Questions about Secco and Cioccolata

His backstory and behavior sort of implied that he was with Cioccolata willingly but as soon as he died, Secco claimed that he never liked him and was happy to be free of him. Which is fair. But there’s a lot of parts about this that confused me. If he never liked or respected him, why not just leave? You can buy sugar cubes from the store. Was he being brainwashed or something? And if so, how did years worth of manipulation just disappear in the span of seconds? It’s probably not that deep, but I’m interested to know you guys’ thoughts and theories on what the nature of their relationship actually was.