[He doesn't leave- not right then anyway, just catching that outstretched hand in his own.]

[He can't read her mind, can't know what happened while he was gone, and his mind reaches the only conclusion it knows.]

...If ya hate me- I know ya never wanted 'em in the troupe, shoulda listened... If ya hate me, that's... that's fine.

[Because it's all his fault. The responsibility always came back to him because he was the one who ran the Circus in Father's stead.]