Minerva Writes Poems

After Minerva lets her husband move back in at the end, she "comes over black and blue and asks what can she do?" to which Esperanza says, in the last sentence of the vignette, "There is nothing I can do" (85). This sentence is straightforward enough, but the emphasis on the "I" seems to imply something more complex: while Esperanza may not be able to do anything, in her opinion there is actually someone else who can. Perhaps the emphasis is intended to mean Minerva, since she could have told her husband he couldn't move back in. This seems problematic to me, though, since I doubt that someone willing to abuse their spouse would feel entirely compelled to stay away just because they were told to. It seems that the emphasis, therefore, is possibly pointing in another direction.

What do you think? Why is the "I" emphasized in the last sentence of this vignette?