Martine’s long-term boyfriend. A Haitian lawyer who insists on introducing himself by his full name—Marc Jolibois Francis Legrand Moravien Chevalier—Marc keeps the “old ways” in spite of having lived in Brooklyn for so many years. When Sophie arrives in New York, Marc and Martine have already been together for an indeterminate amount of time, and though Marc keeps pictures of Martine in his office and often takes her and Sophie out to dinner, Martine never talks about her romantic feelings for Marc, and never shares with Sophie any plans for marrying or moving in with him. By the time Sophie is an adult, Marc and Martine are still together, though they still don’t cohabitate or have any plans for marriage. When Sophie finds out that Martine is pregnant with Marc’s baby, she is shocked to realize that her mother and Marc sleep together. She is sad when she realizes her mother has maintained a sexual relationship with Marc by “doubling” or dissociating because Martine feels regularly submitting to sex, in spite of the pain it causes her, is worth having someone sleeping next to her to help ward off her night terrors. Marc is an upstanding man, a proud member of the Haitian community in Brooklyn, and outwardly kind—but there is an undercurrent of control in his relationship with Martine, and Sophie resents him for not taking better care of her mother or preventing Martine’s eventual suicide.