Yes. NB: Unlike other answers so far, this answer is according to the novel. Michael did indeed love Kay. It was not the overwhelming passion he had felt for
While having lunch together, Michael asks Kay's forgiveness for giving in to his desire for revenge 20 years earlier, and admits he truly intended to live an honest life, telling her, "I had a whole different destiny planned." Kay admits that she still loves Michael.
Kay offers stability and a semblance of a normal, upper middle class life which is something Michael has fooled himself into thinking he wants.
Michael loved Kay more than anyone. Michael himself said it out loud. He was in lust with Apollonia. The thunderbolt described in the book was an erection.
At the very end of the movie, Michael lies to his wife, Kay, about having Carlo killed. This shows that he's set his course: she won't be able to be a part of his real world and will be shut out from seeing his true, ruthless nature in action.
In The Godfather, why did Michael Corleone treat his wife, Kay Adams-Corleone so poorly? Well, at the end of their marriage, it was because she aborted his unborn son and planned to take their remaining children away from him; at the beginning, it was to keep her in the dark about the family business.
Kay did not know. In the Movie, Michael tracks Kay down after he has been back for several years. In the movie Kay does not know. In the book Kay does not know.
In reference to Fredo Corleone being the weaker and less intelligent of his brothers, the term "Fredo" has come to refer to a weak member of a group, especially one of a number of siblings in a family, regardless of ethnicity.
Luca Brasi is Don Vito Corleone's personal enforcer, and the only man Vito himself fears. While slow-witted and brutish, Brasi is fiercely loyal and has a reputation as a savage and remorseless killer.
This cold intelligence and calculating ruthlessness would be inherited by Vito's youngest and favorite son, Michael, who would be the one to take vengeance for his older brother's murder.
A key subplot in the original Godfather sees Michael (Al Pacino) gunning down drug baron Sollozzo in retaliation for an attempt on his father Vito's life. He then flees to Sicily, where he falls in love with Simonetta Stefanelli's Apollonia.
To her, being the wife of Michael would be like inheriting a large fortune by virtue of her Italian heritage. In the Corleone estate, Apollonia would be protected, not to be harmed by the enemies of the Corleone. The car bomb that killed her in Sicily was an accident.
The tragedy for Michael is that he couldn't escape the inevitable doom of succession, despite his prior knowledge. For Michael Corleone, death alone is not a punishment, it only marks the end of his tragedy - an epilogue to a saga.
Michael's Marriage To Apollonia Was About Power
From the moment he killed McCluskey and Sollozzo, Michael was overwhelmed by the concept of power. He wasn't interested in spending time in Italy after the murders – partly due to having to leave home, but also because it was now clear to him that he was different.
Within days of becoming godfather, Michael was able to eliminate all 5 of the other crime families in one single day through a military style, multi theatre coordinated attack. After this "hit", Michael became sole godfather of all of America.
Ultimately, Tessio betrays Michael by helping arrange his assassination at a peace summit with Barzini and Philip Tattaglia. The summit will be held in Tessio's fiefdom in Brooklyn, where Michael will presumably be safe. In return, Tessio was to inherit the Corleone family upon Michael's death.
Brasi is Don Corleone's most loyal and trusted enforcer, a Mafia henchman who carries out murders and beatings on behalf of the Don. Luca is a towering figure whose fearsome size and intimidating grimace strikes fear into everyone except Don Corleone.
From the previous scene, we already know that Luca is to prepare the bait, to feign discontent with the Corleone family, and to ultimately test the waters for this newly emerging character, Sollozzo. Luca's loyalty is executed in the form of a betrayal—one that is acted, of course.
Michael: He Was More Ruthless
He also ordered the killing of the heads of the other five New York crime families on the same day. To top that, he killed his brother Fredo and his brother in law Carlo despite his sister begging him not to do so.
Michael Corleone - 'The Godfather: Part II' (1974)
While Michael was seen as one of the more levelheaded members of the family, the sequel (and the third film) portray his downfall as he becomes a ruthless killer and crime lord.
Michael and Vito might have placed some of the blame for Sonny's assassination on Tom. Though it turns out that Carlo Rizzi plotted with Barzini to set Sonny up, Michael and Vito probably believed that Tom didn't do enough to stop Sonny from leaving the safety of the family compound that day to find Carlo.
Michael removes Hagen as consigliere in favor of having Vito fill the position, restricting Hagen to handling the family's legal business in Nevada, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Michael and Vito explain that the Corleones risk inciting a fight with the planned move to Nevada, and they need a "wartime consigliere".
Why did Michael Corleone wait an entire year, maybe more, before he came to see Kay Corleone? Because Michael knew that Kay had read the papers and heard the rumors about Michael assassinating Sollozzo and McCluskey, and he feared that Kay would know they were true and want nothing to do with him.