The Sixth Parker

In North City's matchmaking circles, everyone knew my name, Renee Ranford. I was the girl who always hung around the five Parker brothers. According to the gossip, I'd already ruined four of their engagements. I had skin thick enough to survive any amount of ridicule, and no sense of shame whatsoever. I never wore makeup. I never acted sweet. Every other sentence out of my mouth referred to them as my "bros." Yet somehow, every woman who tried to marry into the family ended up walking away. The rumors only got worse. "That tomboy's a complete psycho. She can't stand seeing anyone else happy." "She loves being the only woman surrounded by men. The second one of those brothers starts dating, she has to interfere." Then Talon brought home a girlfriend, Elina Griffin. She was one of North City's most notorious gold diggers. Everyone knew it. Everyone except Talon. The first day she moved in, she greeted me with a big fake smile. I didn't think anything of it. I'd already sent four girlfriends packing. I figured she'd be gone within a few days too. I couldn't have been more wrong. The very next morning, everything I'd left at Talon's house was gone. My bedsheets had been replaced, and my toothbrush had been thrown away. Even the closet had been emptied. I was kneeling beside the living room trash can, digging through bags of garbage, when I found my mother's memorial portrait buried underneath the trash. Elina leaned against the doorway, watching me with an unhurried smile. "This is Talon's house. Don't you think it's bad luck to leave some other woman's memorial portrait here? Or have you really started treating this place like it's your own?" She folded her arms and smiled. "A fake 'one of the guys' act might've worked on everyone else, but it won't work on me. So pack your things and get out." I slowly stood, clutching the frame so tightly my nails dug into my palms. She had no idea that the woman smiling from that photograph wasn't just my mother. She was Talon's biological mother too. And I wasn't some freeloader clinging to the Parker family. I was the youngest—and only—sister of the five Parker brothers. Throw me out? Clearly she had no clue about her own place.