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

“I thought I was going to lose you,” he whispered harshly.


Yazid kissed the side of his head. “Not a chance,” he said quietly. “I’m like a spaghetti stain on your best suit two hours before that big job interview. No getting rid of me.”


“Why am I doing this, Yaz?” Ali croaked.


Yazid sighed, starting to rock his upper body.


“For your mum,” he said quietly. “Because Tony is one of the luckiest men in the world because his mother loves him unconditionally. And she loves you unconditionally, too, Ali, even if she can’t bring herself to condemn him for what he’s put you through. That’s why you’re doing this. Not for him, not for you, not even for me, but for her.”


Ali clung back and inhaled deeply. Tears threatened.


“I don’t want to kill him, but—but I don’t want to save him either. I can’t just let someone die, I’m not like him, I just—”


Chapter 89