Cliff Marks is Toby's ex-fiancé; they share a daughter, Gillian. He first appears in Rosemary and Rue.
Biography[]
Toby met Cliff while at Home. He saw her as a down-on-her-luck teenager, which was not far from the truth. They fell in love, and Toby petitions to leave Home to start a family with Cliff, though he is unaware of her ties to Faerie.[1]
He knows how to cook and can tolerate six hours of Sesame Street a day after their daughter is born, which are major selling points to Toby.[2]
After Toby's disappearance, Cliff sells her private investigator business to cover her debts.[3] Although he was an artist when they met, he started working in finance after Toby disappeared to be able to support his daughter alone. According to Toby, he'd done well for himself and managed to buy a two-story house in "one of the nicer neighborhoods" where he now lives with Gillian and his wife Miranda.[4]
In the Series[]
Rosemary and Rue[]
Cliff calls while Toby is on stake-out, asking her to bring chocolate ice cream home. Their daughter Gillian is listening with keen ears that she got from her mother who is half faerie—though neither Cliff nor Gilly know it.[2]
When Toby disappears for fourteen years, Cliff assumes that she abandoned their family and eventually marries Miranda, who Gillian recognizes as a mother. When Toby returns, Cliff does not believe that she has amnesia. He hangs up on her and refuses to communicate with her.[3]
One Salt Sea[]
When Gillian is kidnapped, Toby shows up at Cliff and Miranda's house to offer her help. Cliff tells her to do what she can.
Night and Silence[]
When Gillian disappears for a second time, Miranda and Cliff show up at Toby's house, with Miranda accusing Toby of being the one who kidnapped her. Once Gillian is safely with Miranda, Toby goes to visit Cliff and give him a report. Toby tells Cliff that he has to stop trying to push her out of Gillian's life, because that isn't his choice to make.
Relationships[]
October Daye[]
Cliff and Toby have a complicated relationship. They seemed genuinely in love, but Toby kept a huge part of her identity secret from him by playing faerie bride. Nor does she tell him what her fae status could mean for their changeling daughter.
When Gillian is a toddler, Toby likes to tell him, “I love you more than fairy tales," instead of saying, “good-bye.”[2]
After Toby's return from the pond, Cliff cut her off entirely, partially at the urging of Miranda. However, he is willing to reach out for the good of Gillian's safety.
Toby realizes, after a time, that she no longer feels the raw betrayal she first did when she returned from the pond. Now, Cliff is an ex whom she respects and shares a child with, but not someone she is pining over.[5]
References[]
- ↑ Strangers in Court
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Rosemary and Rue, Prologue
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Rosemary and Rue, ch. 2.
- ↑ Night and Silence, ch 12, pg 182
- ↑ Night and Silence Ch. 3