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 kissed his forehead again as the copper disappeared. “Tony’s been arrested,” he whispered. “And there’s CCTV and, like, a whole pub of witnesses and Tracy was going mental at the bouncers for letting him in even though he’s barred and…”


Yazid squeezed his fingers around Ali’s hand again. “I threw up?” he whispered.


“Yeah,” Ali murmured. “All over Lee and the paramedic.”


Yazid swallowed. “I want to go home.” He hated the feeble croak of his own voice.


“Oh, baby,” Ali murmured sympathetically, stroking the back of a single finger down Yazid’s face. “I don’t think they’re going to let you out tonight. But I’ll stay with you until they put you in a ward, yeah? And then I’ll come back tomorrow and collect you and I’ll take you home and look after you.”


The curtain whispered open and the nurse returned with a tall glass of water and a cup of orange juice. “Right, Mr Al-Batari,” he said.


Chapter 77