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

“My problem goes away,” Ali insisted. “The only reason I’m even considering it is for you, Mum. You—you actually care about him. You don’t want to lose him. That’s the only reason I’m doing this, because the idea of him dying upsets you, but me—I have Yazid to think about.”


“This is about Tony nearly killing him, yes,” Ali said. “If I donate, then I’m cutting myself off from the family. If I donate, it’ll be the last time you see me. I will walk away, we will move away, and that will be it. No more Christmases, no more birthdays, no more you trying to persuade me to talk to him or change my mind and no more—no more me waking up in the middle of the night terrified he’s broken in and is about to hurt Yaz again.”


He bit his lip and took a deep breath in through his nose. When his mother simply repeated his name again in that low, soft tone, Ali swallowed and went for the jugular.


Chapter 80