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 smiled, thin and small, and held out a gloved hand. Yazid’s phone stared innocently up at him, switched off and silent, and Yazid took it.


“I took it to the police,” Ali said quietly. “I made a report. Showed this PCSO the text messages. She said they might call you in a couple of days to talk to you about it.”


Yazid took it, and turned the cool metal over in his fingers. Ali stuck both hands back in his pockets, and for a moment there was silence.


“Are you still angry with me?” Yazid asked finally.


Yazid felt his face twist involuntarily.


“Hey,” Ali murmured, his voice dropping. A hand re-emerged, a little finger hooking around Yazid’s. “I’m also sorry. I shouldn’t have exploded, it just…it hurts.”


“What hurts?” Yazid asked, bewildered.


Chapter 48