I’d like you to meet a special friend of mine, Andrew Logan. Drew, this is my father, Antonio Oliver.”
Andrew shook the older man’s hand while thinking just how much Toni favored her father. She had his coloring, those same shaped lips and dark brown eyes.
“Good meeting you, Andrew,” Antonio Oliver said smiling.
“Same here,” Andrew said, returning the man’s smile. “And please call me Drew.”
“And I’m Antonio. Please have a seat. Our waiter will be back in a minute.”
Andrew and Toni took their seats. “It’s uncanny how much the two of you favor,” Andrew said.
Antonio’s smile widened. “I am proud of her and proud to be her father. I learned recently why she left Miami. I also understand you took action to protect my daughter’s personal and professional reputations. For that I thank you.”
Andrew met the man’s sincere gaze. “No thanks necessary,” he said, reaching to take Toni’s hand in his. “Toni means a lot to me.” There, he’d pretty much let her father know how he felt about his daughter.
At that moment the waiter came to take their orders.
• • •
Later that same day, around one in the afternoon, Toni walked into Thomas Gilmore’s office. A perky blonde greeted her at the reception desk. “Yes, may I help you?”
“I’m here to meet with Thomas Gilmore.”
“Oh? I don’t see that Mr. Gilmore has any openings this afternoon.”
“I’m sure he will see me.”
The woman raised a brow. “And what’s your name?” she asked.
“Antonia Oliver.”
The sudden frown that settled on the woman’s face meant she had recognized the name. “I’m sorry, but I doubt if Mr. Gilmore will want to see you.”
“How about letting him decide that.”
The woman’s frown deepened as she picked up the phone. “Mr. Gilmore, Antonia Oliver is here to see you.”
The woman kept her eyes trained on Toni while listening to whatever Gilmore was saying. Then, she said, “Yes, sir. I told her that, but apparently she needs to hear it from you, sir.”
Within seconds the door to Thomas Gilmore’s office opened, and the man stormed out. “How dare you come here? You are not welcome here. I am asking you to leave before I call security. You and I have nothing to say.”
If the man thought he could intimidate her, he was wrong. “I suggest you give me a few moments of your time, Mr. Gilmore. If you don’t, I’ll leave here and pay a visit to the Miami Herald. By the way, the staff of Ocean by the Sea sends their regards.”
She saw the flash of surprise in his eyes. Ocean by the Sea had been the hideaway for him and his mistress, ever since the time his mistress had been nineteen and in college. A mistress he had married off to his son. Then, going for the jugular, she added, “And just so you know, I plan to pay Mrs. Thomas Gilmore a visit today, as well.”
Gilmore’s gaze shifted to the blonde who wasn’t even pretending not to be eavesdropping. Toni figured the woman had heard more than Gilmore wanted her to hear, because he said, “We can talk in my office.”
“Yes, I’m sure we can,” Toni said, not cracking a smile. “After you.” Then, she followed Thomas Gilmore into his office.
When he sat down behind his desk, he asked in a gruff tone, “Now what is this about? I’d heard you left town.”
“Yes, I had. But this visit is about you, not me. It’s about why, when people began questioning why your son killed his family, you deliberately changed the narrative to make me look like the bad guy. I’d only been doing my job. I couldn’t understand how the situation had turned on me so badly, so I did some digging. This is what you were trying to cover up,” she said, tossing the packet with the investigative report on his desk. “That’s your copy. I have my own.”
He opened the huge envelope and out fell copies of the pictures she wanted him to see. Pictures he hadn’t known were taken. His sharp intake of breath meant she had his attention. “You, Thomas Gilmore, are a vile human being. You arranged for your son to marry the young woman you’d been having an affair with since her first year of college.”
Toni was on a roll now. “When your son found out the truth, he lost it and went berserk. That is why he took his wife’s life and then his sons’; boys he’d discovered were actually your sons. But instead of owning up to