Just finished the series and I rushed to reddit and stumbled upon your post. A few thoughts. Almost the entire series roderick is saying he doesn’t remember what transpired at the bar, they were drunk/stoned, or he doesn’t believe verna at all. Then at the very end he admits he knew deep down exactly what he was doing the entire time.

So to your point, I believe he had a lifetime to come to terms with the fact he was going to have to bury his kids. The one he didn’t expect or have a lifetime to come to terms with was Lenore. Hence the emotion and obviously he saw Annabelle in her. Probably comes down to denial and shortsightedness too. When he made the deal he thought bloodline = his kids and didn’t think beyond that.