Diavolo

Chapter 10

Two months slipped by in a stretch of listlessness. The first snow of December began to fall, blanketing the surrounding mountains and valley of Crans-Montana in a sea of white.

Elyse discovered that Alessandro Vitale proved to be a man of his word. During this time, he didn't visit her bed again at night. He didn't visit with her at all. Not even to seek out her medical services. Alessandro became a peripheral shadow in this new life of hers. Intangible, unavailable, and full of mystery. Elyse couldn't help assuming that Alessandro had forgotten about her altogether.

On the rare occasions when her employer was home, he locked himself up in his study. Whenever Elyse chanced by the room, she could hear him through the door. He was usually on the phone, speak-shouting in rapid-fire Italian. Most of the time, however, he wasn't even home. According to Malina, Alessandro was "out running errands with business associates," which Elyse interpreted to be code for shady criminal activities.

Elyse convinced herself that their arrangement was ideal. Best to keep a low profile. Stay out of each other's way. No need to rock the boat when the waters were so calm.

On the surface, it wasn't hard to appreciate the quietness of her new routine after a year of oppression under Stefano's thumb. Malina and her competent staff saw to all of Elyse's needs. She ate well. She slept well. The chalet was beautiful. Crans-Montana was a scenic mountain paradise. An honest-to-goodness winter wonderland.

There were only a few minor problems. As a surgeon who once thrived in a high-pressure career with seventy-hour work weeks, Elyse soon came to realize that she wasn't well equipped to deal with the mind-numbing idleness of being a patient-less physician.

An irrational fear of Stefano started creeping back as well. Over the past two months, Stefano had only messaged Elyse a few times to confirm her payments to him, but he didn't call or harass her about anything else.

Surely, Stefano must have figured out that she had left New York by now?

Her former boogeyman's uncharacteristically good behavior was unsettling. It felt bizarre. Every time Elyse's anxiety spiked over Stefano, however, her mind would wander back to the first two "truths" that Alessandro had imparted to her.

You are under my protection. You are safe from Stefano Russo.

Alessandro claimed that she was under his care now.

Was this why Stefano hadn't tried to find her in Switzerland?

At present, Elyse didn't know how to answer this question. So, she tried to keep busy and focus on her blessings. She continued collecting her paychecks and paying off her debts. She got around to canceling her apartment lease with her landlord back in New York. She checked in with the nurses at the specialized care center where her father was being kept on life support. For better or worse, nothing had changed with him. Her father's condition was stable. Papá remained in a persistent vegetative state.

She then went on to set up a workstation in her bedroom and ordered some basic medical equipment and supplies. Elyse reached out to Mr. Schmid to procure copies of Alessandro's medical records and history. It didn't take long for her to work through these tasks, though, and she soon found herself with nothing to do yet again.

Across these empty hours in her days, Elyse began to dream and plan for a new future, an idyllic future without men like Stefano or Alessandro looming over her every thought and every move.

Freedom, true freedom, became a possibility.

Carefully, thoroughly, Elyse calculated the exact cost of this freedom. If she stayed under Alessandro's employment for approximately two more years, then she would be able to save enough to pay off all of her debts, her father's debts, and build up a small nest egg to, maybe, invest in a modest-sized condo or townhouse for herself back in the States.