He couldn't show he outright loved her cuz the emperor will use that to harm him. I think its the way his wife died. He wanted to prevent that.
He can tell his daughter and tell her its supposed to be a secret, or hinted her that he was protecting her all this time — or maybe he did, but she just didnt noticed cause she was so fixated with her ex boyfie
AaahH I dunno— but what I know is that the duke is a total snAcc
Ok so spoiler
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The ring on the emperors finger is magical and controls the Duke. He has no power over his body. He loved his wife and daughter a lot. He used to play with our mc every chance he got.So in the past the emperor kills our mcs mother. When mc comes inside the room she sees the dad covered in blood and misunderstand that the Duke killed her mother. In the meantime the emperor keeps using the ring to control the Duke to kill people. So he stays away from the mc to protect her. He also gets her memories erased so she can get through the trauma. Thats why mc doesn't know that everything is just a misunderstanding. Later our mc gets a nightmare where she gets all her memories back.
If yes, then where can I sign up to he the next duchess ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶ also he could’ve been honest with his daughter in their past life, its wouldve avoided everything — but likE we won’t have the plot if the misunderstandings weren’t there