Hidden Agenda Read Free Page B

cringed at her clichéd responses. She’d never thought of herself as particularly brave. She didn’t like to take risks. So far, she’d been able to avoid doing hard-core journalism and had settled for the ease of reporting small-town news and writing freelance articles, where the biggest challenge came from ensuring she made her deadlines. She preferred life that way.
    Ivan touched her arm, getting her attention again. “You’re always telling me to pay attention to what really matters. This matters.”
    Olivia bit her lip. She had come to the island to search for truth, but in the process had convinced herself that any evidence she found would exonerate her father. Was she willing to seek out that truth even if it destroyed everything she knew and loved?
    She battled against the doubts slithering through her mind. “You don’t understand what’s at stake here.”
    â€œAnd you don’t understand that I’m not a child anymore.” Ivan’s brow furrowed tightly as he signed his response. “How can we close our eyes to what’s happening right in front of us?”
    Olivia looked away, but Ivan wasn’t done. He grasped her arm before continuing. “What do you know about our father you’re not telling me?”
    She pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at it. The wallpaper was a photo of her and her mother taken the year before she’d died. Sometimes the seven years that had passed since her death seemed like just a few days. She could still smell the floral scent of her perfume. Hear her singing Spanish love songs in her deep, sultry voice. Hear her laughter at the dinner table . . .
    Olivia handed Ivan the phone, then stood up and brushed the sand off her jeans. “Two weeks ago, I received some emails from an anonymous source. They say they have evidence that our father is involved with the cartel. That his real estate business is nothing more than a front to launder money.”
    Maybe she hadn’t known the truth, but there had always been questions. As a reporter, she was supposed to seek out what was real, but she’d let her emotions distort the truth in order to allow herself to believe in a man who had never existed.
    â€œThe truth scares me, Ivan. That’s why I don’t want to get involved in this. If finding out the truth means that everything I’ve ever known is a lie—that our father is a criminal—I don’t know how to deal with that.”
    She waited while he scrolled through the emails, one at a time, a pinched look of pain marking his features.
    He handed her back the phone. “I couldn’t have believed this . . . would never have believed this if I hadn’t seen what I saw today.”
    She nodded, knowing there was nothing she could do to stop the feeling of an inevitable tsunami washing over her and dragging her out to sea. If this was true, no matter what happened, life as she knew it would never be the same.
    â€œDo you think he ever loved us?” Ivan’s next question burrowed through her. “Do you think he ever loved her?”
    She had to believe he’d loved them. “In his own way, yes.”
    â€œAnd now? What happens now? Are you willing to turn him over to the authorities?”
    She blinked back the tears. “He’s our father.”
    â€œI saw a man murdered. They’re planning to kill another man. And if he ordered those hits, you and I know he’s ordered others. Maybe many others.”
    Olivia struggled to process everything Ivan had told her, but one thing seemed clear. They needed to decide what to do right now, and deal with her father later. Because no matter which direction her emotions were pulling her, she couldn’t have a man’s blood on her hands.
    She looked back at Ivan, her jaw tensed. “Where is he?”
    â€œThey have him locked up in the cottage.”
    She’d never questioned the