manual starting of a toxic dynamic.
And you can see the end of that slippery slope here in his current thoughts. He hurts her because he knows he'll face no consecuences. He hurts her to weaken her so she won't leave him. He hurts her because he likes her hurt and dependent on him. He likes her beaten down, and he did back then already. He liked her because she was hurt. He wanted her and took advantage of her being in the low.
He always have, and always will want her more than he loves her.