If you could save someone's life, would you? Anyone's? Ali's older brother has a swastika tattooed on his knuckles, a prison ID number for nearly beating an immigrant to death, and spent his teenage years ruthlessly persecuting Ali for being gay. Blood may be thicker than water, but Ali has spent most of his life desperate to prove he is nothing like Tony. A committed vegetarian, charity-supporter, and blood donor, Ali would do anything for anyone. Ali may share parentage with Tony, but he’s determined not to share anything else if he can help it. So when Tony contracts leukaemia, and Ali is the only match for the urgently-needed bone marrow transplant, Ali is caught between two equally awful choices: to refuse and condemn a man to death, or to donate. And in donating, save the life of the man who nearly murdered Ali's Iraqi boyfriend?

Thicker Than Bone

Ali laughed, scooting across the cushions to offer a hug.


Yazid clutched back gratefully, feeling oddly nervous. He thought he’d grown out of this wariness, but then he supposed the mother of the first guy you’d been serious about in a long time—if not ever—was bound to do that.


“Don’t worry about it?” Ali said lowly.


Yazid closed his eyes at the faint pressure of a kiss being pressed to the top of his ear.


“It’s not…look, this is going to sound a bit weird and horrible.”


Chapter 5