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big problem with the scene where Dinah and the Englishman go to the pub,” she re- marked. “The paint we used for the walls doesn’t have enough depth. The cameras see it as flat. We tried using several different shades, but we couldn’t get the tones to relate to one another in just the right way.”
    “I’ve got the model at home. I’ll see if I can figure out what to do,” Sera promised. “I should be at work in the morning. If something happens, though, and I have to be here, I’ll call you.”
    Maisie gave her a reproachful look. “Don’t be a martyr, okay? If you want to be here with your sister, be here. Don’t even think of coming to work. I can bully everyone quite well by myself.”
    “Thanks, Maisie. I’ll see how Gemma gets through the night.”
    They talked over other details relating to work, and Maisie left at eight thirty. At nine Dr. Halsey came by again to check on Gemma. After examining her, he assured them things were going well; there’d been no extreme swelling or bleeding, no excessive increase in temperature. He was keeping Gemma sedated, and he urged the Cardanos' to go home, promising that the staff would call immediately if there was any change during the night.
     
     
    It was after midnight by the time Aldo and Maria drove Sera to the deserted parking lot where she’d left her car that morning. They reassured one another during the trip that Gemma was strong, that she’d come through this fine, that she was blessed to have Ben Halsey caring for her, that it was a miracle things hadn’t been worse.
    Aldo insisted Sera spend the night with him and Maria, but she explained that she would go to St. Joe’s early and then, if Gemma was okay, continue on to work. Her parents’ house was in Burnaby, a Vancouver suburb, whereas the apartment Sera was renting was closer to both the hospital and False Creek, where the set was filmed. It made sense to go home, but convincing Aldo took a lot of talking.
    “Okay,” he finally conceded with obvious reluctance. “But we’ll follow you. Make sure you get there safe and sound.”
    His authoritative manner irked Sera. She thought of the years she’d spent in various cities far from her father, but she gave in gracefully, sensing that Aldo needed to feel that one of his two children, at least, was safe this terrible night.
    Outside her building’s underground garage, Sera stopped the car but left the motor idling while she got out and ran over to give her father and mother each a kiss and a fierce hug.
    “I love you,” she told them, seeing the strain of the day etched in their faces.
    She hadn’t cried all day, but tears began to drip down her cheeks as she pulled the car into her underground slot, and she was bawling in earnest as she rode the elevator up to the ninth floor. She fumbled with the key and lurched through the door into her dark, silent apartment.
    She was crying for Gemma, for the pain and the disfigurement and the uncertain future her sister faced, but Sera knew she was also mourning a closeness that she and Gemma had shared as children and that was now gone. The accident, the unthinkable damage to Gemma’s face, had reinforced for Sera the distance between herself and her sister; their physical likeness had powerfully linked them, whatever their differences. Now, however temporarily, it, too, was shattered.
    She turned on lights and went into the small kitchen, blowing her nose on a paper towel. She mopped at her eyes, then heated a cup of water in the microwave and dunked an herbal tea bag in it. Leaning against the counter, she sipped the warm brew and thought about what it had been like to be born an identical twin.
    Sera and Gemma had shared a womb, and until she was two or maybe three, Sera had believed that Gemma was part of her, instead of a separate person. What a shock to learn that her sister wasn’t an extension of herself, like another arm or leg. All during their childhood years, they’d been together.