I've never had anything to myself, before. Nothing I did not care about losing. And I thought they would steer you from me.

[It's an explanation, not entirely unfounded. An excuse, is what she will call it. That is fine -- he just wants to get it out before he follows up with:]

It...was a mistake.

[He doesn't specify what was a mistake, of course. But he does not argue the points she tries to make. If nothing else had been made clear to him, it was that he would not win anything by refusing to bend. Not this time.]