No Second Chance

Rachel is an ex-FBI agent and Marc’s former college girlfriend/current romantic interest. She is tougher than he remembers, but she still obviously has feelings for Marc. In the months before Monica shot Marc, Rachel went through the traumatic experience of covering up her dead husband’s suicide and a forced resignation from the FBI because fellow agents thought she murdered him. This is particularly difficult for her because she loves being an FBI agent. She leaves a drunken voicemail to tell Marc she misses him and visits his place of work, leaving before she interacts with him from fear of rejection. These two actions provide the spark that sets off Monica’s paranoia and leads to Monica shooting Marc.

Rachel is dangled for much of the narrative as a potential “femme fatale,” since she has been photographed outside Marc’s place of work and called Marc’s house before the attack. The police and Lenny both push this theory, Marc has his occasional doubts about Rachel, and even Lydia and Bacard think Rachel may be responsible for the original attack, so the reader is left wondering if Rachel is somehow connected. This is a misdirection, however. She is extremely loyal to Marc, risking her life for his mission multiple times. She also opens up emotionally to Marc multiple times over the course of the novel and characters like Verne often praise her.

Lenny is Marc’s lawyer and best friend from childhood. He presents himself as an ally to Marc, but in some ways is a key antagonist of the novel. Lenny, above all, is dedicated to his family. This is something Marc initially admires about Lenny, but it is also the reason that Lenny hides Tara’s location from Marc and feeds Bacard information about Marc: Lenny does not want to go to jail and lose his family.

Lenny is a tough defense attorney and appears to give Marc good advice regarding when to talk to police. However, all of Lenny’s advice is suspect because his motives are not to help Marc uncover the truth, but to protect himself. Lenny internally considers himself to be a good friend to Marc and thinks that he acts in the best way he can under difficult circumstances. But beyond his betrayal, Lenny murders Steven Bacard in cold blood so that he can be free of the threat of Bacard outing his role in Monica’s death and Tara’s disappearance. This act places Lenny closer to Lydia than Marc in terms of morality. Of note is that Lenny has a special hatred of Edgar Portman, as he blames Edgar for firing his father years ago. Lenny believes his father’s death shortly thereafter is a direct result of having been fired by Edgar, so he is willing to send Tara anywhere else rather than have Edgar raise her. This is the reason Tara is sent to the Tansmores: Lenny legitimately believes they will be better parents to her than Edgar.

Lydia is a petite and beautiful former child star who takes pleasure from hurting members of the viewing public who she feels stole her rightful spotlight. She is one of the primary antagonists of the novel. After the cancellation of her TV show as a young teen, Lydia turns to sex and drugs to harm herself until she meets Heshy while she is institutionalized. Heshy helps her direct her anger outwards and provides the adoration she previously received from the public. Lydia enjoys toying with her victims and contemplating their suffering, but she also knows that people misjudge her because of her looks. She relies on this at the end of the novel to escape justice from her actions. People are generally disposable to Lydia, who easily kills even those who work with her, like Pavel. However, the one person she truly does love is Heshy, as shown when she weeps over his dying body. Even this relationship is ultimately disposable, as she publicly blames Heshy for coercing her into her crimes when she is the one who led their partnership.

Verne at first presents as a mix of “redneck” stereotypes, such as owning a huge gun collection, blasting country music, wearing a mullet, and having an old car on cement blocks in his front yard. At the same time, he is also a caring family man who is surprisingly wise about interpersonal relationships and becomes a new best friend to Marc. He has a strong moral core and is compelled to help Marc because it is the right thing to do. He functions as a sidekick for Marc, offering sage emotional advice about Rachel while also sneaking into Denise’s house to ambush Heshy and Lydia. He fills the hole left by Lenny in Marc’s life.

Monica is already dead at the beginning of the novel and remains a tragic figure throughout the novel, even when the reader learns that she is the person who shot Marc. Although she is beautiful and from a wealthy background, Dina Levinsky reveals that Monica suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her own mother. This abuse left Monica with feelings of inadequacy, as if she was not worthy of love. Her suspicion that Marc is cheating on her and does not love her seems to be confirmed by Rachel’s voicemail and MVD’s surveillance photos, so she assumes that Marc and Rachel are scheming to take Tara away from her. Tara is the only person that Monica feels loves her unconditionally, so her desperation to hang on to Tara’s love is what drives her to attempt to kill Marc.

Dina, Marc’s old classmate and neighbor, is another tragic figure in this novel. She grew up in the house Marc and Monica purchased, where she was sexually abused by her father. She repeatedly returns to the house to confront her past, which is how Monica and Marc separately meet her. Dina still suffers from the traumas of her past, despite her ongoing therapy, but this helps her bond with Monica, who has also suffered abuse. She is cautious about assisting Marc because she assumes Monica was correct about Marc’s supposed infidelity, but her concern for Tara’s continued absence drives her to point Marc towards Monica’s surveillance photos. At the end of the novel, Dina explains everything she knows about Monica to Marc and reveals that Monica was Marc’s shooter.

Edgar is Monica’s very wealthy father and the source of both $2 million ransoms. Monica did not like him very much, and Marc agrees. Both of Edgar’s children have died tragically, which would make him a sympathetic figure if he were more likeable. He is selfish and entitled, but to his credit, he is more than willing to put up the ransom money to save his granddaughter. He is uncertain in his trust for Marc, but ultimately ends up being of aid to Marc’s mission to recover Tara.

Bacard is an exercise in mediocrity who manages to luck into a deeply unethical way to get rich. Bacard is the adoption lawyer who comes up with the plan to buy babies from trafficked Balkan sex workers, but he is so hypocritical that he cannot admit that he is doing something wrong. He is an antagonist who sees himself as a heroic protagonist who helps desperate parents adopt needy children. Bacard has convinced himself that he is justified in his actions, so much so that he is squeamish about violence but believes murdering Stacy was a necessary act. His greed is what generates both ransom demands, and his threats to expose Lenny unless Lenny plays along are what causes Lenny to murder him. Bacard functions as an antagonist that subverts the reader’s expectations; rather than a racket-running mob boss, Bacard is a fumbling, weak antagonist.