The message arrived while Nataša waited at the post office. Her mother-in-law wrote that she was glad Nataša had thought carefully and admitted her mistake. She added a heart and an invitation to Sunday lunch. Nataša read everything twice. She had written nothing after their last argument. She had simply said she would not attend lunches where her parents regularly became a joke. She still intended to discuss that with her husband.
Marko immediately admitted sending a message from her phone. She had left it on the table while showering, and he knew the code. He had written a short apology and deleted the sent message to avoid upsetting her. He thought his mother's warm reply would prove the argument unnecessary. Nataša stood in the kitchen doorway listening to his explanation of peace achieved by removing one person from the conversation.
She asked exactly what he had written. He said she apologised for overreacting and knew nobody had meant any harm. Those were precisely the sentences she refused to say. Her mother-in-law had called her father a ridiculous peasant before guests and expected Nataša to laugh too. Marko said that was how his mother spoke. Nataša replied that it was not how she wrote, although he had decided otherwise.
She demanded that he tell his mother the truth. He tried suggesting a gentler version: that they had composed the message together and he had perhaps misunderstood her tone. Nataša refused shared authorship of a lie. She sat beside him while he called but supplied no words. When his mother said his wife was obviously forcing him to withdraw the apology, Marko had to repeat that she had never sent it at all.
On Sunday he went to his mother's alone. Nataša spent the day with her parents without recounting every detail to turn them into a jury. That evening she changed her phone code. Marko asked whether she no longer trusted him. She said that was precisely the question he could not answer on her behalf. They neither embraced nor agreed on a fresh start that day.
Several weeks later her mother-in-law sent a message without a heart. She asked whether they could discuss what she had said. Nataša let the message sit until evening, then answered that they could. Marko sat in the same room watching television. He did not ask to see the reply. For the first time since the argument, his silence served a useful purpose.