Alex left her sister's house feeling tired and defeated. Jocelyn had been standoffish for the remainder, until Alex decided she wasn't going to win this round. Even Luke had seemed nonplussed, and it was rare for Luke Wright to have nothing to say.
At five years older than her, Jocelyn had been more of a mother than a sister to Alex when their mom had abruptly left them when they were children. Their dad, Pete, had done his best to raise them on his own, but he'd worked long hours. So it had fallen to Jocelyn, starting at the age of only ten, to make sure Alex had clean clothes, dinner, and her homework completed every day.
But as Alex grew older, she'd begun to strafe at Jocelyn's control. She'd expected Alex to fall in line, and when Alex had rebelled, Jocelyn had come down hard on her
