Chapter 23
Flynn
O n Christmas Eve, forty-six of us fly on a chartered plane to St. George, Utah, where we take over every room in the Castaway Inn. By now, the owners, Jed and Dana Cawthorne, are old friends and look forward to our arrival every year. We’ve packed for winter in Utah and the beach in Mexico. The minute we’re settled at the Castaway, we open the adjoining doors to create long corridors for the kids to safely run and play.
And then we unpack the booze that’ll get us through this chaotic holiday.
The dads are asked to take the kids out to play in the snow to burn off as much energy as possible. We bundle them up and go out to the lawn in front of the inn for a massive snowball fight.
The Cawthornes put up a ten-foot-tall Christmas tree in the great room at the center of the inn and keep a fire going in the stone fireplace that we use to toast marshmallows and make s’mores after a dinner prepared in the inn’s kitchen. Addie, Natalie and Aileen are the chief organizers, making sure groceries are ordered and preparations made for us to hunker down at the inn and relax as much as we can with a squad of little kids running us ragged.
We take turns cooking, with everyone assigned meals and others pitching in as needed.
It’s a freaking blast and one of my favorite annual traditions. We’re about to sit down for Christmas Eve dinner when Kris lets out a shout that has us all wondering what’s going on.
“Aileen got the results of her latest physical. The doc said, ‘All clear. See you next year.’” Kris pumps his fist before he embraces his wife in a tearful hug while the rest of us breathe a big sigh of relief. Her annual tests are tough on all of us. We can’t imagine what it must be like for them. I’m so glad they can now relax and fully enjoy themselves.
My parents are in good spirits, so much so that they snuck off to be alone for hours after we first arrived and returned all flushed and weird-looking. My sisters and I can’t bear to think of what they might’ve been up to, but we have our suspicions that things are back on track between them in every possible way. Not that any of us wants the details about that. We gave the grandparents the rooms at the far end of the long hallways so they could shut their doors and keep the kids out if they need a break. Apparently, my parents will be taking a lot of breaks.
This year, our trip to Utah is a little extra special because my fortieth birthday falls in the middle of it, and despite my requests that no one make a big deal about me on Christmas Day when we should be focused on the kids, I’m sure they have something planned. The highlight of Christmas Eve is Jasper’s annual reading of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” with all the women fawning over his sexy British accent. I swear he plays it up even more than usual because they love it so much.
Christmas morning begins before dawn for the parents of the youngest kids. The doors to my sisters’ rooms remain closed until after nine o’clock, which feels like noon to the rest of us.
The best part of having everyone together is that the kids have one another to keep themselves entertained while we make sure no one gets hurt. My older nieces and nephews, along with Logan and Maddie, are endlessly patient with the little ones, but they’re ready to check out by noon to ski for a few hours at Brian Head, with Trent and Hugh leading the excursion in two of the SUVs we rented. They promise to be back for dinner.
Later that afternoon, I’m sitting next to my mom on the sofa when she gets a text that has her flushing and sitting up straight.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, um, your dad needs me.”
“For what?”
“Ah, nothing.”
She gets up and scurries off to their room while I glance at Ellie for insight.
“I don’t want to know,” she says, “and neither do you.”
Good point.
While the kids play with new toys and their parents nap on the sofas in the big great room, I take a minute to check my messages for the first time all day. I’m replying to an influx of birthday wishes and roasts from old friends when I look up to see Domenic tossing something into the air.
When I realize what he’s playing with, I do a double take. “Mo! Marlowe! Come here!”
Hayden looks up, annoyed that my bellowing ruined his snooze. “What the hell, Flynn?”
“Look at Dom.”
Hayden redirects his gaze toward the child and chokes out a laugh when he sees what I saw.
“ Marlowe! ”
Mo comes running from one of the adjoining rooms. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s your son playing with?”
She looks and then lets out a shriek. “ Sebastian Lowe, I’m going to kill you! ” Marlowe grabs the large butt plug out of the air after Domenic tosses it up. She runs from the room while Hayden and I laugh until we cry.
Domenic chases after his mother, wailing that she stole his toy.
“What’s so funny?” Nat and Aileen ask when they join us.
Of course we tell them, and within seconds, the whole group is hysterically laughing.
“Do they honestly think there’s gonna be time for such things on this trip?” Kris asks.
“Seb was probably hopeful,” Jasper says with a chuckle. “Delusional, but hopeful.”
I text Marlowe. Come back so we can laugh to your face rather than behind your back.
I quit this family.
I can’t stop laughing as I convey her message to the others. We start a singsong request for Marlowe to come here. “ Mo! We love you. Come here!”
Five minutes of singing later, she appears, her face beet red and twisted with mortification.
“Aw, there she is,” I say, grinning at her.
She’s not amused.
“Has anyone seen Sebastian?” Hayden asks.
“I just threw his dead carcass in the dumpster,” Marlowe says. “What was he thinking bringing that stuff or leaving it where little hands could find it?”
“What was who thinking?” Sebastian asks when he comes into the room, unaware that he’s caught up in a scandal.
“ You! Your son was just juggling a plug.”
“I’ve told him not to play with the electricity.”
“Not that kind of plug!”
The rest of us are dying with laughter as he finally gets what she’s telling him.
“ Oh. ”
“You were feeling pretty hopeful about this getaway, huh, pal?” Emmett says.
Seb shrugs, looking sheepish. “What can I say? A guy can dream.”
“How in the hell did your son find it?” Marlowe asks.
I love how Domenic is suddenly his father’s son.
“I don’t know. It was buried in my suitcase with some other… Oh shit! ”
He takes off running, with Marlowe in hot pursuit, while the rest of us laugh until we’re weak. Best Christmas ever.
That night, after dinner, everyone I love best in the world sings “Happy Birthday” to me while my three oldest kids sit with me to blow out enough candles to set off the smoke alarm. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen, but I’m sure it was a close call.
“Thank you, everyone, and especially Natalie and my girls for baking my cake.”
“Daddy,” Scarlett says, “is forty old?”
The question is met with an uproar of laughter.
“It’s pretty old, pumpkin. Do you still love me?”
“I’ll always love you.”
Her sweetness nearly brings me to tears.
“Ahem,” Aimee says when she stands, holding her wineglass. “I’d like to make a toast to my baby brother, who officially becomes an adult today—finally.”
Everyone applauds while I roll my eyes at her.
“It’s nice to have you join our ranks in the forties, where you’ll soon find that everything hurts and sags, and nothing works the way it used to.”
“My stuff works just fine , I’ll have you know.”
“Blowhard,” Hayden says.
I shrug. “I’m just sayin’… Ask Natalie.”
“Leave me out of this,” Nat says, laughing.
“Anyway,” Aimee says, “despite all the nonsense that goes on in this group, we do, in fact, love you very much, and we hope the forties are your favorite decade yet. Cheers to Flynn at forty!”
“Cheers to Flynn at forty!”
“What does it say about us that our baby is forty ?” Dad asks Mom.
“That we’re older than dirt.”
“Speak for yourself!” Dad says to more laughter.
“Your dirt is older than mine,” Mom reminds him.
“Now that’s just rude.”
Their loving banter is the best gift I could’ve received for my birthday. That they’re back on track is a huge relief to all of us, even if we’re asking no questions about where they keep disappearing to.
After all the little ones are put to bed for the night, exhausted after a long, busy day, the rest of us settle in for the other thing I wanted for my birthday—a viewing of the final cut of Valiant .
With Olivia seated next to Natalie, I reach across my wife to squeeze my sister-in-law’s hand. “You ready for this, pal?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“You’re brilliant, and soon, the whole world will know it.”
“That’s the part that scares me.”
Natalie puts her arm around her sister and holds her close as the movie begins. She knows the first thirty minutes will be hard to watch as the attack perpetrated on her by former Nebraska Governor Oren Stone plays out on screen. Hayden and Jasper used every tool in their considerable arsenal to handle this part of the story with as much care and sensitivity as they possibly could.
Even still, it’s devastating to watch the realization that the children fifteen-year-old Natalie came to babysit aren’t there, and neither is their mother. Olivia does an amazing job of conveying the fear and horror as Natalie, known as April Genovese then, begins to understand she’s in big trouble.
“Should we pause it?” I ask Nat, who has her face pressed to my chest.
“No, I’m okay. I knew what to expect.”
“That doesn’t make seeing it any easier.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
After a days-long ordeal that’s conveyed in a sequence of shots taken from a distance, Stone takes her by the face and says her family will be ruined if she tells anyone what went on there.
April leaves the governor’s mansion, where she was held captive for an entire weekend, and goes straight to the police station to report the assault, the first in a number of brave moves. Next, we’re in the hospital, where a shattered young woman awaits the arrival of her parents, only to realize they’re not there to support her but to condemn her for daring to say such things about her father’s boss and best friend.
They leave her alone and broken.
She’s taken in by a kindly police officer and his family, who care for her through the trial, as she fearlessly testifies against the man who stole her innocence. He’s convicted, sent to prison and later murdered by another inmate.
“You’re so good, Livvy,” Natalie whispers to her sister. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m so proud of you ,” Olivia says softly.
Next, we see April in a lawyer’s office, spending five thousand dollars, raised for her by people who supported her case against Oren Stone, to purchase a new identity.
April becomes Natalie Bryant, and the first thing she does under her new name is go to college.
I helped to write the screenplay and supervised every aspect of the project as an executive producer. And still… it’s heart-wrenching to watch it play out on screen. I begin to fear a backslide for my precious wife, who’ll be forced to relive the horrors of the past repeatedly in the coming months as the film is released to the public with a massive publicity campaign. What if I’ve made a big mistake pursuing this project? The thought of that makes me feel queasy even as I prepare to watch the best day of my life unfold onscreen.
We see Natalie graduate from college and move to New York City to become a teacher.
Olivia brings to life her sister’s courage and moxie with such convincing skill. We see her in class with her kids, on walks in the city with her dog, Fluff, and in her cozy apartment with her roommate, Leah.
“There I am!” Leah says. “Let the games begin!”
That makes everyone laugh, which is a relief after the grueling first half of the film.
“This is where things get good,” Natalie says, smiling at me as we see her and Fluff out for a walk on the frigid January morning when both our lives changed forever.
Fluff breaks loose and charges into the park where Hayden and I are filming. Natalie chases after her precious pup and ends up crashing into me and falling to the pavement. I’m played by Larkin Wilder, an exciting new actor making his debut in this film. I expect him to be a big star, too. He’s almost as handsome as I was at that time, a funny thought I keep to myself, so I won’t be ruthlessly mocked.
When I lean in to help her, the dog portraying Fluff latches on to my arm, biting me harder than she should be able to.
“Actor Flynn is way hotter than the real thing,” Hayden says.
“Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about actor Hayden.”
“Boys,” Addie says, “be nice.”
“That’s us being nice,” Hayden tells his wife.
“Hush,” Natalie says. “This is the good part.”
The actors stare at each other, almost capturing the magic of the first moments between me and Nat. I say “almost” because nothing can do justice to the reality. I can still remember the feeling of being struck by lightning and the absolute certainty that if I let her get away, I’d regret it forever.
My character chases after her, calling her name while Hayden’s character shouts at me to get back to work. I keep running, fearing she’ll slip away before I get the chance to know her. I remember that feeling of urgency, as if my whole life depended on whatever happened next with her, and Larkin does a great job of giving me a slightly frazzled, desperate appearance.
She’s afraid I want to sue her because Fluff bit me.
That’s the least of what I want from her.
We go to Gorman’s coffee shop—everything from that day was filmed on location in Greenwich Village during a freezing January day last year. The coffee shop’s owner, Cleo, plays herself when we come in and cause a stir with the staff and patrons, who immediately recognize me. I go through the motions with Cleo, take some photos and sign autographs, annoyed that it’s cutting into my time with Natalie.
By the time we’re seated at a table with everyone in the place watching us, I’ve used up most of the thirty minutes I told Hayden I needed.
I ask her to dinner.
She’s skeptical of my motives.
“I won’t sleep with you.”
The room erupts into cheers for Natalie.
“Go, girl,” Aimee says.
“I’m not asking you to,” I reply.
She’s embarrassed.
I persuade her to have dinner with me, get her address and phone number and leave her with promises to pick her up at seven.
Hayden is furious when I return to the park. He says she’s an infant and I have no business messing with her. That’s true for many reasons, the biggest of which—the BDSM—isn’t part of this story, and even though he’s right, I’m not going to change my plans. I need to see her again as soon as possible.
“This is truly outstanding, guys,” Mom says when we take a bathroom-and-beverage-refill break. “Even though I know the story, I still can’t wait to see what happens next.”
“How’re you doing?” I quietly ask Nat while the others are occupied.
“I’m okay. It brings it all back—the ugly and the wonderful.”
I kiss the back of her hand. “I remember every second of the wonderful.”
“Me, too. I still can’t believe it actually happened.”
“Believe it, and it’s been a dream come true every day since then.”
“ Almost every day,” she says, smiling.
“Right.” The rest of the world doesn’t know about the time we nearly ended things over the secrets I kept from her about my affinity for the BDSM lifestyle, and they never will. That part belongs only to us. “It all led to where we are now, and that’s the best place ever.”
She leans her head on my shoulder. “Yes, it is.”
“Our Livvy is going to be a big star.”
“I know. I’m not sure how to feel about that.”
“We’ll take good care of her. Don’t worry.”
The others return to the sectional sofa, eager to see the rest of the film. They get to see me pick her up in the Bugatti, our first date at my New York apartment, how we ordered the same food and watched The Sound of Music . It was all so sweet and innocent, which was so far removed from how I lived my life then. She’s shocked when I ask her to be my date at the Golden Globes, where I’m nominated for my performance in Camouflage, before I take her home to think about whether she wants to come to LA with me if she can get the time off.
We get to see the moment where Hayden again tells me I’ve got no business messing with a sweet young school teacher, that I’m going to ruin her orderly life. I make the huge mistake of listening to him and decide to take a step back from her.
Until she calls me and asks for a favor. Will I visit her friend Aileen, who’s sick with breast cancer and has a huge crush on me, according to Aileen’s son, Logan, who’s Natalie’s student.
“Think about everything that came from that first meeting,” Logan says in the deepening voice that still comes as such a surprise to me. His mom is now married to Kristian because of the friendship we formed with Aileen and her family that day.
“That story would make for another great movie,” Kris says with a smile for his wife.
“I still can’t believe someone is playing me in a movie,” Aileen says with a giggle.
Natalie and I have our first kiss outside Aileen’s apartment building. An hour with her has shown me that a lifetime without her would be unbearable. I don’t care what I have to give up to be with her.
We go to LA for the Golden Globes. She meets my parents, played by Max and Stella, the Godfrey family and Marlowe, played by a stunning redheaded actress.
“I’m so hot,” Marlowe says.
“You know it, babe,” Seb replies. “Hottest babe on the planet.”
“He has to say that,” Hayden teases.
We see Natalie put her feet in the Pacific for the first time and enjoy being styled for the big night. Everything about her is dazzled by the things she sees and experiences on her first trip to LA.
“You captured the feeling of that weekend so perfectly, Liv,” she tells her sister.
“Thanks to all the conversations we had about it.”
After I win the Golden Globe, she’s one of the people I thank, setting off a buzz about the woman Flynn Godfrey brought to the event. I’m notorious for saying I’d never marry again after the disaster that was my first marriage, and people can see that this new relationship is different. The media frenzy is far worse than expected.
I arrange for security for Natalie and Leah in New York when we return to the city.
She goes back to work, and the press finds her there.
It’s out of control, and then…
The lawyer who arranged her new identity sells her out to the tabloids, and the whole sordid tale with Stone is made public.
While her nightmare plays out for all the world to see, she loses her job, and I’m plunged into the kind of rage I’ve rarely experienced as I do everything in my power to mitigate the damage.
But it’s too late. The damage is done. Her life in New York is ruined, and I’m heartbroken to be the cause of that.
“Ugh, I can still remember every second of that day,” I whisper to her. “I’ve never been that angry in my life.”
“I remember the shock of it all and realizing that only one person could’ve done that to me—the only one who knew me by both names.”
All that plays out on screen, as well as my famous friends posting #TeamNatalie hashtags and support for her and other assault survivors. It’s a PR nightmare, but Nat… Once she recovers from the initial shock of her story going public, she’s serene and resolved to get on with her life as it is now, and the most amazing part of it is that she doesn’t blame me for what happened.
She’s comforting me, rather than the other way around.
Leah brings Fluff to her at my apartment, and we hunker down there, until I decide we need to get her out of New York to protect her from the media camped out at my place and hers. I set up a dinner with her students so she can say goodbye to them in one of the most emotionally charged scenes in the film, the one I think could win Olivia an Oscar, and then we fly to LA to hide out at Hayden’s place at the beach.
I’m as agitated as I’ve ever been watching her become tabloid fodder, while she seems to have found her Zen about it all. It’s a relief, she says, that people know. She doesn’t have to worry about it blowing up out of the blue when she’s unprepared and without the support of me and my savvy team.
Her calm approach is a revelation to me. Whereas I expected her to leave me, she digs in and fights for the life she wants with me. The most beautiful thing to come from the turmoil is the longed-for reunion between Natalie and the two sisters she lost when her parents turned their backs on her.
I ask her to marry me because I can’t imagine a single day without her, and she accepts. I want to get married right away. She thinks I’m crazy, as do my friends, who urge me to consider a prenup. There’ll be no prenup in this marriage. Everything I have is hers.
“Aww,” Addie says. “So romantic.”
“And so delusional,” Emmett adds, making everyone laugh.
“When you know, you know,” I tell him.
We stun the world a few days later with the announcement that Flynn Godfrey married Natalie Bryant in Las Vegas.
I’ve never been happier in my life than I am with my new wife.
Love wins.
Fade to black.
An epilogue fills in the rest of the story—how her father murdered the lawyer who sold her out, not for betraying Natalie, but because the whole world now knew what a scumbag his precious Oren Stone really was. Martin Genovese was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Natalie Godfrey, along with her husband, Academy Award? winner Flynn Godfrey, are the founders and cochairs of the Flynn and Natalie Godfrey Foundation for Childhood Hunger. They live with their four children in Los Angeles.
“I love how Nat comes first there,” Hayden says.
I insisted on that. “It’s her story. I’m just a supporting character.”
“Hardly,” Nat says.
The name Olivia Bryant appears on the screen, and we go wild, cheering and whistling. We’re all in tears over the power of her performance. After their father was convicted, the “girls” changed their last name to the one Natalie chose for her new life.
“It’s the best thing we’ve ever done,” Hayden says bluntly. “No contest.”
I wipe away tears that have taken me by surprise. I had no idea what it would feel like to relive the full story this way. Safe to say the impact of it all put together is beyond powerful.
“I hope you’re ready for superstardom, Liv,” Marlowe says. “You’ve got the goods, girlfriend.”
“You’re magic on film,” Jasper adds.
“Y’all.” Olivia contends with a flood of tears. “Thank you for the opportunity, the support, the encouragement… I couldn’t have gotten through this without Candace and everyone in this room. And my courageous sister Natalie…” She shakes her head. “There simply are no words to convey my admiration and love for you.”
We respond to that with a round of applause for my beautiful wife.
“Stawp it.” She laughs as she wipes away tears. “Cheers to my amazing sisters and my brilliant, talented husband, as well as Hayden, Jasper, Kris and everyone at Quantum, who turned our story into a passion project that’ll hopefully mean the world to our babies someday.”
“There’s no doubt they’ll love it as much as the rest of us do,” Aileen says. “Congrats to all of you, and Nat… My beautiful, brave, wonderful Natalie… I love you so much, and I’m so proud of you and of Olivia for her fearless performance. I know I speak for all of us when I say how honored I am to have been even a small part of such an incredible story.”
“Me, too,” Logan says. “Having Ms. Bryant for my teacher changed our lives.”
“You’re making Ms. Bryant cry!” Natalie says.
Logan grins at her. They continue to share a special bond.
“I’m proud of you all,” Dad says gruffly. “Your story will be such an inspiration to other survivors, Natalie. Flynn, Hayden, Jasper, Kris, Ellie, everyone at Quantum, another incredible production. You’d better get your monkey suits out for awards season next year. I predict another wild ride.”
“Here’s hoping,” Hayden says. “Thank you for letting us tell your story, Natalie. You and I got off to a rough start way back when, but I hope you know how much I love you and how much we all admire you.”
“Right back atcha, friend,” Nat says with a warm smile for my best friend.
“A toast,” Mom says. “To love, family, friendship and all good things in the New Year.”
That’s something we can all drink to.