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

“Rhiannon at work’s been trying to get us all to buy one for ages, and you were always saying if it weren’t for me you’d have ended up a crazy cat man, so…”


“It’s hideous,” Yazid said, but the first real smile he’d managed in over a week broke across his face. He felt suddenly calmer, as though the world hadn’t been ripped apart by the doctor. “Is it a boy or a girl?”


“A girl. A queen for a queen,” Ali said, squirming to be able to lie down beside Yazid. It was a crush on this tiny sofa, but they just about managed, heads sharing the pillow. The kitten squeaked and batted at Ali’s face with one enormous, floppy paw. “I took the day off—swapped shifts with Daisy next week—and went round Rhiannon’s. I found the friendliest one. So when I’m at work, you can cuddle her instead.”


Chapter 97