Hello Dear Friend,
I agree with your interpretation of Marisa's crying. Silence had to be his burden. There is a sort of Karmic justice in that. But when I wrote it, I imagined the tears indicating a couple of things. One was that awareness was there, somewhere, and both cruelty and kindness could be experienced although she did not have the capacity to articulate a reaction.
Also, Marisa in her final days felt on some level the love that he finally expressed and displayed toward her.
Guilt...what a prompt. Those of who refuse to experience it, I think they are missing an important part of the human experience. We're going to make mistakes, large and small. Do we repeat them, or do we learn from them? I think guilt has a role to play in that.
Your comment means a lot to me. I stayed up the night before publication trying to get the piece right, to have it express my intention. Thank you, @jayna, for reading, truly reading and understanding.