If there’s good writing, usually you can infer things like that. I agree, that it’s artificial tension just to continue dragging interest. The only reason I can think of, and it’s just conjecture, is that she gave him some form of rejection. His only hope to life was her. Any form of rejection...
To throw in my own tin foil hat theory that if I just waited patiently for, it would probably be explained is this:
Part of me thinks that the reason she believes she “killed” him as well is because when he was at rock bottom and out of desperation, he reached out to her and she either ignored...