Antonio Torres is the son of Madam Carmen Torres, a palm reader in Sunset Beach. He has a brother and a sister, Ricardo and Maria. Ricardo is a detective at S.B.P.D., a hard-core investigator and a terrific older brother. Maria was once married to Ben Evans, but the two had been estranged when she was presumed dead in a boating accident, and now she has a son - Benjy (whom she cannot remember from the 5 years of her amnesiac past).
Antonio is a priest at the mission in Sunset Beach. Known, of course, as Father Antonio, this priest is well-loved by all who know him. However, our dear padre has had a shady past... Antonio had been stationed in a small town in Mexico, Risario. While he was there, two people named Phillip and Francesca Vargas came along and tried to trick the people there. Their beloved statue, the Madonna, was practically all the town had. The Madonna was adorned in sparkling jewels: rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds. In some occurance of events, Francesca tried to tempt Antonio into betraying his faith and the people of Rosario. Somehow in doing this, Francesca and Phillip managed to steal the statue from Rosario and distribute the jewels to separate buyers. The people of the town were furious with the priest, and Antonio left and went to Sunset Beach, rarely ever speaking of his time there again.
Antonio wed Cole Deschanel and Caitlin Richards in his first few days at Sunset Beach. He also heard an earful in their confessions (of Cole and Olivia's affair, Caitlin's miscarriage and lying to Cole, etc.). Antonio became a factor in their equation, being one of the only people in town to know the whole truth.
When Ricardo introduced his girlfriend, Gabi, to Antonio, she was a different woman. Gabi was emotionally wrecked from the death of her dear friend, Mark, the move of her half sister, Paula, out of Sunset Beach (partially due to her), and from accusing Ricardo of rape and putting him through a gruesome trial. Antonio and Gabi became close, and before they knew it, they had fallen in a secret love with one another. But he was a priest, and she was his brother's girlfriend.. they knew that nothing could ever happen between each other. Antonio was torchered by errotic dreams of Gabi, and she eventually fell into dispair upon realizing that she was in love with the two brothers.
Some interesting and life-threatening events occurred in the summer. Antonio had a charity cruise and most of the town's residents turned out for the festivities. They had no clue of the adventures awaiting them on the open seas. A tsunami roared above the ship, S.S. Neptune II and capsized it, putting all of its passengers in great peril. With the teamwork of Ricardo and Antonio, guests' lives were spared and some of the passengers survived the chaos. The brothers and Gabi were safe, for now.
Antonio's past resurfaced when the truth about the jewels of Rosario came about. Francesca returned, as well, asking help from the father to return the Madonna to the city. The priest decided to help her return the jewels to the statue, but he didn't realize what he was getting into. Cole, A.J., Gabi, and even Caitlin, Annie, Olivia, Sean, Emily, and Amy were tangled into the mess of the warped curses and supernatural forces from the power of the jewels. The buyers from the sapphires, emeralds, and rubies all became involved, and it was one war after another. When the jewels were all returned to the Madonna, a Christmas miracle occurred and it snowed in Sunset Beach, California. The statue was returned to the city of Rosario, and peace was restored... or so they thought. In that time, Gabi and Antonio had become closer in trying to crack the mystery. They each felt a connection between each other growing stronger every day...
Of course, they thought, nothing would ever happen between them or ever come of their forbidden desires. That's when the explosion occurred at the building where Gabi was working; Antonio heard about what was going to happen and ran to her rescue when the bomb went off, and the two were trapped in the cave-in. They both thought they would die with the suffocating amount of oxygen left and the fact that everything was collapsing around them. And so, they both gave into each other and made love in the ruins. Eventually, they heard Ricardo's voice as he was trying to get through the mess to save his unfaithful girlfriend and betraying brother. Ricardo and Casey helped the two people out of the rubble, who were never to speak of what happened in there again.
They didn't know that Francesca had planted cameras in A.J.'s office (where Gabi had been working) to tape a scandalous fling that never would happen. You might say that Francesca was as surprised as Gabi and Antonio to find the tape. That's when she turned to blackmail against the horrified twosome. Francesca demanded that Gabi get her the money that was evidence in a case at S.B.P.D. Try as she might, Gabi only managed to pilfer a gun from the safe. Antonio was raging furious was Francesca for blackmailing them. The blackmailer only shot back that he was being unfaithful to God and betraying his brother by sleeping with the woman he loves, and was just as bad as she was. This got into Antonio's conscience and was always at the back of his mind.
When Francesca was murdered, Antonio and Gabi were a pair of surprising suspects. Antonio wondered if Gabi had, in a moment of insanity, killed the blackmailer, but she insisted that she hadn't. Still, even with Francesca gone, there was still evidence of what the two had done. The video tape of them making love was still out there, waiting to be discovered...
