I believe when the author set that line for mc -" I Guess I expected too much out of him , He doesn't even want to change" I think these lines meant to show a glimpse of mc actually thinking of abandoning the ML to protect his child sadly ...
And I think ML has also indirectly said that he still wants to dominate the mc but in order to prevent himself from not doing it he will give up every means to let that from happening....So I guess I believe ML was being genuine
I like to think of it as a meta thing where his character is written to be a horrible person which makes it incredibly hard to break his nature and why he never changes, but now that he's relinquishing his own power and position, he's forcing himself to change and I think thats in itself is a genuine act towards change
he doesn't feel bad for what he did to mc and he'd do it all over again to get what he wants. The only reason he's apologizing now is because he's being forced to do it, and he knows there's no other way to keep mc from leaving him. His "apology" isn't genuine imo, just a means to an end, as usual. I'm disappointed at how easily mc forgave him.