Most of the town was indoors behind drawn curtains, not stepping outside in that kind of cold unless they absolutely had to. At home, Leah undressed, made her way to the bathroom, and stood under scalding hot water for a long time. She tried to wash off the grime, the blood, and the sickening memory of their hands on her.
Then she cleaned her cuts and bruises with what she had in an old medicine cabinet. She swallowed every pain pill she could find and collapsed onto the bed.
She did not cry. There were no tears left. Inside there was only a scorched, empty ache. But through that numbness one thought slowly took shape: they were going to pay.
On the morning of February 15, Leah did not go in to the sewing shop. She spent the whole day in bed, recovering as best she could and thinking through what came next. It never seriously occurred to her to go to the police.
She understood exactly how that would go. Four grown men against one young woman with no witnesses and no family backing her up. In the real world, that did not amount to much. And a medical exam should have happened right away; by then more than twelve hours had passed.
Besides, the local deputy would likely brush her off. Worse, he might go straight to the men who attacked her, and then they would know she had tried to report them. In that case, they would almost certainly kill her. So the only option left was cold, careful revenge.
But how was she supposed to do that, alone against four men bigger and stronger than she was? They feared no one in that town. A direct fight was out of the question.
So it would have to be done another way. She needed to make them walk into a trap on their own, stripped of their numbers and their strength. And the punishment had to make one thing unmistakably clear: this was for what they had done to her.
Three days later Leah quietly returned to work. She covered the bruises on her face with cheap makeup. When the other women asked what had happened, she said she had slipped on the ice.
No one pressed her. In those years, everybody had enough trouble of their own.
Leah did her work almost mechanically while the plan kept turning in her mind. At first she thought about rat poison. She could get some and mix it into liquor.
But how was she supposed to make those men drink anything she handed them?
