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

Yazid snorted but padded out of the living room.


Ali turned the phone over in his hands and took a deep breath before dialling another number—slightly less well-remembered, much less fluent to the fingers, but…still known.


The phone started ringing on the other end, and Ali pulled himself up onto the sofa. His heart felt heavy, and his stomach was churning, but—it had to be done. It had to be said.


There was a short intake of breath on the other end of the phone, and Ali drew his feet up onto the sofa.


“Tony called us yesterday,” he said.


There was a long pause in which he could—just about—hear his mother breathing. Finally, she said his name. And nothing else.


“He threatened him again, Mum. Said when he’s better he’s going to come down here and kill him. Said he wouldn’t stop when Yazid hit the floor next time.”


“How did he get our phone number, Mum?”


Chapter 68