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shook her head at Shirley, yet she didn’t say anything. She was too intent on the happenings going on in the apartment next door.
    The Rominovs were at it again.
    Before her trip to Las Vegas, they seemed like a nice couple, very much in love for you never saw one without the other. However, Chloe now knew the reason for such an attachment. Mr. Rominov was abusive and controlling. The beatings were so bad at times she had to resort to sleeping in her bathroom. The ceramic tiles helped to blanket the noise. The crash of breaking glass made Chloe jump, causing her to knock over her wineglass. Instinctively she grabbed for the glass and set it upright, while Shirley stopped the flow of wine with her napkin, preventing it from running off the table onto the floor.
    “Girl, you’re scaring the shit out of me!”
    “I-I’m sorry…” But Chloe jumped again as she heard the distinct sound of flesh meeting flesh. Coming out of her chair, she grabbed her plate and threw it in the sink. Breaking it into several pieces. Gripping the edge of the kitchen counter, she gritted her teeth in frustration. “I can’t stand it when he beats her.”
    “Who?” Shirley asked, coming out of her seat as well.
    “The man next door,” Chloe groaned as she ran her hand through her hair in frustration. “He does it almost every night. I can hear them plain as day as if they were standing in front of me.”
    “You can hear through walls?” Shirley asked, her eyes widening like a deer in the headlights.
    Chloe sighed, nodding her head. “I can hear through walls, floors, even glass. I can hear the guy below us, he’s watching wrestling. And Mrs. Parks, across the hall, is talking to her niece on the phone. She needs a ride to the doctor’s office tomorrow. She has to go in for her weekly chemo session.”
    “Now that’s one skill I wish I had. Then I could spy on my coworkers to see if they were talking about me behind my back.”
    “No, you don’t because you can’t turn it off,” Chloe whispered. She wrapped her arms around her body. She felt like the world was literally closing in around her. “And you can’t block it out when someone is getting the living daylights beat out of them.”
    “How about we call the police?”
    “It won’t do any good. I have done that a couple of times. The police simply took him down to the station but she refused to press charges. I’ve talked with her and offered her my protection, but she refused. She even went so far as to tell me to keep my nose out of her business. That my calls to the police had caused her beatings to become even worse.” Chloe turned her head as emotions welled up inside her.
    Shirley closed the short distance between them and put an arm around her shoulders.
    “Girl, you’ve done all you can do. It’s up to her if she wants to really change the situation.”
    “How can she if she’s scared to death?” Chloe cried, stepping away from her.
    “Are you scared for her or for yourself?”
    Chloe looked at her best friend a long moment then she sighed wearily. There was no hiding from Shirley. She knew her almost better than she knew herself. “Both, I guess. I don’t know myself anymore, Shirley. How would you feel if you could no longer feel the sun on your skin or the food you eat practically makes your skin crawl? Then to make matters worse the person who did this to me doesn’t give a damn!”
    “You still haven’t heard from him?”
    Chloe shook her head. Ever since they’d left Vegas, she’d heard nothing from Tristan. The man had practically tried to physically prevent her from leaving his hotel that day but as soon as she was gone, the bastard had forgotten her. He’d sent no apology letters or flowers to make up for what he’d done to her.
    “No, but I should be hearing from him soon. Mr. Dobson finished drawing up the papers two days ago. I have a meeting with him tomorrow to sign them. Once that’s done, he will forward them to Tristan’s