Branded for Life: Betrayal and Redemption in the Age of Social Media (Paperback)

"Branded for Life: Betrayal and Redemption in the Age of Social Media" is a cautionary tale about a married man who uses the social media to find and reunite with his first-time lover. But his life gets turned upside down when his wife of over forty years learns of the tryst and the ex-lover finds out he's married. Paul Conti gets convinced by his long-time friend, Shane Sweeny, there's no moral wrong in reconnecting with his high school sweetheart and first-time lover, Paula Connolly. Matched like a set of fine china when it came to being sexual soul mates, the two of them had embarked on a sexual odyssey at age 15 that lasted four years, until the eve of Paul's departure for basic training in the US Navy in 1965. Although Paula pledged to marry Paul when his military duty ended, she sent him a Dear John letter two years into his tour and received three days after he got branded with a tattoo with her name. Making matters worse for Paul, the Dear John letter did not include the reason she had ended the relationship. The story's told through the eyes of Adan Cohen, a journeyman screenwriter, and author. By chance, when Adan saw Paul Conti on "Good Morning America" being interviewed about his new, non-fiction book Facebook, Fantasies and Forever in Love, he immediately remembered him. Paul Conti and Adan Cohen attended high school together in The Bronx NY during the 1960s. Besides Paul's personal story and how it affected his family and friends, the book includes thought-provoking commentary and research about social media. He learned that people with problems in their marriage are turning to social networking websites to find what they are missing at home. Paul's book is so inspiring that it gets Adan to think about writing a screenplay about Paul's experience. What a terrific feature film this will make, he believes. It has all the ingredients necessary to appeal to a broad audience: sex, lies, betrayal, redemption, loyalty, conflict, tension, surprises, and irony among them. This would be, Adan envisions, a love story in which the premise is about a man searching for the meaning of being forever in love. Adan concludes that he has a winning recipe for a blockbuster feature film. Adan secures an option on Paul's book to write the screenplay. In doing his research, he's spooked to learn four other people involved in the incident are people he also knows from high school days in The Bronx, New York. What a strangely eclectic group of people these five are. Their lives, he finds, have been altered forever by a single Dear John letter sent in 1967, a tattoo, and a single email sent four decades later, igniting a series of coincidences, chance meetings, and broken promises. Eager to write his screenplay, Adan can't wait to immerse himself in Paul Conti's world, and begin the journey down the path he took that has as so many hills of exhilaration and valleys of despair and desperation. He wants to write about Paul's lovely wife, Denise, who he loves yet betrays in the worst way possible. He wants to tell the world of emotional grip Paula Connolly had on Paul's life for almost five decades. Adan also knows he has the delicate task of portraying Paula and Paula, who suffer in various ways from sexual addiction. And there's Shane Sweeny, Paul's best friend, a corrupt New York City police detective, and how he, on three occasions, served as a catalyst for major defining events in Paul's life. From the interviews Adan conducts, he learns there's a fascinating sidebar story about Shane's wife, Stephanie, Denise's best friend, and how they comfort each other at the most critical points in the lives, both which happen on the very same day. Completing the puzzle that comprises Paul's life is Cat Keenan, one of the girls in the "Greatest Girl Fight Ever" that the others all witness, and who is the daughter of Eddie "The Butcher" Keenan, a lieutenant in the notorious Irish gang, The Westies.