Raymond picked up the picture frame of his mother and then turned when he heard the stern voice of his father.

"Put it back down !!!"

Raymond smiled sarcastically and said,

"This is a picture of mom. My mom and not some piece of interior decor that you want to place on your study table. Plus whom do you want to dupe? Do you want to show people how much you loved your late wife? Is that what you want to do?"

There was nothing but pure rage filled in his eyes, but instead of getting hurt with his son's words, Sebastian's face was filled with surprise.

"You are sure that is your mother's picture?"

"What the hell are you asking?"

A smile spread of Mr. Walker's face and he said,

"Do you not see? You could recognize her own your own Raymond. You could identify her face. Are you recovering?"

He asked with his eyes filled with hope.

For a moment Raymond stood there speechless, unable to contain what just happened. Before coming inside the house, he had just checked the face of Mr. Walker on his phone, but he hadn't checked the picture of his mother.

But he wasn't sure if he knew that she was her mother becasue he could recollect her face or just because he saw the picture there.

Seeing his son standing there all speechless, Mr. walker came forward and took the picture frame from his hand and then said,

"I will place it safely inside this drawer if you dislike the notion of me placing the picture on my table. Meanwhile, I think it would be better if you could just take a seat and relax for a while if all this is too overwhelming."

Saying that Mr. Walker opened the drawer and placed the picture back.

But as he did so, Raymond saw something weird. That study table had just one drawer at one side. But the drawer set looked oddly familiar. The color and finish was different but the shape, it was exactly the same as Raymond had recollected.

With a staggering voice, Raymond looked at Sebastian and asked,

"Is it the..."

"Is it what?"

"That..."

"What are you asking Raymond?"

"That drawer of yours."

"What's wrong with it?"

"Is it the one that mom got from that old carpenter?"

Raymond asked and stared into his eyes like he was prying for an answer using them.

Standing all rooted at his place, Sebastian took a deep breath and looking at Raymond, he mouthed the words,

"Yes."

Since the drawer was still present, maybe that something important was still in there. All that he had to do was to open the drawer and figure it out. But How? was the impending question.

"Why did you still keep that drawer? You could have gotten rid of it, just like mom."

Sebastian couldn't believe that the painful charade of questions was starting again. Usually, he would deflect them with his Sebastianness, but today somehow he was tired. Tired of putting that mask of the facade over his face all the time. Trying to pretend to be rock solid, even though his insides were crumbling.

He looked at Raymond and said,

"Why should I be answerable to your questions Raymond? Just becasue you think you loved your mother the most, does it give you the right to mutilate the feelings of others?"

"Just becasue you believe that something happened in some way, doesn't mean that you can become the man of justice and go around questioning people."

Saying that he picked his medical report which was placed on the table and continued,

"If you really do not have anything else important to say or ask, then I would rather retire back to my room peacefully so that I can have some 'me time' before getting ready for the party. Becasue unlike some people, I like to entertain my guests all pleasantly with a smile on my face. And, believe it or not, this whole conversation has made me rethink about my smiling capabilities."

Saying that Sebastian stormed out of the room, leaving Raymond all alone.