‘I don’t think she ever loved him.’ Gatsby turned around from a window and looked at me challengingly. ‘You must remember, old sport, she was very excited this afternoon. He told her those things in a way that frightened her – that made it look as if I was some kind of cheap sharper. And the result was she hardly knew what she was saying.’
He sat down gloomily.
‘Of course she might have loved him just for a minute, when they were first married – and loved me more even then, do you see?’
– F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby. Chapter 8, to keep his dream about Daisy alive, Gatsby rationalizes her fickle behavior to him. She may have married Tom Buchanan, but she never really loved him, he believes.