This reason is why I wish she had been paired with a better love interest. Riftan tanks the story and Maxi's development dramatically. After all she's been through, Maxi absolutely deserved someone who didn't add more to her feelings of inadequacy and lack of agency.
He loves her but that doesn't change the fact that he is a volatile man like her father. When you grow up with a angry man in your house there will always be a angry man in your house, but in this case its not metaphorical
I don't think "love" is the word I'd use to describe what Riftan feels for Maxi. It's not love; what he has is an unhealthy obsession with Maxi brought on by years of intense infatuation and idealization used to cope through the trauma he was dealing with prior to their marriage. Maxi didn’t even know who he was, and he was already consumed by lust and desire for her. Maxi "reciprocates" this "love" because she lacks an understanding of what a healthy relationship should be and mistakens Riftan's possessiveness, obsession, and sexual intensity as healthy, genuine intimacy.
You put this perfectly. How can Riftan love Maxi when he's only seen her from afar? He's never spoken to her prior to their marriage and the only things he knows about her are the rumors the Duke spread about her being "weak" and "cherished". He idolized her "good" life because he saw her as "innocent" and "pure" unlike his own life. And these signs were here from the beginning. Since the beginning, he treated her like an object, saying he'll "adorn her in jewelry", trying to insure she doesn't lift a finger, ignoring her obvious discomfort and forcing himself on her, and making everything about himself and how he feels but ignoring Maxi's wishes. Even now, after Maxi tells him about her abuse, he made it all about himself. He projects so much that he rarely sees Maxi as she is and when he does it makes him angry that she doesn't fit the role he wanted her to.
I normally love my FMC's strong and badassed (Yona hands-down my best baddie good girl)... and I usually hate soft and always crying MCs... but Maxi is the most beautiful and well-written battered soft but lowkey a baddie character, and she is also hands-down the prettiest drawn character for me so far. I rarely ever cry over a manga/webtoon, but this is sooo well-drawn and well-written. I shed tears and felt Maxi's sorrow. This is so sad. Want to hug Maxi so hard.