CHARACTER
Stay Awakeby Megan Goldin

Marco Reggio

Marco Reggio

Quick Facts

  • Role: Charismatic tech entrepreneur; boyfriend to Liv Reese; victim in the double homicide that catalyzes the plot
  • First appearance: Flashbacks set two years before the present; seen in early memories (Ch. 6–7)
  • Key relationships: Liv (girlfriend), Amy Decker (secret lover), Dean Walker (potential investor)
  • Defining function: Embodies the novel’s central tension around Trust and Betrayal, and his death triggers Liv’s amnesia

Who They Are

Marco Reggio is the glossy illusion of a perfect partner—handsome, attentive, and professionally ascendant—whose secret life detonates the story’s central mystery. He exists only in Liv’s flashbacks, a curated reel of champagne toasts and soft morning light that slowly buckles under the weight of deceit. As the past clarifies, Marco’s charm reveals itself as cover: a strategic persona built to pursue business deals and hide a forbidden relationship. He is both the love Liv thinks she remembers and the lie her mind protects her from.

Personality & Traits

At first glance, Marco is magnetic: a consummate host, a celebrator of milestones, the guy with jet-black hair and easy confidence. Beneath that surface, however, he runs on compartments and calculation. He keeps firm boundaries, manages appearances, and nudges people—especially Liv—toward what he wants while pretending it’s for them.

  • Ambitious and driven: A former finance professional turned founder of a “technology start-up,” constantly “raising capital and doing deals” and even arranging a business lunch on a Sunday (Ch. 7).
  • Compartmentalized: Liv calls him a “very compartmentalized person” (Ch. 7). No keys exchanged, no surprise drop-ins—boundaries that look like maturity but double as cover for secrets.
  • Manipulative (subtle, not cruel): Pressures Liv to attend a lunch with investor Dean Walker, hinting she might leverage her role at Cultura Magazine for free publicity. He frames it casually, but Liv senses his “expectation” (Ch. 7).
  • Deceptive and unfaithful: Maintains a secret affair with Amy while convincing Liv he can’t stand her—dismissing Amy’s political arguments as a “vibe kill” (Ch. 7)—which later reframes his “dislike” as misdirection.
  • Charming: Toasts Liv’s promotion with Bollinger, orchestrates care and glamour, and makes affection feel effortless—precisely why the betrayal lands as a psychic wrecking ball.
  • Charismatic presence: “Chocolate eyes,” “jet-black hair... neatly brushed,” a “chiseled face,” and a walk marked by “cocky self-assurance” fuse appearance with confidence (Ch. 6–7).

Character Journey

Marco is dead before the present-day narrative begins, so his arc unfolds as revelation rather than transformation. Initially, Liv’s fractured memory casts him as the ideal boyfriend—the “before” she longs to return to. As clues accrue, the façade unravels: the careful boundaries, the investor courtship, the feigned dislike of Amy. The truth reframes every affectionate scene as choreography. His affair with Amy ends in their murder, which ruptures Liv’s sense of reality and locks her into a loop of denial and longing. Marco’s journey, then, is the reader’s: from romantic ideal to emblem of betrayal, and finally to the trauma engine powering the novel’s suspense.

Key Relationships

  • Liv Reese: With Liv, Marco blends warmth with quiet control—celebrating her wins while steering her toward choices that benefit his networking. For Liv, whose memory resets to “before,” Marco becomes the fixed star of a lost heaven; the more she learns, the more that star exposes itself as a flare masking a catastrophic event.

  • Amy Decker: Marco’s greatest deception is pretending to dislike Amy while conducting a secret relationship with her. Their affair weaponizes Liv’s trust and best-friend bond, and its violent end becomes the origin point of Liv’s amnesia and the book’s moral crisis.

  • Dean Walker: Marco’s calculated charm is on full display around Dean, whom he seeks to impress for investment. By nudging Liv to contribute her professional resources to appease Dean and his wife, Marco treats intimacy as a lever for career advantage.

Defining Moments

Marco’s story is told in shards—bright, romantic pieces that, once rotated, reveal a sharp edge. These scenes expose how presentation and pressure intertwine in his life and relationships.

  • The Investor Lunch (Ch. 10)

    • What happens: Over lunch with Dean and Emily Walker, Marco subtly signals Liv to accept an unwanted gift and plays genial host to keep Dean happy.
    • Why it matters: It spotlights Marco’s transactional streak—he’ll leverage Liv’s job at Cultura Magazine and her social grace to grease business wheels.

  • The Argument Over a Double Date (Ch. 7)

    • What happens: Marco scoffs at the idea of seeing Amy and Brett Graham, mocking Brett as “Dr. God Complex” and dismissing Amy as a “vibe kill.”
    • Why it matters: A masterclass in misdirection—his performative disdain is camouflage for the affair, conditioning Liv to trust his narrative over her instincts.

  • Leaving Amy’s Birthday Dinner (Ch. 24)

    • What happens: Liv suggests Marco share a cab with Amy. They leave together, which Liv views as practical and friendly.
    • Why it matters: In hindsight, it’s a public exit for a private couple—dramatic irony that turns an innocuous choice into a breadcrumb of betrayal.

  • The Murder Scene (Ch. 42)

    • What happens: Liv discovers Marco and Amy in Amy’s bed—dead, naked, and propped against the headboard.
    • Why it matters: The brutal tableau fuses love and violation, cementing the shock that fractures Liv’s memory and fixes Marco as both lover and wound.

Symbolism

Marco symbolizes the peril of idealized memory: the way nostalgia can varnish over danger until truth returns with force. To Liv, he represents the last intact version of happiness; her mind loops back to the moment before his death to preserve that fiction. The later revelation of his affair becomes the sledgehammer that shatters the idyll, enacting the theme of The Past's Influence on the Present. In this light, Marco is less a person than a prism—what Liv wants to remember refracts against what actually happened.

Essential Quotes

Marco and I have been dating for almost three months. He’s different from my other boyfriends. Maybe it’s because he’s European in nationality and sensibility. He has a way of making me feel cared for that I haven’t experienced before. I can’t remember when I’ve been this in love. — Liv's perception of Marco (Chapter 7)

This early idealization primes the reader to accept Marco’s curated persona. The language of being “cared for” lays the groundwork for how easily affection can mask instrumental motives, making the later betrayal feel both shocking and, retrospectively, legible.

"Come on, Marco! A double date. It will be fun." "With Brett?" he mocks. "Dr. God Complex? ... As for Amy, every time we meet up, we argue over politics. It totally kills the vibe." — Marco's calculated deception about his feelings for Amy (Chapter 7)

Marco’s disdain functions as camouflage. By performing irritation and superiority, he inoculates Liv against suspicion; the joke at Brett’s expense and the complaint about Amy reframe avoidance as preference rather than concealment.

I push open her door and step into her dimly lit bedroom. Amy and Marco are in her bed. Naked, with the sheet down to their waists, their heads propped up against the headboard. — The reveal of Marco's betrayal (Chapter 42)

The stark, anatomical description—“naked,” “sheet down to their waists”—collides intimacy with death. The image annihilates Liv’s protective narrative in an instant, converting Marco from dream to trauma and setting the novel’s psychological stakes.